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Australia , one of the world ’ s biggest liquefied natural gas exporters , said on Thursday it would introduce export control restrictions to tackle an acute domestic gas shortage that was pushing up prices and threatening local industry .

The dramatic move marks Canberra ’ s latest intervention in the domestic energy market , which has suffered a series of power outages and a rise in electricity and gas prices over the past 12 months .

“ It is unacceptable for Australia to become the world ’ s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas but not have enough domestic supply for Australian households and businesses ,” said Malcolm Turnbull , Australia ’ s prime minister .

“ Gas companies are aware they operate with a social licence from the Australian people . They cannot expect to maintain that licence if Australians are short-changed because of excessive exports ,” he said .

Under a new “ gas security mechanism ” due to enter into force on July 1 the government will be able to restrict exports when it believes there is not a secure supply of gas available to domestic users . The controls are expected to be a temporary measure until the supply crunch can be resolved through other market reforms .

Gas producers , which have invested tens of billions of dollars in LNG plants , described the controls as “ almost unprecedented ”, warning they created “ sovereign risk ” and could further disrupt domestic supply .

The share prices of local gas producers Santos and Origin Energy fell by as much as 7.5 per cent and 5 per cent

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respectively following the announcement .

Australia has emerged as an LNG superpower over the past five years following a $ 200bn investment boom that will enable it to surpass Qatar as the world ’ s biggest exporter by 2020 . Royal Dutch Shell , Chevron , Santos and Origin have all invested in LNG facilities , which export gas to energy-hungry markets across Asia such as China and Japan .

But despite tripling gas production in areas along the east coast of Australia over the past five years some producers have failed to meet the output targets on which they based long-term LNG contracts with customers . State government bans on exploration and development of new gas reserves have contributed to a tightening of domestic gas supplies on the east coast , causing prices to rise sharply .

“ The main obstacle to developing more supply has been the opposition of some state governments ,” said Malcolm Roberts , chairman of the oil and gas lobby group Appea . “ At a time when we need billions in new investment to create more gas supply , any intervention which creates sovereign risk is alarming .”

In the past , large gas users in Australia typically agreed 10- to 25-year gas supply agreements with producers , with prices in the order of A $ 5 ($ 2.70 ) per gigajoule delivered . Many of these agreements were renewed on short-term contracts in 2014-2015 that will expire between 2017 and 2019 .

Many industrial gas users are beginning talks on new contracts and have lobbied the government over a near doubling of prices .

Melbourne : In bias-motivated crimes , four Muslim women in Australia were allegedly punched in the face by a 39-year-old journalism student from Paraguay .

One of four Muslim women targeted in four successive and unprovoked Islamophobic attacks yesterday said she was randomly punched in the face as she walked through the city wearing her headphones .

Maria Claudia Gimenez Wilson , a 39-year-old journalism student from Paraguay , is charged with assaulting the four women , aged 18-23 , as they walked along busy roads near University of Technology Sydney ( UTS ) in Ultimo , Sydney Morning Herald reported .

All four women were wearing hijab , and were allegedly punched in the face .

Officers are treating the assaults as “ bias-motivated crimes ” after Wilson allegedly told police she was motivated by a hatred of Muslims , the report said .

One of the alleged victims , Hanan Merheb , posted on Facebook that she was walking past UTS listening to music and

With America ’ s commitment to Asia-Pacific security looking shaky and China ’ s economic — and military — might rising , a peculiarly Australian question is at the forefront : Are we Asian or Western ? It ’ s a dilemma not just of cultural identity — but about which major power Australia ’ s future hinges on .

“ We haven ’ t had to choose in the past ,” said Hugh White , a former official in Australia ’ s defense department who now teaches at Australian National University ( ANU ). But with a more isolationist Trump administration in power in the US , “ Australia now has to think for the first time in its history what kind of place it wants to make for itself when Asia is not dominated by an Anglo-Saxon power .”

As a former British colony with a majority white population , Australia has for much of its history viewed itself as an Anglosphere country despite its proximity to rising Asian powers like Indonesia and China . Australia

“ in a pretty good mood ” when she was punched out of nowhere .

“[ I was ] staring absentmindedly ahead of me when some

lady … Came up to me and punched me in the face ,” she said .

“ She didn ’ t speak to me , didn ’ t run away , she just punched me and walked off , as casually as if she had just come to say hello .”

Wilson , who moved to Australia to study , was ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment in Prince of Wales Hospital today after her Legal Aid solicitor , Vanya Hampel , told Central Local Court that her client was seeking to be dealt with under mental health legislation .

A medical report said that

has a long-standing alliance with the US , and is arguably America ’ s most loyal ally on the battlefield . The country also hosts a number of US bases , including over a thousand marines stationed in the

northern city of Darwin , as part of president Barack Obama ’ s “ pivot to Asia . ( paywall )”

Australia started to consider its place in Asia in a more serious way in the early 1990s , as the country , mired in recession , looked with trepidation ( paywall ) at Asia ’ s rapidly growing economies . Then prime minister Paul Keating warned in a speech in 1992 that Australia should no longer be dragged down by

Wilson had schizoaffective disorder and “ appears to be suffering persecutory beliefs ”.

“ The only thing I did was to take a bull cut [ sic ] to a Muslim lady ,” Wilson said . “ I don ’ t see any problem with that .”

Mariam Veiszadeh , founder of Islamophobia Register Australia , said Australian Muslim women in hijab often bear the brunt of Islamophobia .

“ We are very concerned with the escalation of both the frequency of incidents of Islamophobia and the level of violence ,” she said .

New South Wales Police spokesman for bias-motivated crime , Superintendent Daniel Sullivan , said police will “ fully investigate ” any race-related crimes

“ We encourage anyone who suspects they have been a victim of a bias motivated crime to report it to police . If we don ’ t know about it , we can ’ t investigate it ,” he said .

The attack comes amid assaults targeting hijab-clad women in different parts of the world from the US to the UK .

“ Anglophilia and torpor .” The height of Australia ’ s cultural embrace of China arguably came during the administration of Kevin Rudd , a fluent Mandarin speaker . And Australia has also , in the past decade , become a much more multicultural country , with Chinese now the second-most common language spoken in Australian homes .

But Australia is still far too passive when it comes to China ’ s ascendancy , according to Linda Jakobson , founder of China Matters , a public-policy initiative based in Sydney .

“ Australia has had a pretty easy equation for several decades now . Prosperity has continued in Australia as it ships resources to China , which has also contributed to prosperity in China . One hasn ’ t had to try very hard ,” said Jakobson . “ Australians need to much more deeply think about how they are going to navigate the region as China becomes more dominant .”

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