Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McGrath, particularly for his interest in the benefits that can be generated for northern Australia by the extraction of the amazing resources that exist in the northern part of our country. One of the very, very important projects is the gas development in the $224 million Beetaloo Strategic Basin Plan. The plan will help to deliver on Australia's long-term gas supply and dramatically improve our energy security. The Beetaloo sub-basin is one of the largest undeveloped resources of onshore gas anywhere in the world. It's estimated that there is over 200,000 petajoules of shale gas in the sub-basin. If you want to put that into some sort of context, only 15 per cent of that amount would supply the entire market of eastern Australia for in excess of 15 years. So the sub-basin holds extraordinary potential for Australia because of the quantities of gas it has in reserve.

Under this particular program, we will be able to accelerate a number of projects and to deliver approximately 10 exploration wells in the sub-basin in the next 12 months. The plan will bring, in addition, $150 million of private investment. This is a plan to support northern Australia. It also enables us to deliver things like strategic road corridors which will not only support 400 jobs but also support the northern part of Australia. We're also making sure that we deliver benefits for Indigenous owners, with Indigenous jobs, Indigenous businesses and Indigenous opportunities. Gas is essential for our manufacturing sector just as it is essential for our homes, for firing up our barbecues and for lowering emissions. That's exactly what the Beetaloo Basin can do for our nation.