Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) commends the Government's plan to build Australia's energy sovereignty, alongside growing our fuel reserves and supporting more fuels made in Australia to stay in Australia; and

(2) notes that a 20 per cent liquified natural gas exports domestic reservation scheme will:

(a) put strong downward pressure on domestic gas prices;

(b) shield our industry and households from global price volatility; and

(c) ensure Australia's energy security by avoiding potential gas supply shortfalls.

Right now, the world feels uncertain. Conflicts overseas, disruptions to global supply chains and rising energy costs are affecting everyday Australians. Fuel security, which often was not thought about in my lifetime, is now front of mind for many people right across regional Queensland, especially up my way with the vast distances of the Far North. That's why this government, the Albanese Labor government, is taking action to secure Australia's fuel for the long term.

For the record, here's what we're doing. We're buying more fuel. We're growing our national reserves of jet fuel and diesel to 50 days so Australia is better prepared for any future shocks. We're going to refine more fuel at home. We're investing in domestic refining capacity and storage so we're not as dependent on what can happen overseas. And we're keeping more fuel here. We're requiring gas companies to reserve 20 per cent of their exports for Australia so that our energy needs come first.

We provided relief for consumers and industry, secured fuel supplies, taken national leadership. We halved the fuel excise for three months, including foregoing extra GST on fuel, so that people wouldn't feel that pinch at the bowser, to give them the confidence to get to the places they needed to go. We passed new laws to double penalty for petrol companies for price gouging, and we tasked the ACCC to ramp up fuel price monitoring and issue on-the-spot fines. We also stepped in to support industry by pausing road user charges for truckies for up to three months, deferred the next increase of the heavy vehicle road user charge and gave the Fair Work Commission new powers to demand truckies are paid fairly when fuel prices spike. No matter what is happening in the world, the Labor government is focused on helping Australians here at home.

I'm sure shortly and throughout this debate members from the other side will stand up and talk about how this isn't a win and maybe tell us how they think they could do better. Of course, it's in the name—'opposition'. But, if you really want to get the facts in this debate, let's talk about what the Liberal and National parties and their partners in One Nation did while they were in government. Instead of storing fuel here in Australia, the Liberals and Nationals charged the taxpayer to store it in Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas, but it's not particularly useful when there's an ocean between it and where you need to be!

The Liberals and Nationals also love to say how they want more fuel refined here in Australia, but how did that go for them? In Sydney, the Kurnell refinery closed in October 2014. In Brisbane, the Bulwer Island refinery closed in 2015. In Melbourne, the Altona refinery stopped refining fuel in 2020. In Perth, the Kwinana oil refinery closed in 2021. That's four of the six refineries we had left in Australia that have closed since 2014 and all under the watch of the Liberal and National parties. Two of them actually closed when the now Leader of the Opposition was the energy minister and while One Nation's leader in waiting, the member for New England, was the Deputy Prime Minister. At the time, the member for Hume said:

Closure of the refinery will not negatively impact Australian fuel supplies.

That has unfortunately not turned out to be the case. At some point you've got to stop putting politics over policy. We saw before Easter, when everybody was talking up the fuel crisis, that that mattered. Those words mattered. That impacted the tourism industry in my part of the world. People didn't come. That hurt small businesses.

Fear and division over something as important as fuel is not appropriate. So what we need to do is get the facts on the table. Let's talk about the specifics of this gas reservation policy. The government is introducing a domestic gas reservation so that LNG exporters supply a portion of their total production to the domestic market equivalent to 20 per cent of their exports. The domestic reservation scheme is expected to commence on 1 July 2027. We need to understand that gas will continue to be needed as we transition to renewable energy—keeping the lights on and ensuring the security of our energy system. The gas reservation scheme will apply to exporters. We are requiring them to reserve their production for the domestic market. It means Australian gas will work for Australians. It will deliver more supply and the lowest possible gas prices for users. It will boost sovereign capacity and strengthen our supply chains. We want a future made in Australia.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for this motion?

Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion commends the government's plan to secure Australia's energy sovereignty. From 1 July 2027, LNG exporters will be required to supply 20 per cent of their export volumes to domestic customers. Western Australia has had a domestic reservation for decades. It's only time that we have the same on the east coast.

