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

Okay. Well, that's nice and clear—clear as day. Here we are. The government now wants to subsidise the importation of fossil fuels, yet just four months ago it said, 'No, we don't need them.' This government's strategy when it comes to energy is clear as mud. One day, one minister is over at a climate conference saying that all of this stuff needs to go and we all need to transition away from it in a just way, whatever that means for the people who work in this industry. A just transition sounds so corporate, as if you're being euthanased to sleep. A just transition—great! That's what the government's plan is. You just heard it. You just heard the minister confirm he doesn't see a future for you if you work in the coal, oil or gas industries of this country.

We now realise--unfortunately, we had to learn this lesson, and are learning this lesson, through the school of hard knocks—that we actually do need these people. They do make our world go round. They do keep the lights on for us, and every now and again perhaps we should say thank you to those hardworking men and women. As I like to say, people in those industries have to shower after work. Most of us would have had a shower before we came to work this morning. We leave this place still smelling pretty good, not really having raised a sweat today, unlike the people who work on offshore oil rigs, which is one of the most dangerous jobs on planet Earth and is very, very hard work in confined circumstances. They deserve all the pay they get. They get paid well. They deserve it all, but they don't get thankyous very much—not from this place. They don't get any sort of gratitude from the modern Labor Party, and it's very sad. As you just heard, the modern Labor Party does want to end their jobs and wants a just transition for them to—I don't know—some kind of barista or retail work. I think those men and women are pretty happy out on the rigs.

The answer that the government has just provided does raise another question here. Just last week, the government signed an Australia-EU free trade deal. The minister knows this deal very well, of course, being also the shadow trade minister. In that deal, the government signed—