MasterChef’s Green Gas Is Not Good, M’Kay?

MasterChef season 16 is under fire for greenwashing. The ABC ran a bit of a hit piece, well, not really a hit piece – well, kind of – attacking MasterChef’s green gas. “Why MasterChef is being criticised over a sponsorship deal” – we’ll get to that soon. Note, MasterChef is filmed in Australia’s most left-leaning state of Victoria where traditional flame-top cooking is under threat. As of January 2024, the Victorian government has banned all gas connections to new homes and government buildings. It doesn’t matter if you like cooking with gas, the Government will not allow you.

This year’s season of MasterChef is sponsored by a whole bunch of companies, but one that stands out, and one that the ABC chose to focus its piece on, is Renewable Gas – Australian Gas Networks (AGN), an Australian energy company that operates gas transmission pipelines across many parts of Australia. Specifically, they’re promoting the use of hydrogen, the universe’s most abundant element, which can be produced from water using electricity, and when burned, it only produces water vapour and heat, so it’s a perfectly clean product. The ABC made sure to include this picture, though, warning that hydrogen gas is highly flammable, but isn’t all cooking gas flammable? If it wasn’t, then surely you couldn’t use it to cook!

The MasterChef contestants are also using biomethane, which is captured from decomposing waste products, and can be used interchangeably with natural gas.

But despite the green credentials of the gas products being used, Victoria’s Allan Government are not having a bar of it. Gas is bad, m’kay? How can we trust a fossil fuel company? The gas ban forges ahead! “Allan government steps up war on gas”, “Victoria bans gas rebates and incentives for homes as shift to all-electric gathers pace”. Basically, the Victorian Government have made it illegal for companies to offer cash incentives or rebates to households that install new gas appliances, or connect to the gas network, it ..