Ian Verrender

And we've seen that at prices at the Bowser as well.

You know, the less demand that we've got, and there's numbers that were released last week essentially showing that Australians are now buying fuel less often.

So I think what was happening was people would fill up their tank, drive for 10 minutes down the roads.

If they saw another petrol station, put more in.

So there's less transactions going on.

So I think people are starting to feel a little more comfortable that there is enough to get by, that we're not going to run out.

But, you know, at what price?

Pleasure.

Is he, you know, a murderer or...?

Self-styled cult leader.

It's just not knowing the emptiness, really, that just kills you.

And I'm the ABC's Chief Business Correspondent Ian Verinder.

Well, I think it gets down to the amount of power that the gas exporters actually have.

And if you cast your mind back to 2022, I mean, what everyone was focused on, the cost of living crisis.

And what was really underpinning that cost of living crisis?

I mean, everyone was just up in arms about electricity bills that were doubling each year.

I know.

And what really drove that was the price of gas.

And the reason for that is, even though a lot of our electricity is generated by coal, a lot of it by renewables, and only a smallish part by gas, gas is the swing factor.

Gas is what economists would term the marginal cost producer.