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

Through you, Mr Deputy President. The fossil fuel industry, as you like to call it, or the resources sector, as the stats say, is the least supported industry in this country. Go and look at the Productivity Commission figures. The Productivity Commission does a report on this every year, and the mining industry in this country receives less support than any other industry in this country. It basically receives R&D assistance in those stats. That's about it—because, unlike the renewable energy industry, the mining industry pays tax; it pays bills. It employs thousands of people. It creates money for our country in terms of trade. We know it does because these guys want to tax it. They want to shut it down, but they also want to tax it. I don't know how that works long term. But the renewable energy industry in this country has become addicted to surviving on taxpayer subsidies, not on creating wealth. While doing so, it is destroying large parts of our environment.

Let's just have a look. The Greens are completely closed to this issue, but some work done by the Page Research Centre last year has found $170 million to a variety of environmental groups—all on the public record. The facts are there. It's all on the public record.

Honourable senators interjecting—