Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Well, it is the first day back at school, and we already have the people down the back of the room disrupting class, as they always do. It did not take them very long. For the first item of business, they decided, 'We don't need to discuss the important issues that face our country and the people here in our nation—the issues that they are concerned about.' People are concerned about their jobs in Gladstone; they are facing losses because of high electricity prices. People just want to be able to look after their families and run their businesses. We are not debating these issues, because the Greens want to distract attention from our nation's parliament and discuss another country's issues and problems. Well, Senator Di Natale, we have been elected to the Australian parliament. We have been elected by our various states to look after their interests in the furtherance of the goals and objectives of the Commonwealth of Australia, not the United States of America, and I take my job pretty seriously. We are put here to look after the people in this country and to further their interests, not to be distracted by different issues that are happening on the other side of the planet, in another country.

The matters that face the United States of America are matters for them. Yes, we have a long, strong and enduring relationship with the United States of America, but that relationship should be strong enough and mature enough to be able to respect the democratic results of an election that they have had recently. We might not agree with that election. We might not agree with who has been elected, but that is a matter for them. If you want to be involved in American politics, do not be elected to the Australian parliament. Do something else with your life. If that is your desire in life, you can go and get a job at the United States Studies Centre in the University of Sydney, Senator Di Natale. Go do that with your life rather than be here, because when you are here you should turn up to work and do your job, not someone else's job, and our job is to look after the interests of Australians. For me, it is to look after the interests of Queenslanders in particular.

I must say that, while I have been at home a lot over the last couple of months, and it has been nice to be at home a little bit more often, people around where I am are not all that concerned or worried about what is happening in America; they are worried about what is happening here in this country. People in Central Queensland, where I am from, want us to focus on delivering for them. They want us to focus on ensuring that they have a stronger economy in Central Queensland. They want us to focus on getting things moving so that small businesses can stay alive. They want us to focus on allowing people to have a job so that their kids can have a job and they can pay their kids' school fees as they all go back to school this year. My son is starting high school—that takes more money, right? You need a job to do that. You need an income, and that is something the Greens completely ignore. They think we have the luxury in this country of going off on flights of fancy to have philosophical debates about the presidency of another country and about the laws of another country when, in fact, we have enough issues right here right now to be debating in this place, and we should focus on them.

I am here because I am waiting to be able to move a bill and put forward a bill on the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act. Yes, for some, it might put you to sleep, but it is actually really important to develop our gas resources off the North West Shelf in Western Australia, and this bill is very important in allowing that to happen. But, because of the behaviour of the Greens—because of their distractions—we are not allowed to debate the development of our country and development of our resources. Instead, we are distracted here talking about a suspension of standing orders which has nothing to do with our country and which will not improve the lot of one person in this country. Instead, we are being distracted by a philosophical debate that serves the Greens' interests, not our nation's interests.

The government will be opposing the suspension of standing orders because we want to get back to the business of this nation. We want to get back to helping Australians improve their lives, and we are not going to be distracted by the tactics of the Greens which, unfortunately, have started off on this very first day of parliament. I hope it is not a sign of how they will conduct themselves throughout this year—I am not holding my breath though. Let's get back to the business that people have put us here for and focus on their lives, not the distractions that might suit us from time to time.