A narrative-based framework for energy-transition consultations: insights from Australia’s future gas strategy

Public consultations offer a unique window into the narrative logic shaping stakeholder expectations in policymaking. Analysing 244 consultation submissions to Australia’s Future Gas Strategy, this study develops a narrative-based framework that identifies four distinct stakeholder groups with competing assumptions about responsibility, timing, fairness, and legitimacy. These typologies reveal a temporal-justice fault line that reshapes alliances and conditions how energy policies might be interpreted. The analysis also identifies a lack of trust in the regulator, driven by perceptions of opaque modelling and procedural inconsistency. The resulting framework provides a practical tool for designing more meaningful consultation processes and anticipating narrative reactions in future energy transition policy settings.