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It's not households I'm thinking about however. At the national level households are only 10.6% of gas consumption after all so whilst it may be an issue for some individuals in terms of personal finances, particularly in Victoria where household use is far higher than elsewhere, overall households aren't the issue.

It's the other 89.4% of gas consumption being used outside the residential sector I'm thinking about and how that may have broader implications.

When business faces a cost increase then they'll pass that onto consumers if they can get away with doing so. They'll only go down the track of cutting profit if they don't have any choice.

Residential as a % of total gas use from Australian Government statistics for 2019-20:

National = 10.6% of gas consumed is used by households

NT = rounds to zero

Queensland = 1.2%

Tasmania = 1.5%

WA = 1.6%

SA = 11.7%

NSW = 21.4%

Victoria = 42.0%

So in economic terms gas is primarily an input to business for the production of something else either goods or services and from an inflation perspective my thinking is that business will at least try and claw back any cost increase by raising prices to consumers of those goods and services. Anything from processed vegetables to plastic pipe, if it's costing them more to produce it then they'll want to recover that cost via higher prices for the product.

Same as things like transport or commercial rents. If the cost goes up then business will at least try and pass that on as a price rise to consumers.

Agreed it's not in the same league as wages etc but I can see it possibly having some impact. Time will tell.