The complexities and failures of Australia’s East Coast Gas Market

Australia's East Coast Gas Market (ECGM) presents a policy paradox. Despite abundant gas reserves, households, businesses and industry continue to face high energy costs. These outcomes are commonly linked to the ECGM's integration with the international gas and oil markets. However, market structure alone does not explain why more structural forms of regulatory intervention remain politically constrained. This Perspective examines three recurring claims in Australia's gas policy debate: that increasing gas supply will lower domestic prices, that renewable energy is unreliable without continued reliance on gas, and that government intervention can correct problems within the gas market. Existing research has raised questions about each of these propositions. This paper, therefore, focuses on the political work they perform and argues that the claims circulate and reinforce one another by sustaining increased gas supply in response to affordability concerns, positioning gas as necessary for energy reliability, and providing reassurances that market problems can be managed through regulation. In doing so, they help to maintain an export-oriented gas market while narrowing the political space for structural intervention. The analysis highlights how market structure and political framing interact to constrain domestic energy governance and complicate energy transition in fossil-fuel-exporting economies.