Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Well, to take an interjection from the assistant minister, the good thing is the Liberals in Tasmania are not in coalition with the Greens—thank the good Lord, I say.

One other thing that didn't really rate a mention in the last contribution—and I expect we won't hear it in any other contribution in relation to this, perhaps even from the government—is that we are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, and that is in part because of the cost of energy. This project isn't there just because Woodside want to make a dirty, great, big profit and want to destroy the environment. It's actually because we need energy to be fed into the grid. There's this shocking notion that we need resources to make our economy tick over—as if it's going to come out of thin air if we don't get it out of projects like this.

The idea that, frankly, we don't need these projects to be able to generate energy in our current energy mix is quite fanciful, and, again, it demonstrates just how out of touch the Australian Greens are when it comes to ensuring we have stability in our economy and indeed in our grid. But, again, why would we worry about that when they're going to be in charge after the next election, calling the shots! It'll be the Greens tail wagging the Labor dog, if the polls are to be believed.

Of course, one could be forgiven for thinking that the federal environment minister would give in to such a demand from the Australian Greens. The Australian Greens are calling on the government to unequivocally rule out this project, calling on the Australian government—

It is not an EPA motion, just to take Senator Hanson-Young's interjection there. It's a motion from Senator McKim that the federal government unequivocally rule out approval for this project, so it is a Greens motion. Frankly, I would not be surprised if the environment minister, Ms Plibersek, did rule it out, because of course the Greens are snapping at her heels in her electorate. It's the kind of thing that she will be worried about in terms of her own re-election chances and of making sure that green votes flow to her in her seat.

So decisions will be made on a political basis rather than a practical one—one where we should be balancing these considerations. It's the material approach: balancing the economic against the environmental and factoring in that thing I mentioned before and I hope we hear a bit more about—but I doubt we will—and that is the cost-of-living crisis that is absolutely crippling Australian households, making it hard for business to do what they do best. (Time expired)