Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise that you misheard me. I do very clearly know that your name is Senator Farrell. Minister Farrell, the reason you are wrong is because every well must be maintained, and the lack of investment and lack of flow in the Bass Strait—one of our great reserves—means we are now down 50 per cent on production in those places since you came to government, and there are no new projects coming to market. We have great projects like Senex—not approved under your government. We have great domestic projects like Tamboran and in the Beetaloo—not approved under your government. We have offshore projects that have been delayed because they have not been approved under your government. This has got nothing to do with anybody else but your government and your failure to act to bring more gas to the market. It will result in fewer Australian jobs, and we are seeing that right now—Sealy International, 125 jobs; Sorbent, 70 jobs now going offshore to Indonesia. We can give thanks that those companies were able to survive COVID but they won't survive under a Labor government. That is shocking.

There is risk of more jobs going if Labor is not prepared to fix the gas market. It is ludicrous that the Greens are talking about cutting more gas because this isn't about an ideology; this is about people. This is about Australians—mums and dads—sitting around the table, deciding how they are going to earn a crust, put food on the table and live their lives. Because coal and gas aren't just energy; they are manufacturing. Industry, steel, glass, bricks, everything, can only be generated from the energy that these things are bring.

I welcome the opportunity to have these discussions. Because the hysterical urgency coming from Minister Bowen, these damning policies will mean Australians would have fewer jobs, less manufacturing, higher costs of living, lower quality of life. These are coming like a train. We have been warning for two years about what is happening in the gas market and now those warnings are coming to fruition.

I'm shocked that, as a responsible government, they are not heeding the advice of Treasury, of other officials, of independent agencies like AEMO. This is not me saying it; this is your very own agencies ringing the bell—warning, warning, warning, we are going onto the rocks!

The hysterical comments from the Greens will impact Australians in a worse outcome than you can imagine. We used to have a balanced debate in this place but now the hysterical activism, the lack of widespread newspapers and news shows means that Australians are having to resort to getting their media from social media, from the clips that the Greens will be taking from their motion today. That is what they are doing. This is a fundraising activity, this motion. It is not about addressing the rushed policies that are facing Australia and the very real danger and damage that these policies are doing to us all.

I'm not sure what else we can do apart from warn, tell Australians. In the case of the Queensland election, another Queensland senator was trying to appeal to Queenslanders to think about their vote. I do the same because it is only with us continuing to do the great job that we do in mining, in gas production—we have a responsibility to the world to produce the lowest emission, highest calorific coal and clean gas that we do to assist our allies and our neighbours with not burning dirtier fuel. That's what increases world emissions. If that's what your biggest worry is then you should be encouraging Australian mining—mining that pays royalties and taxes, employs millions of Australians and ensures that we have a great quality of life.

I don't support this motion. It will be no surprise by this point. It is a pointless waste of effort apart from the fact that we get to talk about it. The Great Barrier Reef is not dead and dying, as the Greens would have you believe. New coal, oil and gas mines are actually useful and a moral imperative for this country for the rest of the world. I don't support this motion, I can't support this motion and I know that Australians across this country are begging the Greens to stop their hysterical arguments, calm down and assist them with living the best lives that they can.