When MasterChef Australia partnered with Australian Gas Networks (AGN) last year, we called out their misleading claims about “renewable gas” – part of a broader greenwashing campaign to keep gas on our screens and in our homes. Now, the consumer watchdog agrees, launching court action over AGN’s Love Gas ads – over the same misleading claims we exposed through our MasterChef campaign.
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What’s happening
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Australian Gas Networks (AGN) to court over its “Love Gas” advertising campaign (2022–23). The regulator alleges AGN misled millions of Australians by claiming that “the flame we use will become renewable… gas. For this generation and the next,” implying all households connected to its network would receive renewable gas within a generation – when AGN had no reasonable basis for that claim.
AGN’s internal documents show that it launched Love Gas because governments and consumers were moving away from gas, with Victoria leading the shift through its Gas Substitution Roadmap (July 2022) and the 2024 ban on gas in new homes.
The ACCC points to AGN’s own 2022 submission to the Australian Energy Regulator, where the company admitted it could “answer almost none” of the key questions about gas’s long-term future – proof it knew how uncertain renewable gas really was, yet told the public the opposite.
AGN’s own 2022 submission to the AER, quoted by the ACCC:
“Will gas networks be in business at all in 2050? … If we are in business, what will we be transporting? … We can answer almost none of these questions with any degree of clarity or certainty.”
You can read the full details of the case on the ACCC’s website>>.
The ad campaign at the centre of the case
The Love Gas campaign, at the centre of this case, was the precursor to AGN’s later MasterChef Australia sponsorship – both carried the same message that today’s gas would somehow become renewable tomorrow.
Between March 2022 and October 2023, AGN ran multiple versions of its Love Gas ads across free-to-air TV, YouTube and streaming platforms. The company claimed “the flame we use will become renewable… gas. For this generation and the next.” The ACCC says (and we agree!) these visuals and messages gave a false sense of certainty that household gas would become renewable within a generation.
In our view, there was never any credible basis for that claim. Hydrogen and biomethane can’t replace fossil gas at scale, and neither provides a genuine climate or health solution:
- Hydrogen is expensive to produce, leaks easily, and would require almost complete replacement of existing gas pipelines and appliances. When used for cooking, it still produces harmful indoor pollutants.
- Biomethane could only ever supply a small fraction of current gas demand, costs two to three times more than fossil gas, and still emits greenhouse gases when burned.
You can read more in our blog: ‘Renewable gas’ myths debunked: Why hydrogen and bio-methane can’t save the gas network’
The promise of “renewable gas within a generation” was never achievable, according to our analysis (you can read more here). In our view, Love Gas and the ‘renewable gas’ partnership with MasterChef the following year, were deliberate attempts to slow electrification and protect the profits of gas network owners by greenwashing gas and creating confusion about the need to electrify.
WhAT THIS MEANS?
This case will test what we’ve been saying for years: the gas industry is using greenwashing to delay Australia’s clean energy transition.
The Love Gas campaign carried the same misleading message later used in AGN’s MasterChef Australia sponsorship – that the gas we use today would somehow become renewable tomorrow.
AGN launched the campaign to hold onto customers, discourage electrification, and “maintain market confidence” in gas – even while acknowledging privately that the future of gas was highly uncertain.
Now that the consumer watchdog has called out these false claims in court, the question is: will MasterChef Australia finally cut ties with the gas industry and stop helping to spread this greenwash?
WILL MasterChef FINALLY TAKE GAS OFF THE MENU?
When AGN realised that MasterChef Australia – one of the nation’s most-watched shows – might follow its international peers and switch to gas-free induction cooking, it intervened with an expensive sponsorship.
Through its parent company, the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), AGN partnered with MasterChef to keep gas front-and-centre in Australian kitchens and to convince viewers that electrification wasn’t necessary through their misleading claims about renewable gas.
Together, we fought back.
More than 2,500 people signed our petition calling for MasterChef to drop AGN’s sponsorship, and our campaign gained widespread media coverage highlighting the dangers of burning gas indoors and exposing the implausibility of ‘renewable gas’ being piped into our homes.
In May 2024, executives from Network 10 and AGN were questioned at the Federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Greenwashing about the sponsorship — a major public reckoning for the industry.
Despite this, MasterChef did not drop the sponsorship.
Now, with the ACCC taking AGN to court, the question remains:
Will MasterChef finally end its greenwashing partnership?
What YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW
The ACCC evidence seems to show AGN actively trying to slow down the transition to clean energy – pretending there are easy solutions around the corner so they can keep profiting off existing pipelines.
By accepting AGN’s sponsorship, MasterChef is helping amplify this misleading message.
With the ACCC now taking legal action, it’s time for MasterChef to call it quits on gas greenwashing.
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Further Reading:
👉 Read the Sydney Morning Herald coverage of the case
👉 Read The Guardian’s coverage of our original campaign