E&OE.
[acknowledgements omitted]
Ladies and gentlemen:
Last year saw record levels of natural gas and oil production in the United States.
Indeed, between 2021 and 2023, electricity generation from natural gas in the United States went up by 22 per cent.
For Canada, 2023 marked record levels of gas production and consumption.
In the United Kingdom around mid-last year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced his government’s plan to grant hundreds of new oil and gas licences.
The European Union has turned to imports of liquefied natural gas since Russia cut off pipeline gas supplies following its invasion of Ukraine.
Indeed, oil and gas provide about 38 and 21 per cent respectively of the European Union’s primary energy demand today.
Worldwide, natural gas demand is forecast to rise between 2022 and 2050 by 34 per cent.
The Asia Pacific will be a key area of growth.
The proportion of gas as part of the region’s energy mix is forecast to increase from 11 to 16 per cent by 2050.
These figures and trends are revealing.
Countries around the world continue to rely on gas for multiple reasons:
For affordable and reliable power.
For ensuring their energy security.
And for transitioning their economies to new energy systems.
Australia is no exception.
Just as we need gas today, we need it for our tomorrows.
The Government published its Future Gas Strategy a fortnight ago.
Some in your industry have welcomed this strategy as the Albanese Government’s first clear statement acknowledging the importance of gas within our energy mix – including over the longer term.
But your industry also has every reason to be sceptical that words will translate into action.
That scepticism is borne out by the policy decisions made by the Albanese Government in the two years prior to the release of the strategy – and in the two weeks since its release.
Let me address each period in turn.
In pursuit of its ‘renewables only’ policy, the Albanese Government’s approach to your sector has been nothing short of hostile for the first two years of its term.
In the Treasurer’s first Budget in October 2022, the Government cut more than $50 million in funding for gas development and exploration.
In December that year, the Government interfered in the market with price fixing and a Mandatory Code of Conduct.
The heavy hand of government intervention hasn’t lowered energy prices – as Labor had intended.
On the contrary, electricity and gas prices are up by 18 and 25 per cent respectively.
In March 2023 – with the help of the Greens – the Government changed the Safeguard Mechanism into a new carbon tax – a tax three times higher than Julia Gillard’s.
The Government has also funded the Environmental Defenders Office to the tune of $10 million to date for it to wage lawfare.
Every year, lawfare costs our economy more than $100 billion and more than 170,000 new high-paying regional jobs.
The EDO failed to thwart Santos’ LNG project in the Barossa field offshore of Darwin.
But it’s now doubling down in trying to scuttle Woodside’s Scarborough offshore gas field here in Western Australia.
This is a government more interested in prioritising green activist crusades than balancing economic, energy and environmental imperatives.
Indeed, in March 2023, the Government established its signature National Reconstruction Fund – again with the help of the Greens.
One of the Greens’ conditions was that gas projects would be ineligible for funding.
And what about the Government’s flagship $22 billion Future Made in Australia plan?
Well, on Wednesday 8 May, the Prime Minister was here in Perth speaking about the importance of gas for our nation’s wealth and energy security.
On Thursday 9 May, the Resource Minister, Madeleine King, issued a press release which said, ‘Gas is crucial for A Future Made in Australia.’
But by week’s end, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was quelling a caucus revolt among colleagues in east coast inner city seats who criticised the plan.
Moreover, any support the Prime Minister had displayed for the gas industry had all but disappeared.
On ABC morning radio on Friday 10 May, he said, ‘not a single government dollar’ would be invested in gas under the Future Made in Australia plan.
Always trying to walk both sides of the street, this Prime Minister will tell one audience one thing, and another audience the exact opposite.
Mr Albanese simply cannot be upfront with your industry or the Australian people.
Let’s be under no misapprehension:
The Albanese Government is ideologically opposed to gas.
The Cabinet is full of Ministers who want to see gas gone from Australia – especially the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, and the Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek.
That’s why, in my Budget Reply, I described Labor’s Future Gas Strategy as ‘just words on paper’.
There’s little chance of Labor bringing new gas supply into the system.
We should see this Future Gas Strategy for what it is:
A cynical and political attempt to placate your industry which will do nothing to shore-up our nation’s energy and economic security.
If you have any doubt about that point, consider what we’ve seen in the two weeks since the release of the strategy.
Last Thursday – in yet another deal with the Greens – the Government passed the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax.
The Coalition was prepared to support this tax provided the legislation also included measures to get gas projects moving again.
Namely, measures to clear-up consultation requirements, to remove regulations, and to fast-track approvals.
Labor split these measures from the legislation to secure the Greens’ support to pass the tax.
In short, it took just one week for the actions of this Government to betray the words of its new gas strategy.
Furthermore, only 48 hours after this reckless move, the Victorian Labor Party’s rank-and-file voted to oppose the Government’s new gas strategy at their state conference.
One lead speaker characterised the gas strategy as ‘ridiculous’.
Always look at what Labor does – not what it says.
Since coming to power, this Government has revealed its aversion to our mining and resource sector through its imposition of more regulation, more centralised interference, and more tax.
Labor’s anti-mining agenda – coupled with its ideologically-driven energy policies – is playing out with disastrous consequences for our nation, especially here in Western Australia.
In the National Electricity Market, annual electricity bills for Australians have increased by up to $1,000.
Businesses, farmers and manufactures are paying thousands-of-dollars more for power each year.
There’s been a three-fold increase in the number of manufacturers who have closed their doors over the last two years – many citing exorbitant power prices and operating costs as the reason.
Thousands of mining and manufacturing jobs have been lost or put in jeopardy.
Western Australia’s alumina and nickel industries are among those which have been hit hard.
Due to slow Government gas project approvals, Santos has indicated it will have to let go of 200 employees – most based in Perth.
