Prince Andrew and Australia's worst gas deal

Three liquefied natural gas plants in Gladstone, Queensland were initially greeted with such hope by politicians. They were huge historic ventures pioneering the conversion of coal seam gas into LNG and breaking open another great export market for Australia.

This they have achieved but critics count the cost as gas is diverted abroad, hitting supply as local prices have soared. 

The former premier of Western Australia, Alan Carpenter, says the Queensland LNG deal has made Australia a "laughing stock of the energy-producing world".

"The whole east coast of Australia is facing gas shortages, consumers are suffering, and it should never, ever have happened," he said. "No other jurisdiction allows foreign companies to come in, write the rules, export the gas and give you nothing in return." 

Carpenter is cocky. He pioneered domestic gas reservation in WA which has kept his state's domestic energy prices down, but the east coast crisis has many parents. Still, the big picture is that domestic gas prices have tripled and electricity prices doubled over the last decade. The fallout has engulfed consecutive federal governments struggling with broken energy policy, soaring gas and electricity bills and furious constituents. Then along came Trump's war with Iran which broadcast the irony of a country abundant in energy facing a fuel crisis.  

The LNG royalty payments to Queensland eventually delivered but only after seven years, three separate revisions of the royalties agreement by the state government, and the Ukraine war. And in 2024, the LNG operators finally started to pay income tax on their profits.

Just like Ukraine, the Iran war promises spectacular profits for gas producers who can sell uncontracted gas at international spot prices. The ACCC is already warning that Australia will run short of gas this winter. 

While the Albanese government has raised the spectre of bartering LNG cargoes for oil and is under public pressure to tax windfall gas profits, the lobbyists for Shell, Santos and Origin have barely broken a sweat.

Ever the optimist, Energy Minister Chris Bowen is struggling to get the genie back in the bottle. But just how did we get here? How did state and federal Labor politicians get this issue so wrong?

Most perplexing of all, how did Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the man formerly known as Prince Andrew, end up in the middle of the lobbying effort that produced perhaps Australia's worst gas deal?

All of Mountbatten-Windsor's actions in 2010, the year before he was forced to step down as the United Kingdom's trade envoy amid the growing Jeffrey Epstein scandal, are now under the microscope of British police on suspicion of misconduct in public office.  "A full, fair and proper investigation," Anthony Albanese demanded. "These are grave allegations and Australians take them seriously." 

What's gone unnoticed is that Andrew's largest deal in that period was the extraordinary lobbying campaign to win federal and state approval for the first LNG plant on Curtis Island, Gladstone.