Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The government will provide $1.9 billion in planned equity to support the development of the Middle Arm precinct. We will do that together with regional logistics hubs along key transport lists. This is not a subsidy for fossil fuels; this is serious commitment to industrial infrastructure in that region.

Now, the difference between us and the Greens political party on these questions is that what the government sets out to do is to reduce emissions, consistent with the targets that we've set—the targets that we took to the election, the targets that we have a mandate to introduce, the targets that were supported by the most sophisticated economic modelling done by an opposition party coming into government. Now, what we intend to do is, yes, to reduce emissions and, yes, to put downward pressure on the price of power, but the thing that's missing from the Greens party's position here—it's one of the key areas of difference—is, of course, that we intend to press on with the industrial diversification of the Australian economy. That means that more blue collared jobs in regional areas. That means more industrial diversification.

The CHAIR: Senator Cox, you can repechage when I give you the call.

That means more factories, more manufacturing. That means investing in the technologies and the industrial infrastructure that will mean we will have the capacity to export green hydrogen and have the capacity to feed into global supply chains.

You can't have it both ways. What we intend to do is to invest in this kind of infrastructure that supports that kind of industrial development. Now, I know some people don't like industrial development. They don't like factories. They don't like manufacturing. But this government is determined to press on with this, and on that basis, but also on the basis that I outlined in the summing up speech at the end of the second reading debate, I urge the Senate to reject the amendment.

The CHAIR: Senator Cox, do you want the call?