Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. As we know, the demand is growing for clean energy sources, and Labor's investment will help position the Northern Territory and northern Australia to actually diversify their economy and to create jobs. This investment is not a subsidy for fossil fuels. I reject that entirely. Rather, funding will go towards the infrastructure that will support users to export clean energy, critical to meet our commitment to net zero, like green hydrogen and lithium batteries that are critical to decarbonisation.

Common-user infrastructure at Middle Arm and in industrial precincts across the country, which the Commonwealth regularly invests in, is included in Infrastructure Australia's Infrastructure Priority List of nationally significant proposals, and the project is currently at the stage 2 assessment process. The Middle Arm precinct is undergoing significant environmental assessments under the Northern Territory Environment Protection Act and the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. These assessments will help understand the impact of the proposed construction. The Northern Territory government has completed or commenced over 200 investigations, including feasibility studies into land and marine development and environmental culture and heritage. This is good for the Territory, it's good for the nation, and I reject absolutely the claim of it being a fossil fuel subsidy.

Honourable members interjecting—

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