Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I was just pointing out to the member for Griffith the history of this country and the very important export industry of this country—and it will remain a future export industry of this country. The member would do well, along, again, with his friends and colleagues, to maybe visit some of the communities up and down the east coast so they could see exactly the hard work that goes into the coal export industry. The member for Hunter is a former coalminer and worked in the coal industry. I've been down a longwall coalmine with him, and I saw the very hard work and the communities this supports. As for gas, gas exports are very important to this country—not only to towns like Karratha, Onslow, Broome and Darwin; they are also very important to our regional neighbours. We know that countries across North Asia depend upon Australia for their energy security. This country will remain a reliable and trustworthy supplier of energy to our Asian neighbours and to our region for as long as we need to be.

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