Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, rural New South Wales. Senator Heffernan, how can I possibly accuse you of being a Queenslander, although I know you are a great supporter of things rural and regional and particularly North Queensland and Northern Australia? There we have the speakers list. Senator Waters has the hide to say that the coalition is not interested in this. Enjoy your time in the city of Brisbane, Senator Waters. Those of us who actually live and work in rural and regional Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia do really care about rural and regional Australia. It is interesting that I mentioned that list. It is quite interesting to see that there are so many senators on this side of the chamber who live and work in rural Australia. When you look at the other side of the chamber, at the Labor Party and the Greens, very few of them live and work outside of the capital cities of their particular states.

As has been indicated by Senator Richard Colbeck, leading on behalf of the coalition, the coalition will be supporting this bill. The history of this, I understand, is that Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor, in trying to grab back a little bit of favour from their electorates—it would be a futile exercise to do that—proposed the scientific committee and, as part of one or another deal they did with the Independents and Greens—we have lost track of them all—the Labor Party have done this deal to bring this bill forward. We support it with an amendment to ensure that, if it is going to be a scientific committee, it would have a preponderance of scientists.

I just highlight to the Senate that this is a another game of catch-up by the Independents I referred to, the Greens and the Labor Party on an issue that is of particular importance to those of us who live in rural and regional Australia. When I say catch-up, I alert the Senate to the fact that the Queensland government has, as one of its first activities, one of his first actions following the landslide election earlier this year, set up the GasFields Commission. The state government established that GasFields Commission to manage the coexistence between rural landowners, regional communities and the coal seam gas industry. The Queensland GasFields commission is based in Toowoomba. It is formed as a statutory body under legislation that has gone through the Queensland parliament. As part of the Newman LNP government's commitment to give local communities more direct say on the prudent development of the coal seam gas liquefied natural gas industry. That commission has been established. I am delighted to see that it is chaired by a very significant Australian, Mr John Cotter, a former chairperson of the Surat Basin Coal Seam Gas Engagement Group and also a very distinguished past president of AgForce, the major rural lobby in Queensland. John Cotter is a person I have known for a long period of time. With someone of that calibre leading the GasFields Commission, you can be assured that it will work honestly, openly and accountability and will deliver on the goods that it is required to do.

In addition to that, I will tell you who is on the Queensland GasFields Commission board. It includes, as well as Mr Cotter, Mr Don Stiller, a landowner and former mayor of Taroom. Taroom is a shire right in the centre of the coal seam gas assets in Queensland. It also has on the board Mr Ian Hayllor, a cotton farmer and irrigator, who has a long involvement in managing coexistence through his role as Chair of the Basin Sustainability Alliance. There is also Councillor Ray Brown, Mayor of the Western Downs Regional Council, and Mr Rick Wilkinson, the Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association. You have Professor Steven Raine, who is well known as a leading academic and soil scientist from the University of Southern Queensland, a great university based in Toowoomba and, of course, very much involved in issues relating to coal seam gas. As well the board comprises Mr Shane Charles, the CEO of the Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise, who has had more than 20 years experience as a lawyer. This bill is from the Labor Party and the New South Wales Independents—and forgive me, New South Wales Senator, for maligning your estate by referring to those two as New South Welshmen—who are trying to catch up to what the Campbell Newman Liberal National Party government has already done in Queensland.

The role of the GasFields Commission in Queensland is to assess the potential for coexistence. It has power to be provided with information from government agencies within specified time frames, including information provided to government agencies by other parties. It has power to compel landowners, companies and other parties involved with or impacted by the onshore gas industry to provide information relevant to the purpose and functions of the commission and the ability to specify time frames. It has power to publish and communicate information. It has the ability to seek external advice. It has the ability to convene advisory panels and reference groups as required, including convening the Gasfields Community Leaders Council, which is an interesting innovation. The commission also has power to review regulatory frameworks and legislation. As I say, its role is to advise government. It has a dispute resolution capacity. It has an ability to identify, develop and recommend leading practice relating to matters relevant to the commission's purpose. It has other powers and responsibilities to make good recommendations to the government. That is a good indication of what the federal government should have done three or four years ago, not when pushed by one of the two so-called Independent members who prop up the dysfunctional government before us. As always with the Labor Party, they are good on rhetoric and good at trying to play catch-up and follow other people's leads but always a bit slow and a bit dysfunctional in how they work.