The member for Leichhardt has moved that Australia's gas reservation scheme 'will put strong downward pressure on domestic gas prices'. But the fact is that this gas reservation scheme won't come into effect for over 13 months and all export contracts signed before December 2025 are grandfathered, meaning that the reservation will only target spot and uncontracted volumes, which will limit how much gas can reasonably and realistically be captured under it. It's not clear that 20 per cent of a shrinking uncontracted pool will greatly move the needle on prices. The member also commended the government on its efforts to grow our fuel reserves. These are the same fuel reserves that, even after the additional measures taken by the government this year, will continue to fall well below the IEA's 90-day mandate.

While the government looks to pat itself on the back on its energy security measures, just weeks ago it handed down a budget that once again let the gas industry off the hook. In the most recent budget, revenue from the petroleum resource rent tax is forecast to fall—not rise but fall. Since MYEFO, receipts from the PRRT have been revised up $1.6 billion over five years. But, overall, the trajectory for the PRRT is down. In 2029-30, even with inflation, Australia will collect less PRRT than we do now. At a time when global energy markets are in turmoil, when Australian families are being squeezed by rising energy bills and another RBA rate rise, the tax take from our natural resources is declining. In 2029-30, students and graduates will pay more in HECS indexation than multinational corporations will pay in PRRT on oil and gas. On a total HECS decade, by the end of this decade, it will be $60 billion. This is a national scandal.

In the middle of a global energy crisis, Australian gas companies are pocketing extraordinary windfall profits, generated not by their ingenuity or their investment but because of geopolitical instability and war elsewhere. I support measures that protect Australian households from gas price volatility. The idea of a domestic reservation scheme has genuine merit. But I speak for most Australians when I say that we remain disappointed with the government that has done nothing to claw back windfall profits currently flowing to foreign multinationals and to overseas investors. We're not satisfied with a government that refuses to fix the fundamental architecture of how we tax our oil and gas exports. We're not satisfied with a government that has let tens of billions of dollars go to multinationals for our finite resources while failing to adequately support the students, the renters, the young couples, the unhoused, the unemployed and older Australians.

The ATO itself has labelled the oil and gas sector systemic non-payers of tax. Back in 2016, Treasury warned that companies could defer their PRRT liability indefinitely. But here we are a decade later with a budget that shows the PRRT revenue declining and a government that refuses to act. We could generate tens of billions of dollars in tax revenue if we took a fair share of our natural resources. A fair share levy could generate up to $13 billion a year; a 25 per cent tax on gas, $17 billion a year. Eighty-seven per cent of Australians believe that they deserve a better return from the sale of our gas exports. Only three per cent disagree.

A government which is serious about energy sovereignty would have used this budget to reform the tax settings on our national resources. It did not do that. Australians deserve better. They deserve a parliament with the courage to actually make our collective wealth work for all Australians, not just for Santos, for Shell and for INPEX.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion because, for too long, Australians have watched as gas extracted from our very own soil, our own national asset, has been sold overseas, while households and businesses here at home struggle with the rising cost of energy. This private member's bill is supportive of the 20 per cent reserve for Australian use. Now you can argue, as we heard the member for Kooyong, that we perhaps could go a bit further. I tend to agree that a 25 per cent export tax would have been a good thing. I've written to the government and to the minister and will continue to talk to my side of politics, because for too long Australia has missed out.

Australians expect one simple thing: that the resources of this country work for the economy, and that's why we're setting aside this at least 20 per cent of Australian gas for domestic use. It's not just good policy; it's common sense. It protects households, it strengthens Australian industry and it builds resilience in the face of global instability. Because when international markets shift, when conflict disrupts supply chains and when prices spike beyond reason, Australians should not be left exposed. We are a resource-rich nation and we should take advantage of it. We should never be a nation struggling to access or afford our own energy. Domestic gas reservation is about fairness, it's about security and it's about taking control of our energy future in moments like this. It's leadership like this that matters. The priority must always be clear: keep fuel flowing, keep costs down, and keep Australians moving. Fuel excise was halved for a period, easing pressure on the bowser and giving households much needed breathing room. Measures were put in place to ensure Australians were not paying inflated taxes on already rising prices, and, importantly, strong action was taken to address unfair practices. Penalties for price gouging were increased, and the ACCC was tasked to ramp up fuel price monitoring and issue on-the-spot fines.

