Labor’s strategy is to reduce emissions from gas – but not if that means doing anything to cut its use

A gas development in Western Australia’s north-west shelf. The industry in the resources minister’s home state has few complaints about the federal strategy. Photograph: Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images

The bottom line of the “future gas strategy” isn’t what it might mean for the government’s political fortunes, despite what Labor pollsters and political commentators might argue.

It’s this: the gas industry, one of Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters, is getting what it wants. What it wants, in simple terms, is government approval to make multibillion-dollar investments in new gas reservoirs that will lead to billions of tonnes of emissions.