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

Thank you very much for that reminder. What has happened is that Prime Minister Albanese has appointed Mr Bandt, from the other house, into the Labor cabinet as the resources minister. Just to clarify that again, Minister King is no longer the Labor Minister for Resources. It is Mr Adam Bandt, a member of the other place, the Greens political party leader, who is now the Labor cabinet Minister for Resources, it seems. This is terrible for the gas industry, it is terrible for energy policy and it is terrible for the cost of living for Australians, because what Labor are doing today, by the dirty deal they have done with the Greens political party, means they will be voting for higher taxes, for more red tape, for slower approvals and for gas shortfalls.

This notion that Australia can just claw back the gas that it's exporting to its allies is shocking. Imagine the moment that we say to our close allies, 'Good news: we're going to turn your lights off because we can't keep ours on. Good news: those contracts that you were relying on are now not worth the paper they're written on.' Won't that be fantastic for our relationships in this geopolitical region that relies on Australia being a reliable source of gas, energy and minerals more broadly.

It's just one more nail in the coffin for investor confidence in this country. Over the last two years we've seen interventions in the gas market, price caps, the introduction of unreliable renewables with no firming plans, additional green tape, cultural heritage expansion and the introduction of a new EPA. We're seeing further delays on the very things that will see Australians have lower electricity prices, more jobs in this country—to keep some manufacturing jobs. You know when Sorbent, when toilet paper manufacturers, leave Australia, as they have—they have moved to Indonesia—that it is a bad day for Australians. That is exactly what is happening right now, unless we wake up and take control of our resources and bring more gas to the market.