Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure. The Senate inquiry into Darwin's Middle Arm project heard from the Northern Territory's chief minister that a petrochemical factory could be established there. And the gas company Tamboran has told the ASX that they have exclusive rights to build a gas export terminal at Middle Arm, with gas fracked out of the Beetaloo basin. In light of this, will your government now withdraw its $1½ billion fossil fuel subsidy for the Middle Arm project? Or is fracking the NT part of the Albanese government's Future Made in Australia?

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for the question. I also note that the Senate inquiry is yet to report on the Middle Arm project, so thank you for pre-empting that. Can I say very clearly that Darwin in particular is one of the few capital cities that does not have a significant industrial precinct. The Northern Territory government is seeking to secure its economic future. The Northern Territory is heavily reliant on funding—in fact, I think almost 80 per cent of its funding for schools, hospitals, for roads—because it cannot generate income in its own right. So, Middle Arm is about trying to provide that opportunity. And we have industrial precincts. We have huge ones in Melbourne, in my home state. Every capital city has those. So, Middle Arm is about trying to take the advantage of the energy future that is needed for this country and to bring that advantage into the Northern Territory and provide the people of the Northern Territory with new jobs and an economic revenue stream that allows them to fund hospitals, schools and services for First Nations peoples.