Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I want to stress that this government supports investment in our resources sector. We are very supportive of those plans to invest in our sector, and we do everything we can to facilitate those while protecting our environment and maintaining our strong regulatory framework that we have.

Unfortunately, there is an ongoing and coordinated campaign to stop resource investment in this country. It is a campaign that explicitly seeks to disrupt and delay these investments, a campaign which, in these activists' own words, seeks to create breathing space, through legal challenges, to then run a political campaign against this sector and stop these jobs. This government stands against those campaigns. This government believes that we should reflect and listen to the demands of the people in these areas where these resource projects are happening. The traditional owners support projects in these sectors; they want the jobs. The local people want the jobs and investment, and those voices are loud and audible in our thoughts as we support these investments in our resources sector.