How Australia helped Japan build a gas empire (and is keeping it going)

In just a few short days the 48th Parliament will sit for the first time and we will start to see the answer to the question we have been asking become clear; what will Labor do with power?

In many ways, we already have the answer, at least when it comes to climate. The second term Albanese government wasted no time in approving the carbon bomb that is the Woodside North West Shelf extension and is tripling down on the delusion that more fossil fuel gas fields need to be opened up to service not just the domestic market, but to ensure the success of the Future Made in Australia manufacturing push.

Albanese made headlines in March by slipping in the line ‘delulul with no solulu’ during question time, as a tongue-in-cheek shout out to the hosts of the Happy Hour podcast, but it could also sum up Labor’s attitude to gas.

That was made clear in the Jubilee Australia Research Centre report: How to Build a Gas Empire, which was released this week and all but ignored by Australia’s mainstream media outlets.

The report, co-published with the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Fossil Free Japan Coalition lays out exactly how hollow many of the claims Australia is told about its gas industry are.

Japan and Korea have contributed $20.5bn USD of public finance into Australian LNG projects between 2008 and 2024.

Why? Well because Australian gas projects are helping to build Japan and South Korea’s own gas empire – despite having no gas themselves. While Australians are told that Australian gas is needed for Japan’s energy security (a claim amplified by Japan, Australian politicians and the gas industry who all scream SOVEREIGN RISK every time someone looks at one of these contracts) of the 39.4m tonnes loaded from Australian export projects by Japanese buyers between January 2023 and April 2025, almost 30% went to third countries.

In simple English, Japan takes more gas than it needs and then on-sells the extra to other countries. Japan has created its own gas industry out of Australia’s gas exports. Which of course means Japan (and South Korea, with financial incentives through ship building) are invested in Australia’s fossil fuel expansion – and in ensuring a pro-fossil fuel agenda continues to dominate Australian politics.

We are feeding an artificial demand for gas that is putting money in other countries’ treasuries, while barely getting anything other than growing emissions in return.

Six of Australia’s 10 LNG facilities don’t pay royalties. In 2023-24, Australians paid more than four times on HECS/HELP than gas companies did on Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).

And we are still being told we need MORE gas, even after the Coalition – THE COALITION – admitted that Australia doesn’t have a gas shortage and we could just use the spare gas (uncontracted gas) fossil fuel companies like to sell on the spot market for even more money, and fulfil all our domestic needs. And lower energy costs for the manufacturing industry we are so desperate to reinvigorate.

Instead, Australia is continuing to support Japan and South Korea’s upstream gas empire, with both nations establishing demand in Southeast Asia, and then pushing Australia to keep feeding it, through them.

The report asks:

“Australia has become an enabler in Japan and Korea’s Gas Empire. The question is, will we choose to continue supporting the expansion of the empire, increasing their short-term profits as climate change wreaks havoc on people and the planet? Or will we take a stand, ensuring that energy demand and decarbonisation across our region is met by cheaper, cleaner renewable energy, keep global warming below 1.5°C and allow communities to flourish.”

Just one day before the report was released the federal court ruled that Australia’s Commonwealth Government does not owe a duty of care to the people of the Torres Strait Islands to protect them from the impacts of climate change.

The why is a little complicated – Australian legislation doesn’t force the government to set climate targets based on the science (and in fact, the court found that under the Coalition Government, science didn’t really come into it at all when emission reduction targets were set in 2015, 2020 and 2021) and under present negligence law in Australia, there is no real mechanism for a specific duty of care in this area.

Basically, our laws don’t allow for people to sue us for not following the science and ensuring we are doing all we can to lower our emissions and ensure the survival of not just us, but those people already facing the impact of climate change – which includes our ‘allies’ and “family” in the Pacific.

All of this is connected. And our government is at the heart of all of it. And contrary to capitalist belief, we are not going to be saved by paying wealthy people, corporations and states more money to use their land to “offset” future carbon emissions, which gives fossil fuel companies and other giant emitters a leave pass to not cut their emissions at all.

Capitalism is not going to save us. It’s what got us into this mess. Which brings us back to where we started – what is Labor going to do with its power?

At the moment, not a lot. Shifting that will require shifting where the power sits. Moving it from the false narratives of fossil fuel coal and gas companies to the demands of the people. That’s hard, but not impossible.