“Importing natural gas from Australia in the form of [liquefied natural gas] would be crazy when we have our own local resources here. “More than likely it would mean higher energy prices for consumers and higher emissions from shipping [it] here.” Carnegie said it means New Zealand would be funding the Australian economic recovery, instead of generating jobs and royalties for itself. “If we’re going to keep using natural gas until at least 2050 as the Climate Change Commission acknowledges, surely it’s better to produce it locally.” But a spokesman for GIC said the implication they are about to start facilitating the import of natural gas is not correct.