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

That would be bad news for our manufacturing industry. We in the Liberal-National government support manufacturing in Australia. We support workers and we support jobs—we support them in the mining sector; we support them in the manufacturing sector; we support them in the agricultural sector; we support them around the country—because we know that providing people with the opportunity to have a job to provide for their families is the best thing we can do as a government for their families and their lives. That's why we're supporting the development of these gas resources.

If we don't do that, we're going to have more decisions like the one that has happened in southern Australia with Coogee Chemicals, who have had to leave the Victorian market because of the high gas prices, because of the Victorian government's refusal to develop their own resources in their own state. They are now looking to move to Darwin, where the gas resources will be, potentially, in the future. That is great news. I met with Coogee Chemicals last week to discuss those plans and make sure they can take advantage of our resolve to use Australian gas in Australia first to provide those Australian jobs. We are committed to doing that. We will build manufacturing industry in this country. We just need state governments to get on board with this agenda too.