Australians understand price pressures, but they do not accept being taken advantage of, and, for far too long in this nation, the industries have enjoyed incredible profits, pocketing incredible windfalls and profits in this area, and rightly so for their shareholders, for the investments they make et cetera. But we also have to look after Australia. We also have to look after the families who are doing it tough. This particular measure goes a long way in securing our energy needs, and, in fact, I would have gone that step further. We've heard others say in this place, from the government side and from opposition members, that, even though we commend the steps taken, it would have been great to go that step further, and a 25 per cent tax on gas exports alongside that strong 20 per cent domestic gas reservation will place real downward pressure on domestic prices and ensure that Australian gas works for Australian households and businesses.

We've heard and we've seen foreign multinationals making extraordinary profits whilst we miss out, and that's not right. Tens of billions of dollars could be raised for Australia, paying for our hospitals, our roads, our infrastructure, home care for our elderly, education and a whole range of other things. For far too long, we've missed out. This is a great step. It's the first step—securing 20 per cent for domestic use—but I would have gone that step further to ensure that some of these companies are taxed a 25 per cent tax on gas exports. When prices spike and go through the roof, they're making extraordinary profits. That money could raise billions and billions of dollars for Australia.

A strong Australia is one that uses its own resources to protect its people and ensure that no-one is left behind when the world becomes uncertain, as we're seeing now with the Strait of Hormuz being blocked and oil shipments delayed and unable to come through. This is a good measure to put aside gas in reserve for domestic use for Australia.

Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is yet another self-congratulating motion moved by the government in relation to domestic fuel and gas supply and, in particular, the gas reservation scheme that they've got for the east coast, which, might I say, we've asked for time and time again on this side of the House. I'm pleased that they've finally come to the table in part.

This is in relation to leadership, because we've seen at a time—I'm speaking in relation to the fuel reserves. Labor came into government soon after COVID. The coalition had to make the tough decisions during COVID, and then COVID was nearing the end, and Labor came into office. You'd think that any reasonable government would have, in the days post COVID, done a total reassessment to identify the areas of national vulnerability. But what instead occurred is that it's taken a crisis for this government to wake up, and it's taken the situation in the Middle East for them to come to a position in relation to our fuel reserves.

Over the last four years of this government, the Prime Minister and the defence minister have, time and time again, said that Australia finds itself in the most complex and threatening strategic circumstances since the end of the Second World War, but we haven't seen the appropriate action to match those words. We haven't seen that. Everybody on this side of the Chamber understands that petrol, diesel, coal and gas all power the Australian economy, and fuel security is national security.

The coalition announced our gas reservation plan many months ago, and Labor rejected it at the time. In traditional Labor fashion, they are always last to lead in a crisis, and we have seen that being the case now. But there are still some parts of this Labor government's policy that are half-baked or that we still don't have the details on. We're not sure whether the 20 per cent obligation applies to total LNG exports, to uncontracted gas, to prospective contracts or to some combination of each. The government hasn't explained how existing contracts will be protected while still enforcing a new domestic supply obligation from exporters. The detail hasn't been clearly articulated in relation to the implementation of the east coast market strategy, and there are further questions in relation to how the scheme will increase supply, support new investment and avoid pushing smaller Australian gas companies out of the market.

Critical to all of this is the fact that Labor doesn't truly back more Australian fuel and gas for Australians. If it did, it wouldn't stop with this policy. If the Labor Party genuinely backed in Australian gas and Australian fuel for Australians, they would actually be speeding up projects, not shutting them down and shutting them out of faster approvals under their new environmental protection regime. It's one thing for the Labor Party to congratulate themselves and pat themselves on the back for appropriating the coalition's policy for the east coast reservation scheme, but it's another when they're not prepared to match that with genuine support for the Australian gas industry. Serious fuel security means securing the whole supply chain, and that's from Australian resources in the ground to fuel reserves in storage. If this government is going to put its money where its mouth is in relation to securing decent energy supplies and decent fuel supplies for this country, it needs to start getting serious about supporting Australian gas extraction and fast-tracking approvals, and it also needs to provide the details of its still unclear gas policy.

The coalition has an end-to-end plan for more fuel, more storage and more security. We've spoken about doubling minimum reserves of petrol, diesel and jet fuel. We've spoken about investing $800 million to unlock more than one billion litres of new fuel storage capability. Those are just some of the long-term generational policies that we have put forward. But I say to this government: fuel security is national security, and you need to get serious.

Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McPherson was talking about coalition policy when it came to energy security, and I recall that, from 2013, AEMO was warning us of a coming gas shortfall. What was done? Well, a whole lot of nothing. We have known this was coming for a long time, and the steps necessary to ensure the sovereignty of our supply were not taken.

