So far as gas is concerned, my basic thought is that with regard to the Queensland LNG plants specifically they have:
1. Roughly doubled the wholesale price of gas with a consequent huge jump in prices for major users (manufacturing, power generation). Every gas user in Qld / NSW / ACT / Vic / SA / Tas is paying more as a result but in % terms the hit is far greater for large users (since with households the distribution cost is a big % of the gas bill).
2. Some specific industries, eg fertilizer manufacturing, are now largely uneconomic as a result of this. No doubt some others as well.
3. Gas-fired power generation has become uneconomic for base load and to a large extent for anything other than the actual peaks. So we've seen some plant shut down altogether (mothballed), some more planned to be closed and what remains is used far less.
So we've locked ourselves out of gas as an option, leaving renewables and coal as the only real options we've got for power in most of Australia.
If we were making a fortune selling gas then I can see a possible benefit in all that. But in practice it seems that we've allowed an awful lot of local industry to be harmed in order to benefit only gas producers. That might be OK if there was some huge benefit in terms of taxation etc but it seems that's not the case.
Of all significant scale industries ever set up in Australia, the Qld LNG plants are the only one that comes to mind as likely doing more economic damage than it's worth. Just about every business and household across multiple states is paying higher energy costs, harming the economic competitiveness of numerous industries, and all for an activity that's employing relatively few on an ongoing basis, is chewing through a massive amount of power itself and with no apparent taxation windfall either.
Looking at the cost impact on others, it's a far larger cost increase than the carbon tax was for gas users indeed for a gas-fired generator it's a larger cost than the carbon tax had on a
coal-fired plant. No doubt there are benefits to the local area where the LNG plants are located but I'm not at all convinced there's a national benefit in this activity overall. Gas users in the affected states are paying roughly $2 billion a year in higher gas prices plus the flow-on effects where a gas-using industry ends up being uneconomic as a result. And that's without mentioning the upset farmers and others.
My personal view is that we should have come up with a national energy plan and only allowed the export of gas if we really weren't going to need it ourselves. Instead we've sold an incredible amount to the point that we've pretty much taken gas off the table as a serious option without having a plan for what we're actually going to do.