End-of-year deadline looms for gas reserve fight

Résumé détaillé

The final sitting weeks of federal parliament will involve policy battles over four contentious pieces of legislation as Labor seeks pre-Christmas wins.

A deal to set up a domestic gas reserve could still be struck as the deadline for the end of the parliamentary year nears.

While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is overseas at summits in the Philippines and China, political machinations will continue on Monday with a Senate-only sitting for the first of the final two parliamentary weeks of 2026.

Plans to set up the gas reserve will dominate the sitting week as Labor negotiates with the coalition to get the deal over the line.

Under the proposal, gas companies would be required to set aside up to 20 per cent of their exports for use in Australia.

Labor will need support from either the opposition or the Greens to get the laws through the Senate and the coalition looms as the more likely path to make the changes law.

In a Senate inquiry report released on Wednesday, the coalition said it was open to supporting the reservation policy but only if changes were made.

Coalition senators Kerrynne Liddle and Susan McDonald said the current proposal would come at the detriment of domestic gas producers and risk future supply.

But in an open letter, the heads of eight organisations, including business lobby the Australian Industry Group and peak union body the ACTU called on parliament to pass the gas reserve bill.

"Australia is one of the world's largest gas exporters, yet it has no national mechanism to ensure its own people and industries are supplied first," the open letter said.

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