We've got three distinct issues raised in this debate. The first is liquid fuels and the very urgent issue we confront in the face of the Middle East crisis, particularly with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Related is electrification and the importance of making sure that we can minimise our dependency on an increasingly unstable supply of liquid fuels. Then, thirdly, there's the important work being done in relation to the gas reservation scheme. I'll try to deal with each of them in turn with as much order as I possibly can.

In relation to the liquid fuels, obviously we found ourselves confronted, as the world did, with a sudden shortage of liquid fuels. Over many years we'd become dependent on liquid fuels from overseas. Australia is a country very used to having an abundance of everything we need, but there is a notable exception when it comes to liquid fuels. We have some in the ground, but, even if we were to uneconomically dig up everything we have and sieve all the oil through every bit of sand, we would not have a forever supply of oil. We've been importing it for a long time, and, regrettably, our storage and refining of it has diminished over a period of decades.

We've found ourselves in a difficult situation, but we have seen the leadership of this government get to work quickly. We've managed to secure more supply in the here and now, during this crisis, than we had beforehand. We've leveraged our reciprocal relationships with partners overseas and ensured that we've had a continuity of supply. We've made legislative amendments to ensure that we can pull every lever available to us as a country to ensure that those who need the fuel have it. That's important for farmers, industry and tradies. It's important for mums and dads and everyone who depends on vehicles or machinery in their work. So that has been incredibly important work.

And then we have to think long term. We need to learn the lessons from this: storing more, refining more and ensuring that we don't continue making the same mistakes we've made in decades past. I really don't want to be too partisan about this, because this is too important. This is about our sovereignty in terms of our energy, and we all know that energy is going to be essential for our future prosperity. We know that there are shortcomings in this country's approach over a period of decades, and we need to get to work and do things about it. That is exactly what this government is doing, and I applaud that.

In relation to electrification, while this does seem to be a bit more of a contentious political issue, minimising our dependency on energy that we do not have an abundance of is good sense. Where we can electrify things in a practical way that is economically efficient, we should do so there is diesel there for the farmers and there for industry where it's needed. If households are happy to have an electric car and it works for them, that's wonderful. So it is ensuring that we are electrifying what we can practically do so that we have an energy supply with renewables backed with gas and storage to ensure that we can facilitate that in an effective and efficient way, and we've been working in that direction for a long time. Sometimes when we say the word 'renewables', people get a little bit crazy, but it is part of a bigger plan to ensure that we have that access to sovereign energy.

Gas reservation is an important step for the country. As I said, we've been talking about predictable shortfalls of gas on our east coast, which seems absolutely crazy. Given that we're one of the world's biggest exporters of gas, how can we in Australia be talking about gas shortages? It's absolutely ludicrous. And so it's important that we finally see real action being taken to ensure that Australians, as leading exporters of gas, don't have to worry about a shortage of gas. That is just good common sense. We haven't got the final details of the policy yet, because we actually do detailed policy work, engage with relevant stakeholders, design a policy, predict shortcomings, see if we can address them in the design of the policy and then implement something that will actually work in the long term. I have no shame in saying that that is the approach we're taking, and that is an approach I would recommend in all areas of public policy.

We are thinking ahead, thinking about the lessons we've taken from this period and ensuring that we're implementing those lessons and not forgetting them. Often when we see troubles, they say, 'Keep calm because there's another disaster around the corner,' and there no doubt will be and, we won't have predicted it yet. But we do know that these are the lessons we need to learn and we need to get onto this job fast. So I'm incredibly proud of the important steps being taken by the government. I think we should all be encouraging that. I also think we have to be forward looking in what our energy mix looks like in the future to make sure that we maximise our national resilience to ensure that we don't again fall into the troubles we've had. I've had people in tears in my office worried about the future of their businesses if this Strait of Hormuz crisis continues and fuel prices continue to go up. This is life or death for a lot of businesses and sectors around the country, and we owe it to Australians to do everything we can to ensure energy security for our country going forward.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Energy is the economy. The economy is energy. We as a nation should have the cheapest energy in the world because we sit on so many of the energy requirements that other countries would be just so envious of. And yet we have this propensity in this nation to spurn anybody who wants to drill, anybody who wants to explore, anybody who wants to—dare I say—mine our resources. For too long this government has done just that.

