Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think the senator is mischaracterising a number of statements I made. The statement I did make was that most infrastructure in the north would at some point be used by the resources sector. But the senator does seem to be being a little bit unclear at times as to whether she is repeating my statement with regard to that or somehow relating to fossil fuel investments as a class. As I outlined, this bill is seeking to fund infrastructure—not fossil fuel investment per se and certainly not energy investments per se. It is seeking to fund infrastructure which is used by multiple industries, and of course the resources industry, being a significant industry in the north—indeed, in some locales it is well above 50 per cent of the gross value added—it is a significant user of infrastructure in the north.

To the specific question of whether we have a list of fossil- and non-fossil-fuel investments, which I think the senator asked for: we have taken expressions of interest. There are a number of proposals. But I do not have a breakdown of that, because, as I say, we are not seeking to invest in fossil-fuel projects per se. These are infrastructure projects, some of which, of course, will be more heavily used by other resources industries than others, depending on their location and their use, or they may not be. But I do not have that information, because this has been an expressions-of-interest process. I have general information about what the projects are and possibly costs, but no assessment has been completed at this stage on those projects, so I cannot provide the senator with that detailed information at this stage.