Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government welcomes the member for Flynn's moving this motion. I've got to say it's wonderful to see his newfound interest in the environment and Indigenous cultural values. We certainly agree that the issue of carbon capture and storage is important, and protection of the Great Artesian Basin is very important also. But this motion just highlights that the coalition has been all over the shop on this Glencore proposed Carbon Transport and Storage Corporation project. They're a hopelessly divided rabble on this issue. The Liberals have been against the Nationals, the Nationals against each other, and they're against each other individually and personally.

The reality is that the member for Flynn is calling on the government to do something that's premature, because there's no matter before the government to oppose or approve. If there's anyone he should be taking this issue up with, it's the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. That's because we know that, during the former Morrison government, she was the environment minister when a delegate in her department decided the issue was not a controlled action—that is, it would not require approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, leaving environmental assessments to the Queensland government.

I might add that the Miles Labor government recently announced a ban on carbon capture and storage in the Queensland section of the Great Artesian Basin. I noticed the member for Flynn thanked them for it. I would have thought that he would have put it in the motion because it was a decision that was made a while ago. So it just seems that this motion is largely redundant and little more than virtue signalling.

Back to the Morrison government—before finalising its advice, the environment department sought feedback from several ministers at the time, including the then National Party leader and minister for regional development, the member for New England; and the Nationals member and then Minister for Resources and Water, the member for Hinkler. The Nationals leader's office didn't respond, while the then Minister for Resources and Water actually endorsed the department's decision. In a recent statement, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition referred to this consultation, pointing out to her Nationals comrades that they were 'fully aware of the decision at the time'. She said:

No objections were raised and in one case, a minister's agency wrote back in agreement.

In a complete about-face and a sign of disunity, the current leader of the National Party, the member for Maranoa, and his party room have been publicly bagging the Deputy Leader of the Opposition over this. In May the Nationals leader said the decision was wrong and said this:

It was a desktop review done by the environment minister at the time, Sussan Ley, and she didn't get it right.

It wasn't on her radar to the extent it should've been.

The trouble is, before the election, the Nationals were all for the project, and after the election they were as well. In June 2022, in an interview on the ABC's Insiders program, the Leader of the Nationals, whose electorate this project is in, said this:

… you can look about 60km west of where I'm sitting now and carbon, capture and storage has been implemented on a coal-fired power station from Millmerran. That's the investment we—

the Morrison government—

made.

He even posted on his Facebook page the following statement: 'Proud to be investing $5 million in carbon transport and storage company at Millmerran'—contrary to the motion here today.

Now the Nationals want to pretend they have nothing to do with the project and are trying to walk both sides of the street on this. Last year, the minister for the environment took our first tranche of the nature repair environmental legislation bill before the House, and the Nationals moved an eleventh-hour amendment, basically having a bet each way on carbon capture and storage in the artesian basin. But do you think they gave the government a chance to even look at it? Absolutely not. It was never going to pass.

So just what is the Liberal and National parties' position on this? You just have to look at the Leader of the Nationals' Insiders interview just over two years ago, when he was spruiking the project because it not only protects gas but also protects 'our coal industry as well as carbon capture and storage', contrary to the motion here today. That's the position of the leader of the National Party two years ago on a number of projects, and before the election and after the election.

And here we have the member for Flynn putting a motion before the chamber today that is completely at odds with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and his own leader. This is nothing more than the Liberal and National parties duking it out in the Federation Chamber. I'll be surprised if the Liberal Party hasn't got someone in to back the member for Farrer, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, against this. What a circus the coalition is on this—a complete fiasco.

I welcome the member for Flynn. Comrade, if you want to come over here and support us and be on this side of the chamber, I'll issue you with a Labor Party membership ticket. But don't stay over there, because they're full of disunity. You can't work out what you want. You're fighting amongst yourselves—fighting internally in the National Party. Have a yarn, by the way, with the Leader of the Nationals and see what his true position is.

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