Santos has been salivating at the prospect of selling gas for two to three times the domestic price for years. But as the big pay day draws near, the company has started blaming protesters, who oppose the harm that gas exploration does to farms and forests, for the impending price rises; the same price rises that Santos’s shareholders have been banking on.

The idea that the gas industry has consumer interests at heart and that protesters are to blame for rising gas prices is as audacious as it is ridiculous. If the gas industry wanted to help consumers it would continue to sell gas to Australian customers for the current price.