I hope that when they consider appointments they do not just go to the normal old group of leftie scientists that you see hanging around the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. I hope when they are looking for a chairman they get someone better than Professor Flannery, whom, you might recall, they appointed to the Climate Commission. This is the guy who warned everybody about six-metre tide rises so that everyone living along a waterway got really scared about the future of their home, then he slipped down and bought a property right on a big river in the north of New South Wales. I hope that the Labor Party, if they are going to appoint people to this commission, actually appoint people who are independent and are experts on this issue and not just, as I say, run-of-the-mill Labor Party branch members or Greens supporters just to give them another sinecure, as the government are so adept at doing.

About 90 per cent of Queensland gas is supplied from coal seam gas operations, and it represents approximately 10 per cent of Australia's gas production. So it is an industry that is particularly important to my home state. In Queensland alone, coal seam gas development is expected to deliver some 18,000 jobs and about $850 million per year in royalties. That is particularly significant for Queensland. I heard former Premier Bligh on the radio last night radio rewriting history in one of these soft interviews by the ALP—sorry, the ABC; excuse me for confusing the ABC and ALP. In that interview, Ms Bligh told us about all the jobs she created in Queensland, because she had made an election promise to do that. She is partly right; she did create a lot of jobs—mostly part-time jobs in the public service. It has been left to the new government to look through the waste of resources and find where public servants were appointed for no other reason than the promise Ms Bligh made that she would create new jobs—so she created them in the public service.

The coal seam gas industry will deliver 18,000 real jobs to Queensland, and this is why the industry is so important and that is why the Queensland government were first off the mark in appointing the Gasfields Commission. As well, the coal seam gas industry will deliver about $850 million each year in royalties to Queensland. That is very important for Queensland. From the days of Joh Bjelke-Petersen and subsequently, Queensland has had the best financial records of any state government around. But under 20 years of Labor, Queensland now has a debt which is bigger than the federal government debt under Hawke and Keating. The Costello commission of audit—which comprised not only the well-known Peter Costello but also the Vice-Chancellor of James Cook University in Townsville, my home town—indicated that the Queensland government was looking at a massive blow-out in its debt position, upwards of $100 billion. And as a result, Queensland lost its long held triple-A credit rating. For ages Queensland had a sound set of books; bring in the Labor Party and the triple-A credit rating was lost and it was downgraded to double-A. Things were destined to get worse, despite Ms Bligh and the former Labor government selling off anything they could get their hands on—like Queensland Rail, after promising they would not do that. They sold the family jewels, so to speak, but we still have this huge debt. This $850 million in royalties from coal seam gas will help the Queensland government coffers and help the government go ahead and create real jobs, real employment, real progress and real activity in my state.

It is very important that this independent expert scientific committee, being set up belatedly by the federal government, does make a contribution and works very closely with the Gasfields Commission of Queensland. It is always very important to say that farmers deserve to be able to farm their lands. They deserve to be treated fairly and equitably in any mining operation. That can be done. It is not rocket science to do that. The coal seam gas industry, the farming community and the towns and communities that make their living out of both farming and mining, including coal seam gas extraction, have to work together. It can be done. It will be done by the Newman government in Queensland because that is a government which can do things—I emphasise 'can do things'—

Senator Furner interjecting—

Here we have one of the few Labor party senators from Queensland who is game to put up their head. He says they are sacking people. They are sacking the sort of people that his party simply put into jobs to honour a promise from Ms Bligh that she would create new jobs in Queensland. As I said before, she did. She just created a few more public service jobs that did absolutely nothing. I have to say that I am, as are most Queenslanders, very grateful to Campbell Newman for getting some sense back into the management of our state. We do need front-line public servants. You have all seen the leaks about the Queensland budget that is coming up. There will be investment in front-line services, not in backroom boys who get there by backroom deals with a Labor Party who has been in power in Queensland for over 20 years, give or take 18 months in the middle, and who had entrenched a system in the bureaucracy that had to change, that will change—and I am delighted that Campbell Newman, the Premier of Queensland, is doing that.

As I said: good luck to Campbell Newman and the GasFields Commission that he set up long before the federal Labor Party got round to doing anything about it. This commission has already got runs on the board. It has started its work. It is well on its way. If the scientific committee that we are setting up today by this legislation is a genuine one, if it is independent and if it is expert, then I know that it will be able to work very closely with the GasFields Commission in ensuring that our rural lands are protected, that our food production is protected and that our farmers and landowners are treated fairly but, at the same time, we have an industry that provides 18,000 jobs and $850 million worth of royalties to my state of Queensland each year. On that basis, I support this bill with the amendment proposed.