Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Once again this government has been warned in today's media by the world's biggest energy companies that it must cut regulation, rein in labour costs and deliver a stable tax and better political environment if we are to be competitive with other countries for our major resource projects in the future. This government has been given warning after warning about these issues and seems intent on enduring the same. The Gillard government persists with creating more red and green tape and more taxes which are driving investment and jobs out of Australia. In Gladstone, the home of $65 billion worth of LNG projects, we are looking to the future to see what else is in the pipeline that will sustain growth and stable employment to allow the region to prosper into the future. Are future projects like the Arrow LNG venture at risk if the Labor government continues in this way? Yes, they are.

In Australia we currently have a high cost to build big gas projects, $150 billion worth of LNG projects under threat, the world's highest labour costs, overregulation and red tape, changing regulations, an increasingly unstable tax regime, an increasingly unstable political environment and speculation on leadership and an early election call. This does not go well with business. Woodside has already pulled out of the James Price Point project. Much of the equipment coming into Gladstone has come in from overseas because we could not supply it. For example, there are the pipes for the projects of three companies 500 kilometres to the west. The processing modules are coming in by barge.

There are plenty of global competitors around. East Africa, Canada and the USA are competing for this LNG industry. There is a 160-million-tonne global shortfall of the supply of LNG which will be filled by us or any of those competitors mentioned before. There is a need for LNG as the new, lean, clean, green fuel of the future. We are already facing in Australia a shortage of fossil fuels—and I am talking about oil based petroleum products. We cannot keep that up. Our Bass Strait oil has dropped from 85 per cent of self-sufficiency to about 15 per cent and falling. Coal, gas, fossil fuel, uranium, ethanol and the renewable energy methods are the only things we can rely on in the future.

There are $100 billion worth of projects in Australia which are now on hold. QCLNG, APLNG and GLNG are all currently under construction but battling budget blow-outs. These projects are about 30 per cent finished. Investment falls away, with $149 billion worth of projects lost in the last 12 months. I refer to Woodside Petroleum and James Price Point in Western Australia; Sunrise LNG in the Timor Sea; BHP's Olympic Dam; the Port Hedland outer harbour in Western Australia; Aquila West Pilbara iron ore mine in Western Australia; Xstrata's Wandoan coalmine in Central Queensland, which affects the rail and port and farmland properties; the Rio Tinto project at Mount Pleasant; Peabody Energy's Wilkie Creek mine; BHP Billiton's Saraji East and the Monto coalmine, which is in my electorate. It is a fact: Australia's international competitiveness is at risk and must be a real concern to all Australians.

In conclusion, a good federal government, facing the current global economic environment, should be focused on encouraging investment in Australia for projects that are sustainable, provide jobs and stimulate the economy. In Gladstone, Flynn and Central Queensland we need certainty, sustainability and stable development to break the boom-bust cycle of a two-speed economy. The writing has been on the wall for a long time and these latest warnings serve as proof that the Gillard government is not listening.

I will continue to highlight these issues because in Central Queensland we are copping the brunt of bad federal policies. I get it, and the coalition gets it: we have to return to sound policies that encourage jobs and investment so that towns like Gladstone, Emerald and the rest can survive.