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

The review is being handled by the Treasury department and I do not have the details of exactly what they have engaged in so far. It was announced just before Christmas—I believe in the last sitting week we were here. They have issued a discussion paper—is that the term?—or certainly an initial scoping paper and they are seeking submissions right now. As I said to Senator Lambie, I am happy to engage with her about that. While I do not wish to predict the outcomes from that, there has been a regime in place in this country based on profits-based tax for some time. We can disagree, Senator Lambie, about the success or lack of success, but we have attracted some of the world's biggest capital investment projects in this nation under that regime. The Gorgon development is one of the world's biggest capital projects which is going on right now. The Inpex project in Darwin likewise is one of the biggest in the world. These generate enormous amounts of investment for our country and they have created tens of thousands of jobs for people across Australia—particularly for areas in Northern Australia, it has been game changing.

While we need to do better to get gas into southern markets, those issues are largely related to the state governments not allowing the development of their resource. Whereas in Northern Australia, the Western Australian government, the Queensland government and the Northern Territory government have welcomed the gas industry with open arms. They have said, 'Let's come here and invest here.' Guess what? By being open, by being accommodating and by facilitating investment, you get investment. That is what has happened. If we had that attitude in southern Australia, I think we might have different outcomes. It has been a success attracting those major investments. They are hugely important to Senator Back's area, to my own state and to Senator Scullion's territory as well. That is a major success for our country that we should be very proud of.