Larvatus Prodeo

Jeff Kennett was notorious for his dislike of inquiries, particularly royal commissions. But there was one that even he had to commission immediately, when the Longford gas plant suffered an explosion in September 1998, killing two people and shutting down Victoria’s natural gas supply system for nearly three weeks. I remember it well, living on-campus at Melbourne University at the time. It was three weeks of barbecues, and boiling kettles to have a bath. More pertinently, it also shut down much of Victorian industry, from dairies to car manufacturers.

Now, it seems that Western Australia is suffering something similar. An explosion on a gas plant at Varanus Island, a tiny speck of land off the coast somewhere near Karratha, has reduced Western Australia’s domestic gas supply by 30%, and will likely take three months to fix.

The WA Liberal Party has, predictably, called for a royal commission into the crisis, focussing on the role of the various state government regulators in monitoring the Varanus Island gas plant. Personally, I reckon that might be asking a secondary question.

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