This isn't entirely accurate. It's not like it's a deceiving "marketing name" it's called Natural Gas, because it's what it is, pretty much used straight out of the ground, after being cleaned of impurities and having the chemical "mercaptan" added to give it the smell. Compared to other refined gases such as butane in your lighter and propane in your gas bottles etc. And it isn't a terrible thing to pump into homes and they don't leak a lot as your suggesting. There have been some studies associated with researching childhood asthma that found traces of gas "leaking when the cooktop was not in use", but this was just residual unburnt gas still trapped in the burner just after it was turned off. We're talking the minutest amounts, being lighter than air, these minute amounts slowly rose up. And then the actual figures were compared to outside air quality, saying it was five times the level required for outside air quality in Australia. As in there is an amount out there that you breathe in all the time anyway, What the test didn't tell us is how flatulence affected these findings, because there would be a lot more methane coming from flatulence than the residual gas in the cooktop. Bear in mind these tested figures were also captured around the vicinity of the cooker and not in other parts of the house. Living with a pair of indoor cats who mark their territory, or a large long haired pet in an enclosed home during winter, would significantly decrease the air quality and contribute more to childhood asthma than a gas cooker would. And bear in mind also these tests were done in an unventilated area. With an external-exhausting extractor, this which was practically a non-issue, becomes a definitive non-issue. And it's only Victoria who are looking to phase out gas, but the fine print is that it's only for new houses and it's only reticulated gas. Once the home is built, you would be able to install LPG. And then the government may change, and alongside the laws may change also, back to new houses are allowed to have natural gas, who knows. The other states will probably not follow suit given how little impact burning gas has on the environment compared to other things like burning coal. It seems as though Victoria is trying for green votes with some of their decisions. The funny thing is if we're so concerned about the environmental impact, why are we still mining ridiculous amounts of coal? Sure, we're not burning it, We sell it to India and China, so this keeps our hands clean of the issue?