Our energy grid is also becoming more unreliable.
AEMO has forecast gas supply shortages in our southern states from 2026 without new investment.
Indeed, AEMO’s latest market update warns there are risks of blackouts in New South Wales and Victoria this summer given the exit of reliable baseload power combined with a renewables roll-out which is significantly off target.
Foreign investment is also at risk.
Key gas partners, like Japan and South Korea, continue to sound the alarm bells.
They’ve expressed ‘eroded confidence in the current regulatory approvals regime’.
They’re looking to other LNG suppliers given the sovereign risk they now face in continuing to rely on Australia.
Mark Hartfield – the Managing Director of Chevron Australia – is the latest industry leader to call out the harmful impacts of the Government’s regulatory and gas policy shifts on foreign investment.
The Government’s environmental agenda should also be an area of significant concern for the gas industry – and the wider mining and resource sector.
Indeed, Labor’s financial support for lawfare is not operating in isolation from the Government’s broader environmental policies.
The soon to be created Environment Protection Authority – yet more Canberra-based bureaucracy – will only create more complexity and regulation at a time when we need to simplify and de-regulate processes.
Concerningly, the Government will delegate some ministerial decision-making to unelected bureaucrats in this unaccountable new green bureaucracy.
These bureaucrats will always put environmental goals ahead of economic imperatives.
Minister Plibersek is looking to implement new laws and standards as part of a green tape agenda.
If transgressed, convicted parties could face fines of up to $780 million, or even jail terms of up to seven years.
Most worryingly, Labor is keeping its ‘Nature Positive’ plan under wraps – what it calls ‘the biggest environmental reform agenda in a generation’.
Time and again, we’ve seen Labor and the Greens team-up to pass anti-development legislation.
The prospect of Labor ultimately granting concessions to the Greens to implement its ‘Nature Positive’ reforms poses an existential threat to mining in our country.
Ladies and gentlemen, such reforms must not come to pass.
I want to be very clear about the resolve and priorities of a Coalition Government under my leadership.
We will unequivocally and unashamedly champion our mining and resource sectors.
We will stand up for our gas industry – recognising the crucial role it plays in meeting our national energy goals.
We will support our farmers – including ending any bans on live animal exports.
Indeed, we will not turn our backs on Western Australians or undercut the industries which make this great state tick – as Labor has done.
The Albanese Government overlooks a critical economic reality:
When you hold back and hinder Western Australia’s mining, resource and agriculture sectors, you don’t just hurt those sectors and the families that work in them.
You also harm the prosperity of this great state and Australia at large.
The tax contributions and royalties paid by our primary industries – especially our mining and resource sector – better the lives of all Australians.
As the Minerals Council has found, mining companies contributed some $39 billion in company tax and $24 billion in royalties to the nation in 2021-22.
In the 2022-23 financial year, the gas industry contributed $16 billion to the nation.
In the same financial year, Western Australia’s mining and resource sector contributed some $33 billon in corporate taxes and nearly $13 billion in royalties – according to this state’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy.
It’s those contributions which help to build the roads and railways which connect us.
It’s those contributions which contribute to the construction of schools for our children and hospitals in our cities and regional towns.
It’s those contributions which buttress the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Medicare, our aged care system, and the equipment needed by our men and women in uniform.
A turbocharged Western Australian economy means more national prosperity.
But right now, investment, industry and enterprise are being obstructed by excessive red and green tape.
Regulatory roadblocks have prevented mining and resource projects coming online years earlier than they should.
Indeed, delays have cost the mining and resource sector billions-of-dollars.
So let me outline how a Coalition Government will turbocharge mining, critical minerals and gas projects for the benefit of the Western Australian economy and the nation.
First, we will slash project approval timeframes in half without compromising on standards.
We will do this by capping assessment timeframes, in consultation with industry.
And we will restrict the use of ‘stop the clock’ provisions.
Our aim is to provide greater certainty for industry and the community.
Second, to further speed up processes, we will accredit the states and territories to provide approvals which meet Commonwealth legislation requirements.
Third, we will defund the Environmental Defenders Office which is halting vital projects through lawfare.
We will also seek to limit the ability of third parties to challenge decisions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Fourth, we will bring back ministerial accountability for decisions.
Fifth, we will re-introduce geological bio-regional assessments in key regions to develop projects.
By so doing, there will be fewer individualised or duplicated assessments.
Sixth, for gas specifically, we will commit to an annual release of offshore acreage for exploration and development in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
We will also reinstate the National Gas Infrastructure Plan to ensure that gas goes to where it’s needed.
Seventh, in the latest Budget, the Treasurer allocated $20 million to help accelerate approvals for renewables projects.
We will ensure gas and critical minerals projects are also eligible for this funding so their approvals can be prioritised and also accelerated.
The Coalition agrees with industry that quicker and cheaper project approvals lie at the heart of turbocharging our mining and resource sector.
However, we do not support the Government’s approach of handing out $13.7 billion in corporate welfare to get green hydrogen and critical mineral projects off the ground.
If there’s a demand for any resource project, it should stand up on its own merit without the need for incentives and subsidies.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will conclude on this point:
We need to get our country back on track.
Gas remains essential for affordable and reliable energy for all Australians.
That’s why I want to ramp-up domestic gas production.
But gas is also essential as we transition to new energy systems.
You will soon hear the Coalition’s detailed plans for Australia to join the other 19 top economies in the world which use zero-emission nuclear power, or are taking steps to put it in their mix.
Gas must be very much part of that journey.
Importantly, getting our country back on track also means having a government which has the back of Western Australia.
A government which unapologetically backs our mining, resource and agriculture sectors in the interest of the West and the prosperity of our nation.
That’s the government I will offer Australians at the next election.
Thank you.
[ends]