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

I thank the minister. That was some useful information there; I recognise that. I'm trying to help the trade minister here, because I know he wants to drill, baby, drill; he'd love to do it! He'd love nothing more than to get out on an oil rig and see that liquid gold flow, but I realise he's a little constrained in his current environment. I wish him well in his efforts; I hope he can convince his Labor colleagues to get on with it.

It's a little rich to be taking credit for the Barossa project, though, when this government has funded the Environmental Defenders Office, who held that project up for years; thankfully, their deceit was exposed by a judge in a court case which completely blew up their credibility and allowed the project to continue. But that was no doing of this government; they in fact helped frustrate those efforts through that funding.

The other point to make here is that, while the minister is correct about the public statements of Equinor and BP—and I was heavily involved with them in seeking to keep them here—there is no doubt that the ridiculous activist pressure of the time played a role. We had the absurd situation where the ABC were publishing stories claiming that an oil spill in the Great Australian Bight would wash up on Bondi Beach and cause all types of terrible catastrophes; it was absolutely absurd. Now the ABC has had the temerity, when they interviewed me, to try and blame me for the situation we are now in with oil. I'm not going to cop lectures from the likes of the ABC, who for years have run an activist campaign against the production of more fossil fuels.

While some of those developments the minister has mentioned are welcome, he, a number of times, revealed the issue that most of those projects—Narrabri, Barossa, Beetaloo to a certain extent—are gas focused. There are some condensates in some of those projects. But the fundamental problem we have is that those types of oils, condensates, are good at producing the lighter carbon strings, like petrol and naphtha. They aren't so good at producing diesel, the heavier distillates and jet fuel. The situation our economy faces today is that diesel use is double that of petrol, which is the reverse of 50 years ago. That's why we're in this pickle at the moment. Unfortunately, as a country, we don't have a lot of heavy crude production that can easily be made into those types of liquid fuels, hence the government having to introduce this legislation to try to support the importation of those heavier crudes from overseas.

This is the key inconsistency with this bill and approach. I asked the government if, after these changes, Export Finances Australia can support the Australian production of oil and gas. The answer is that it can't. The minister didn't quite say that; he couldn't bring himself to. But it can't. The government hasn't unwound those changes. The Australia government's current position is that it's okay to subsidise the production of oil and gas in other countries but not our own. That's their position. If you subsidise the importation of oil and gas from another country, you are by effect and by design subsidising the production of oil and gas in another country. It's got to start somewhere. Part of the cost to Russia, the USA or the Middle East sending us their oil and gas products is the shipping of those products to here and the potential risks they face, including price risks and this government hedging risks which seeking to reduce through this bill.

Let's get this very, very clear. We support this approach because it's a desperate situation. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is a desperate measure, because the Australian government is using the hardworking taxes of the Australian people to subsidise the production of oil and gas in another country. Yet it won't turn around and support Australian production, the use of Australian resources and the creation of Australian jobs. This desperate bill is needed right now, but it supports jobs and industry overseas, ahead of Australia. We've just seen and summed up this government's approach to our national development and our country. They're more than happy to come in here and support other nations. Yet, when it comes to supporting and backing Australia and our resources, potential and future, they're nowhere to be seen. They're off with their Greens mates, and they won't support Australian industry or jobs.