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

I rise today with even more enthusiasm for northern Australia and the role it must play in Australia's future prosperity. The Developing Northern Australia Conference in Darwin last week drew together the some of the country's greatest thinkers and innovators, all working every day to improve this most important region. Joel Riddle of Tamboran Resources posed a very pertinent question in Darwin: do we adopt the European model of outsourcing our energy needs or do we adopt the US model of becoming energy independent, using our own reserves? There is an abundance of real-world evidence in Europe to show that relying on others to supply your energy is both risky and expensive. In the US, the extraction and use of its own gas reserves has resulted in dramatic falls in prices and emissions.

The Beetaloo basin contains 500 trillion cubic feet of recoverable resources potential. Of this, just 10 TCF across the next few decades could make up for the domestic gas shortfalls projected in the coming years. While America's smart money is rushing to fund drilling and approvals, the signals coming from the Australian government are backward, negative and even hostile. Socialist market interventions, increased funding for green 'lawfare' groups, onerous approvals processes and anti-gas commentary from senior ministers are telling the world, 'We don't want your business and we don't care about the high-paying jobs in the regions that you create.' There are significant opportunities for northern Australia, including the Beetaloo, to further grow and thrive, but without any Labor cabinet ministers attending the conference in Darwin it's unclear if this government even believes in the north. (Time expired)