> I've read that at this point we could import the surplus back from Japan (that we sold them originally) for less than what we pay on the domestic market! Wha

> I've read that at this point we could import the surplus back from Japan (that we sold them originally) for less than what we pay on the domestic market! What's sillier is that apparently we wouldn't actually import the gas. I've spoken to people associated with the gas industry who have told me that we would actually buy a future allotment of gas from Japan, which would be pretty much directly supplied from Australian providers. In this case the Japanese companies basically become re-sellers who can undercut the local cost of buying the same gas, without that gas ever actually leaving the country. If this is true, it doesn't surprise me. Australia has a terrible track record for taking advantage of primary resources. We've done similar things with iron ore, oil, gold, diamonds, coal and uranium (and probably pretty much everything else we dig out of the ground).