Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

He indicated that perhaps he might not be so in favour of their ban on gas.

Victoria has a complete ban on gas exploration; however, only last week we saw a new ban on gas exploration by WA Labor. It joins the Northern Territory Labor government, which has put in a ban on gas exploration, and they both join the Victorian ban on onshore gas exploration. And so there's a very simple proposition for the Leader of the Opposition: if he actually supports gas, he should move now to say to the Victorian government, to the Northern Territory government and to the Western Australian government that they should allow gas exploration.

What is it that the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia has stated?

This decision threatens the reputation of the resources industry, as well as jobs and economic prosperity across the entire state.

The small business ombudsman has said:

The states need to stop grandstanding and get on board with a national approach.

And we heard from Adam Creighton, not long ago:

The Victorian Labor government's proposed ban on gas exploration will shut off gas reserves big enough to supply the east coast of Australia's gas needs for almost 40 years.

So what we have is a ban on gas exploration across Labor states. We have support for gas on our side. We also have the Prime Minister's energy plan, which deals with storage, deals with supply and deals with retail. Compare that, though—all of what the states have done is nothing compared with what a 45 per cent emissions reduction target under the Leader of the Opposition would deliver. That is a recipe for one thing: a massive electricity and gas tax. If we have seen damage from Labor states so far, that compares in not one jot to what we would see under the Leader of the Opposition's plan for higher electricity and gas prices. So, at the end of the day we voted to bring gas and electricity prices down, and they voted to put them up. (Time expired)

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