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

I welcome this motion because, finally, the Greens and Senator David Pocock, who has moved this, recognise that we need fossil fuels. We actually do. We need gas. At least, this motion is all about seeking to increase the supply and demand for gas in Australia.

I've sat through many lectures from that end of the chamber saying they wanted to shut down the gas industry and that we need to move away from fossil fuels, but now we have a motion saying, 'No, no, no, we actually want to increase supply of gas in this country.' So I recognise the belated arrival of the Greens and Senator Pocock to the land of common sense—that we actually do need energy and a supply of energy to maintain industry in this country, to keep our jobs, to keep down prices. So at least they're in—maybe I shouldn't have said 'the land of common sense'. They're in the universe of common sense now—on the outer orbits of that universe, perhaps, but at least somewhat in the vicinity of getting close to the right idea. But they are still a fair way, I think, from providing a real solution to the energy crisis in this country.

We just heard then another lecture saying that somehow it was these terrible evil companies that have caused this crisis. Well, if it weren't for those companies that invested in the LNG in my state and built the LNG trains in Gladstone, we would be in real strife right now because we wouldn't have this gas. May I remind the Senate—through you, Madame Acting Deputy President—that the Greens opposed all these projects. They opposed the building of the LNG facilities that now employ thousands of people in Central Queensland. They opposed the development of the gas fields of western Queensland that are now effectively meeting the gas needs of eastern Australia. They've opposed all of it. Now, having opposed their origin, they want to keep the proceeds for themselves. It's so hypocritical. If only we could just capture that hypocrisy and turn it into electricity, we'd never have a shortage again. We'd never have a blackout again. We would have a surplus of electricity if we could charge ourselves from the hypocrisy that comes from the Greens political movement.

Now they say that they blame these companies for causing it. They want it all to stay here. They blame this export industry now for causing this energy crisis. Nowhere have I heard how they tackle the inconvenient truth that, actually, the largest exporter now of liquefied natural gas in the world is the United States. The United States is the largest. They have overtaken us in the last couple of years. We were the largest exporter; the US is now the largest. The United States has the cheapest gas prices in the world, certainly in the developed world. It is supercharging their industry. This is not a Donald Trump thing, for those who might be angry with him. In 2024 the US produced more oil than any country in any year ever under President Joe Biden. They've had a massive renaissance in oil and gas development, alongside the development of a very strong—indeed the world's strongest—export industry of liquefied gas. So it's not LNG alone that's causing the problem, because, if it were, why isn't the same impact being felt in the United States?

The problem is not the geography of our exports of gas; it's the geology of the oil and gas under our feet. If the Greens and Senator Pocock, with all respect, had any knowledge of the gas industry, they'd actually come to this place with some facts and figures about how much it costs to develop oil and gas in this country and, therefore, what sort of price we'd able to achieve. A fundamental problem we have is that our coal-seam-gas fields in Western Queensland, as great as they have been in keeping us somewhat full of gas, unfortunately do not produce oil. They only produce methane. And the average costs of their production are higher than those in, particularly, the United States but also other in countries.

So whatever we do—and I'm not against some form of reservation policy; I was the minister when we first established the Australian Domestic Security Gas Mechanism that I know this government has built upon—the reality is that we will not force the price of gas below the cost of production. If we tried to, the production would stop. What we need to do is develop new gas fields, particularly in states like Senator Hodgins-May's. That state bans fracking, and now they're complaining and want to take all of Queensland's gas. Again, how much hypocrisy can you get? If you want gas in Victoria—which Senator Hodgins-May apparently wants—you need to develop the gas resources of Victoria. It's pretty simple. It's pretty simple economics. I do want to see lower gas prices in this country, but it won't happen until we get serious about developing our own resources.