Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We're debating what the government is putting to us as a very important piece of legislation, and in relation to the Senate's passage of this legislation the Minister for Resources has written to the opposition demanding that the parliament pass this bill not just to regulate this system for some use that we don't know of further down the track. She quotes in this letter, according to the article in the West Australian on Friday 10 November, published at 6.18 pm—the article was titled 'Gas investment under threat as sea dumping bill stalls in the Senate'. This letter that Minister King wrote, reportedly, to Senator Susan McDonald in this place on Friday is actually about the $30 billion worth of investment. It's not, 'Let's set up this regulation in case somebody wants to use this technology in the future.' This is to underpin and support the further expansion of fossil fuels. That is what it is reported that Minister King's letter says. And if we're going to debate this piece of legislation in here—the government is saying we've really got to get it done; it's pressuring those on the other side to get it done—then the Senate should see this letter. It seems as though there's a very different opinion coming from the resources minister as to why this bill is important and necessary and urgent to pass as opposed to the very clear and methodical reasons that Senator McAllister has made.

I understand that this bill is in the name of the environment minister, but it is absolutely crystal clear that the minister who wants this bill more than any other is Minister King, the Minister for Resources, aka the minister for Santos, the minister for Woodside, the minister for fossil fuels.