Now, I took great heart driving around last week when I saw just near the turn off from the Hume freeway a tanker going onto a farm near the Burrinjuck Dam and turn off. I thought: 'Good. There is a diesel tanker going to a farmer who is just about to sow their crop.' Two Saturdays ago I saw a tanker going into Batlow. At the start of the Strait of Hormuz war in Iran fuel crisis—which is worldwide, and I will admit that—Batlow ran out of fuel. In that apple-growing community he orchardists had no diesel. Indeed, the whole community ground to a halt. When you have a country town that has no fuel, you have people there who then can't access vehicles to go and attend to their health needs. It does create quite a crisis. It is a matter of life and death—literally.

We have in this motion the government patting itself on the back for its energy sovereignty and for growing fuel reserves. The biggest issue some weeks ago—and it's still an issue today in regional Australia—was the supply, the distribution, the logistics of getting diesel to our country towns and also the affordability. I appreciate that the government has done something in relation to the cost. I appreciate that the government has done something in relation to the distribution. But it was nowhere near enough when the crisis was at its peak, and the crisis has not been averted.

The appointment on 19 March of Anthea Harris as the Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator was welcomed by some, but it took Minister Bowen's job away from him. He should have been doing that job that Ms Harris was appointed to do. Not only that but she's also doing reviews of the Water Act. If that wasn't a busy enough task then it probably wasn't her right and responsibility to be doing Minister Bowen's job as well.

But we have a situation here where Labor's also applauding itself for its gas exports domestic reservation scheme. I note Senator Pocock on Insiders yesterday, when quizzed by David Speers from the ABC as to the detail around his policy, said that's still to be worked out. It's always the same with these Independents, with all due respect to the members sitting behind me. They are never around the cabinet table when the hard work has to happen. They are never there when the grunt really must be made to get policy to legislation and then through the House. We're seeing the rise at the moment of One Nation again, another party that thinks it has all the answers. But, when it really comes to the crunch, it's hard work. It's hard work being a minister. It truly is. It's hard work being a government.

This government has failed on the energy front. It has. You don't have to drive far from here to see signs all over the Upper Lachlan Shire saying, 'No more industrial wind factories.' In the Yass Valley, people are distraught about the fact that their beautiful, serene, picturesque arable farmland, prime agricultural land, is being taken up, or potentially will be, by more wind towers. What's this government doing? It's pushing ahead with another $18 billion on its net zero fantasy, its net zero policy folly, it's net zero pipedream that is only hurting regional Australians. I say again: energy is the economy, and the government is failing on that front because it's not providing the cheap energy that our manufacturers and farmers need, want, expect and deserve.

Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What are we talking about when we talk about energy sovereignty? It means the capacity of a territory to meet its energy needs in an autonomous and sustainable way to guarantee its independence and to have direct control over its energy resources, production and infrastructure. It could mean guaranteeing security of the energy supply in a particular territory. It could mean encouraging the development of renewable energy to reduce imports of fossil fuels. It could mean investing in the adaptation or construction of infrastructure to strengthen energy resilience. It could mean developing meaningful and long-lasting relationships with allies and partners in our region to achieve gains of trade. Or it could mean a combination of these things.

We have seen gains of trade in action recently through the Albanese Labor government's broad approach to improving energy sovereignty in this country. This approach includes drawing on our relationships with Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia to secure new agreements for the supply of fuel and fertiliser. Our mutually beneficial relationship with Indonesia was also recently illustrated through the securing of three shipments of additional fertiliser, or 90,000 tonnes, and 250,000 additional tonnes of urea. In securing these resources, the government was able to emphasise that energy security is a dual carriageway, with our gas playing a critical role in this gain-of-trade approach.

Achieving energy sovereignty, however, should not be automatically conflated with calls to drill and calls to explore. Sure, a call to explore is worth exploring in itself, and there are many factors that determine whether exploration should proceed, including environmental factors, economic factors and how prospective the area earmarked for exploration is. But there should be no confusion: gas exploration and drilling do not automatically mean the energy sovereignty problem is solved. Claims to this effect are oversimplified, ignore the complexities and level of investment involved in exploration and also risk detracting from other things that can be done, and are being done, to improve energy sovereignty—such as the government's recent release of 20 per cent of Australia's fuel reserves; the change to petrol and diesel standards to increase the flow of fuel, especially to regional Australia; and the simplification of the process for Australia's refineries to access government support.

