Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Does the minister concede that, in its transport infrastructure planning, the government relies on the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics for its oil price projections? Does he further concede that ABARE has been consistently wrong, to the extent that as recently as 2004 it forecast a gradual easing to around $US21 a barrel in the period 2008 to 2015, a conclusion which has impacted on current national infrastructure planning? If so, does the minister now concede that the underlying assumptions on oil prices which underpin the government’s transport planning are wrong? What does he intend to do about developing a strategy to more accurately project prices and plan for an oil constrained future?