Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the infrastructure minister. The business case for the Middle Arm hub has been rejected, the environmental impact statement has been delayed and the cost has ballooned to $3.5 billion, $2 billion more than first committed. This climate-wrecking project survives on your $1.5 billion subsidy and the enthusiasm of Labor ministers for these gas companies. Will you do the right thing and redirect this toxic funding to support clean energy projects that will actually benefit our communities?

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

CATHERINE KING (—) (): There's a lot to correct in that question. Let me start by saying the Greens never mention the 65 renewable energy projects that this government has approved. Never. You absolutely ignore them as though they don't exist at all, because it doesn't suit your political interests to acknowledge the good job that the minister for environment has done in increasing renewable energy in this country.

Of course, when it comes to Middle Arm, let me just remind the House that this is an equity injection. It is not money that then can be transferred to other projects; let me educate you about that. It is an equity injection, and that equity injection provides the opportunity, for the first time, for the Northern Territory to have an industrial precinct which does include renewable energy projects like Sun Cable, which actually provides the opportunity for the Northern Territory to begin to increase its revenue so it can become more self-reliant rather than having to rely, as it does, largely on the federal government to fund its services—particularly services in First Nations communities. I would have thought that anybody would be thinking it would be in Australia's interests for the Northern Territory to stand economically on its own feet, to be part of the generation that we are seeing of renewable energy, making sure that we actually have those jobs into the future for people who live in the Northern Territory.

The Australian government remains committed to Middle Arm. There are a number of processes that have to be gone through—the environmental processes, planning processes and Infrastructure Australia—and all of those are underway at the moment. I look forward to working with the Northern Territory government to make sure we can secure the economic future for the Northern Territory.

Again I say to the Greens: stop using politics constantly in these sorts of debates. Stop using politics, because we know that Middle Arm actually does support renewable energy. It also makes sure that we have a strong economic future for the Northern Territory. We stand by Labor's record investment in renewable energy and approval of renewable energy projects. I look forward to the minister for the environment getting a question about the record number of approvals for renewable energy that we have done.