George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

In this consideration in detail, I have a lot of questions on issues that I'll ask the minister for resources. He's doing a fantastic job. We support resources, particularly the coal industry on this side of the chamber, unlike those on that side, and particularly the last member who spoke. The member for Shortland should be out there supporting the coal industry and should be out there supporting the coal workers, but he's not, and that's why he got such a massive swing against him at the last election, and that's why they'll be coming for him at the next election. The lack of support that he gives the industry that employs his workers is absolutely disgraceful. It's absolutely disgraceful that he could turn his back on people who would have backed his party through thick and thin. What we need is more people in this chamber backing the workers in the coal sector.

I am fully backing the workers in the coal sector. I know the minister for resources and northern Australia does. We were out there before the last election, pushing for the opening of the Galilee Basin—a very important project that is already creating jobs in my electorate, in Townsville, and right through North and Central Queensland. I have to say: opening the Galilee Basin was a great achievement. There will be coal exported out of the Galilee, and we hope that more players will come and open it even further. The minister might want to touch on the coal sector and some of the things the government is seeing. In the face of this global pandemic, what we've seen is the resources sector punching on for the national economy, generating record exports, royalties and taxes so that we can deliver more in terms of infrastructure and more in terms of services. The latest GDP figures apparently confirm the resilience of Australia's resources sector as the pandemic grips the rest of the world. I understand that the national accounts show that the mining sector actually grew by 0.2 per cent in the June quarter, compared to an economy-wide fall of seven per cent. It just shows that our economy is still plugging away because of the resources sector. That's important.

More recently, we've announced gas exploration. I think this is a great opportunity for regions like mine. I know that the northern Bowen Basin is part of the area that we'll be looking at in terms of gas exploration. It would be interesting to know why the government is investing in these strategic basin plans. I know it's all about jobs, but perhaps the minister might want to give a bit more additional information on that. How will additional areas be decided other than the northern Bowen Basin, and how will energy consumers benefit from those plans? I know personally many businesses in my region and elsewhere that are going to benefit from more gas being put onto the market. This is very important stuff. I'm very appreciative that the minister has announced this and that the government is going in this direction.

I turn to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. It is an outfit that I have legitimately criticised in the past, as someone in the government, that there should have been changes made that actually streamlined things and made it easier for people to access the finance out of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. I understand that changes have been made recently that have enabled easier access to that finance. I've recently spoken with the CEO and people within the NAIF. I have also spoken with a number of different potential applicants that are looking forward to these changes coming into effect. So I'm wondering if the minister could detail to us what have been the outcomes of the NAIF's investment in Northern Australia thus far? He might refer to things such as Signature Beef, a processing facility in my region which is going to generate hundreds of jobs during construction and about 70 ongoing jobs. That is a fantastic project. You may able to talk about others. What is the government hoping to achieve through the further reforms to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility? Because we want to see more money pumping out to the north for the development of tourism projects, manufacturing projects, for the development of any sort of project that is going to provide an economic return, create jobs and get the north moving again as we move out of this pandemic.

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