When Anthony Albanese claimed victory on election night in May, he probably didn’t imagine he’d be ending the parliamentary year with Australia’s gas giants screeching apocalyptically about Labor’s Soviet-style nationalisation of the industry. I’m reasonably confident that wasn’t in the transition plan.
It’s also fair to say the government wasn’t fully aware of the multifactorial debacle that is Australia’s energy market – whacked by Ukraine and neglected in a domestic policy vacuum for a decade – until Chris Bowen, the incoming minister, received a volley of frantic texts from his staff as he was being sworn into the portfolio at Government House. Bowen started running at that point – and hasn’t stopped since.
