Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today we have learned that Fortescue has officially sounded a death knell for its Gladstone hydrogen project, after tens of millions of government funds have been wasted on a pipedream. A few weeks ago, I travelled to the facility at Aldoga, west of Gladstone, with the local member, Colin Boyce. $90 million of state and federal money went towards the promise of a hydrogen hub in Gladstone. Less than a year ago, the Labor Party were up in Gladstone, saying, 'It's okay that we're going to shut down your coal industry, because you're going to have all these hydrogen jobs.' That has turned out to be a completely false promise.

At this site, where $90 million were spent, there's a wonderful, massive shed. It looks fantastic. We spoke to a security guard there. Now only two or three people work there, with 90 people being sacked a few months ago because this project could not work. I don't know what we're going to do with this shed in the future. Fortescue says they're going to repurpose it. It would possibly make an excellent site for a Bunnings. But, really, I think we could have done that for a lot less than $90 million of government funds.

Worse, though, is the other money that has been spent there that has been somewhat hidden. At the site, there are huge transmission towers that have been built by a state government agency, Powerlink Queensland, that run from this shed out to various proposed wind and solar factories that were to be built to feed the hydrogen production. We don't know what the cost of those towers was. That's an additional cost on top of the $90 million. There is a water pipeline from Rockhampton that was built to bring water down to make hydrogen. That was a billion dollar cost. Hopefully that can be repurposed, but it was a billion dollar cost for something that's not going ahead. There has to be a proper inquiry into how much government money has been wasted on this ridiculous rubbish for no jobs in return. (Time expired)