Damian Drum (Murray, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is fitting that we end this sitting week with the topic that is foremost in the minds of the people in the Murray electorate—the cost of electricity and the cost of gas. The Nationals are calling for some of these moratoriums that Labor in Victoria have put in place as an out-and-out ban on not only conventional but unconventional gas right throughout the state of Victoria. At the same time, we are being told that the reserves that we currently have are diminishing. The Prime Minister has read the riot act to these gas companies and told them to up the ante when it comes to the production of gas.

This is all about jobs. It is all about employment. It is all about providing for the major food processors and major industries throughout regional Victoria who are currently being hit by these incredibly high costs in gas and electricity prices. Agriculture, the coolstore industries, the packaging industry—all ride on the back of agriculture. But, certainly, the processors are the ones who are going to feel these increases in gas and electricity prices the hardest.

In Victoria, we have this farcical situation where gas and electricity prices are increasing exponentially. But, at the same time as that, the Victorian government, rather than trying to do something to help, is actually making things worse by putting in place a lifetime ban on fracking and a moratorium up until 2020 on any exploration. So, at the moment, we do not even know what we are not doing in Victoria because we do not know what sort of reserves we have in the state that are untapped. We are not using this time to explore. Let's hand it over to the scientists, and let them find out what sort of reserves we have in Victoria so that we can then make a decision on whether we should be going after those reserves or not.

Environmental groups and the Labor Party are trying to latch onto the back of this. In so many arguments, especially in relation to climate change, they squeal and holler: why don't you observe the science? Why don't you look at the science? And yet when it comes to things like coal-seam gas, gas exploration and gas extraction, they do not want to know about the science. They just want to know about the scare campaigns. They just want to make sure that they scare the bejesus out of everybody, including the farmers, as opposed to giving the farmers the right of veto. I think this is what we need to do. These were the amendments that were apparently voted down in the Victorian upper house just recently.

The Nationals are calling for further exploration of the gas reserves throughout Victoria while this moratorium is in place. Let's not cloud the issue, at the moment, by introducing fracking into the debate. Let's just leave fracking out of it. We are not even able to talk about conventional forms of gas to add to and supplement the energy reserves that currently exist within the state of Victoria.

As I said earlier, this is all about jobs. It is all about protecting our processing jobs. We have some of the biggest processers in Australia: SPC; Campbell's soups; Unilever; Kagome, over at Echuca; Murray Goulburn, with the various yoghurt, cheese and powdered milk manufacturers—all heavy users of electricity and all heavy users of gas. Then you move onto the packaging industry, which sits right on the edge of agriculture, not to mention transport and all of the other labour-intensive industries as well.

If we maintain this current stance, and Labor just sit back and do nothing about this, we are not only going to see the jobs leave the Latrobe Valley, in relation to what is going on at the mill at Heyfield, where they have halved the amount of timber that is available for those workers. Not only are we going to see another 700-odd workers leave the Hazelwood power station, but we are also going to put at threat many of the jobs that are involved in the food-processing industry throughout northern Victoria. This ideological policy-making, which is going to see Victoria follow the path of South Australia, has to be challenged, and, as I said earlier, what we need to do in this debate is simply refer to the science. When the science is clear, when the science is saying that we should at least explore, then that is exactly what we should do: explore.