Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Northern Australia. I refer to the government's changes to insert its emissions reduction target into the program criteria for projects in the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility pipeline. Has the minister received any advice from her department that this will lead to gas supply or coal projects in the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility pipeline being cancelled, restricted or delayed?

Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the leader of the Nats for that unhelpful comment. I thank the member for their question. What is happening with the recent legislation in this country is that it is aligning all parts of government behind a united aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and reduce our targets to 43 per cent. This is something the Australian people voted for, right across Northern Australia, right across Western Australia and right across Queensland and Victoria. All states in this nation voted for a net zero position. That is a fact, and that is what we are doing.

We are making sure that all policy areas align with this government's very ambitious direction to get to net zero emissions by 2050. That aligns with the rest of the world. That is something which we must be enormously proud of and which only this government will deliver. Those opposite put their heads in the sand for the last 10 years and brought us back down behind everyone else in the climate fight. We need to be able to resist global warming in this country and around the world. We will work with our international partners. We know that our international partners, such as Japan and Korea, who we sell gas to and have been selling gas to for a long time, will rely on gas as part of their net zero emissions goals. So we will keep providing gas supply and we will have supply in this country into the future.

What those opposite need to know is that the Climate Change Bill has aligned this country with the rest of the world. I'm very proud of that, and I'm very proud that Northern Australia will be doing it as well. In fact, the only interference that has been made in the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was from those opposite, when they banned a wind farm that would have created hundreds of jobs in Cairns. So those opposite can talk about that all they like, but they are the ones who have interfered in the NAIF consistently, and always we are the ones who will support northern Australia and gas into the future.