AUSTRALIA PERSPECTIVE

Canberra watches Asia's energy crisis with the unease of a country that's no longer untouchable. Taiwan, a major Australian trade partner, has pivoted to coal after the Iran war disrupted the global LNG market -- an energy reversal Bloomberg calls a forced pivot. Australia is the world's largest exporter of both LNG and coal: every disruption to the global energy market concerns it directly, but not the same way it concerns its neighbors. When Asia runs short of LNG, Australian exporters enjoy record prices -- and Australian consumers pay more at the pump. This paradox defines the Australian position: an energy supplier that benefits from the crisis as an exporter but suffers as a consumer. Taiwan's return to coal is a worrying signal for Australian climate policy: if Asia's largest LNG market turns to coal in a crisis, structural LNG demand is less solid than assumed. The Australian debate oscillates between commercial opportunism (sell to the highest bidder) and climate responsibility (Taiwanese coal emissions don't stop at the border). Australia is the only country in the panel making money while everyone else is losing it -- an uncomfortable position the local press rarely names.