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

We have no intention, as I mentioned, of introducing such a gas reservation policy. We have been very successful in this country in developing our gas resources, where state and/or Commonwealth governments—if they are in offshore waters—state and Commonwealth governments have allowed that resource to be developed. In Queensland, where I am from, we have attracted record amounts of investment in the LNG industry and in the other part of the country where the chair is from there has been even greater investment in offshore resources.

But, of course, where state governments decide they will not develop the resource at all and no-one can come in or where we have senators in this place seeking to ban the development of offshore areas like the Great Australian Bight—that will ward off investment. That will turn away investment and we will not have the resource developed and we will not have the gas for our manufacturing sector that you and I both want. That is what we should be focused on. We need to be focused on unlocking the supply, not seeking to send it in a certain direction. We need to be unlocking the incentives for people to invest in that supply, not putting on state-wide bans, which even ban conventional gas developments—conventional gas techniques which have been around for decades, if not centuries. That is illogical and is harming our manufacturing interests in this country. That is something we do not support; we think it is counterproductive. I do not think the reservation policy that Senator Lambie has put forward is a solution to those issues.