A basket of measures to improve energy sovereignty was also a feature of the recent federal government budget, which committed $11.9 billion to the previously existing National Fuel Security Plan, with the aim of securing Australia's near-term fuel and fertiliser security. Within this was the establishment of a fuel and fertiliser security facility, a $7.5 billion investment, which is intended to increase the domestic supply and storage of fuel and fertiliser by providing financial support, including loans, equity guarantees, insurance and price support. Secondly, $3.2 billion was committed for the establishment of an Australian fuel security reserve. As part of this initiative, approximately one billion litres of fuel will be reserved to increase long-term diesel and aviation fuel supply and storage, and the minimum stockholding obligation will increase Australia's critical fuel reserves to 50 days. The focus of this is to address potential regional lack of stock and supply constraints for essential users in anticipation of future potential supply disruptions.

Separately, the budget also committed just over $35 million to be spent over four years from 2026-27 for the establishment of a domestic gas reservation mechanism, which aims to ensure a secure and affordable domestic gas supply through the wholesale market from 1 July 2027. These funds will be spent over four years to not only develop and implement the domestic gas reservation mechanism but to conduct gas market analysis and policy development to promote market reliability and energy security, to modernise offshore resources regulation, to support gas investment and to mitigate supply shortfalls. The Labor government's Domestic Gas Reservation Scheme is a landmark Labor reform designed to deliver more supply and the lowest possible prices for gas users.

Energy sovereignty is not 'one size fits all'. As this government has demonstrated, it requires a broad approach that is more considered than simple populist calls to drill at all costs.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to address this motion. I'm proud to represent a region that grows, makes and manufactures things the rest of Victoria and, indeed, Australia look to. Energy is an essential component of everything that we produce in the Monash electorate and the broader Gippsland region. Twenty-three per cent of our national milk output comes from the Gippsland region, as does 26 per cent of Victoria's beef production. The clean, green horticultural produce and the manufactured goods—the meats, the proteins—that come from our region all rely on sustainable, secure energy supply. Those answers lie above and below the ground in many regions across Australia. In my region, I don't have the power stations—my colleague the member for Gippsland, by a few kilometres, has the power stations and the infrastructure—but I'm very proud to represent the people that work in those power stations: the once four and now three Latrobe Valley power stations.

When we're addressing the issue of sovereign capability and when we're addressing the associated issues of being able to keep our lights on and our businesses running, those power stations have an important role to play. In just the next two years, by 2028, the Yallourn Power Station is scheduled for closure. That power station represents about 22 per cent of Victoria's baseload electricity, and I don't know where that replacement capacity is going to come from. The Victorian Labor government don't have a clear, coherent plan for where that electricity—that cheap, abundant electricity that's set Victoria up as a manufacturing state—is going to be replaced. There are hundreds of jobs and a broader ecosystem of small and family businesses that rely on that quantum of heavy industry, as they do in many regions. And with all due respect to everybody who comes to this place with, I think, good intentions, I wish that a number of the teal representatives in this place would apply the same vigour and zeal they show standing up on behalf of technology billionaires to standing up for regional communities and regional jobs, as I do for my area.

As well as electricity, gas is an essential part of feedstock in regions like mine, and I'll give a shout out to Radfords Meats. They've been operating in West Gippsland, in Warragul, for 80 years. Robbie Radford's the managing director. The family-run business was started by his father. They need gas for their refrigerators. They need gas for their boilers. If I go across to South Gippsland, where we have a number of dairy processors, they need gas as an essential part of what they do.

Energy is a very big part of what we're talking about when we address sovereign capability, but it also flows through to essential products like fertiliser. The Latrobe Valley has the largest single deposit of brown coal in the Southern Hemisphere. Not all of that will continue to generate electricity—there are some terrific prospects for coal to fertiliser and coal to diesel—but the reckless disregard of the Victorian state government, when it comes to jobs and economic security presented by some of those projects, has been reprehensible. There was a project a few years ago now where the proponent spent six years and millions of dollars and got nowhere, thanks to Lily D'Ambrosio, the Victorian energy minister. The proponent took that project across to New Zealand and got done in six months what they couldn't get done in Victoria in six years.

When you're talking about sovereign capability, fertiliser is essential for farmers. Fuel is essential for farmers. I've had too many conversations over the last few months with farmers at financial and emotional breaking points because these issues have not been dealt with satisfactorily. That is why I will stand up on behalf of local farming families. That is why I will stand up on behalf of manufacturing businesses in my electorate. And that is why I will stand up and pay my respect to the power station workers in the Latrobe Valley who have kept our lights on and kept our businesses running and far too often fail to get the respect, recognition and regard that their efforts deserve.

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:28