Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister, and I refer to his previous answers on net zero in this House. Can the Deputy Prime Minister confirm he signed up to net zero without seeing any Treasury modelling on the impact on regional Australia?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. Just while I've been sitting back there, in regard to this plan, I'm very encouraged by some of it, because the long-term prospects for Australia's coal and gas sectors will depend on preference from customers—I understand that. And the DISER modelling, which is on the next page—I just want to go through it: coal, metallurgical, global ranking No. 1; coal thermal, global ranking No. 2; LNG, global ranking No. 2; iron ore, No. 1; uranium, No. 1; lithium, No. 1; zinc, No. 2; and copper, No. 3. This is great. And I've just had a look at it, for the honourable member—the source: 'Source: DISER, Resources and Energy Quarterly September 2021'. This modelling—I'm very happy. I believe that people at DISER are probably proficient enough, probably a little bit better than me in determining those incredible rankings. I'm happy we've got them. I'm very encouraged. By making sure that, in working with my National Party colleagues, we talk about that we will remain one of the world's biggest producers and exporters of liquefied natural gas. This is a great outcome. It talks about the ongoing use of coal. In fact, it talks about, I think, nearly a six per cent decline over the near future, but that belies the fact that currently we're exporting more coal at a higher price than we ever have before. The modelling seems pretty good.