Division Description Changes — Matters of Urgency — Gas Industry — 22nd Nov 2022

Change	Division
senate vote 2022-11-22#8 Edited by mackay staff on 2022-12-30 16:37:09	Title ~~Matters of Urgency — Gas Industry~~ Matters of Urgency - Gas Industry - Invest in gas Description ~~<p class="speaker">Glenn Sterle</p>~~ <p>I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 22 November 2022, from Senator McDonald:</p> The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2022-11-22.130.1) introduced by Queensland Senator [Susan McDonald](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/queensland/susan_mcdonald) (Nationals), which means it failed. ### Motion text *> That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a ma*tter of urgency: > > That the Senate reaffirms the need for investment to ensure future domestic gas supply and that the Government's axing of policies to increase supply, coupled with its internal divisions on gas market policy, will only drive gas prices higher. <p class="italic">Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move: "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p> <p class="italic">That the Senate reaffirms the need for investment to ensure future domestic gas supply and that the Government's axing of policies to increase supply, coupled with its internal divisions on gas market policy, will only drive gas prices higher.</p> ~~<p>Is the proposal supported?</p>~~ ~~<p class="italic"> <i>More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—</i></p>~~ <p>I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set clock accordingly.</p> ~~<p class="speaker">Susan McDonald</p>~~ ~~<p>I move:</p>~~ ~~<p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p>~~ <p class="italic">That the Senate reaffirms the need for investment to ensure future domestic gas supply and that the Government's axing of policies to increase supply, coupled with its internal divisions on gas market policy, will only drive gas prices higher.</p> <p>It has become apparent over the last few weeks that this is a Labor government of old, not of Hawke or Keating or Curtin but of the disastrous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd days. Labor has been marred by cabinet leaks, indecision and warring cabinet ministers. This has culminated in the latest failure: domestic gas policy. They've shot themselves in the foot and now they're complaining it hurts.</p> <p>Back in September, after the Jobs and Skills Summit, the Prime Minister unequivocally ruled out any thought of a new mining tax, and yet, less than two weeks ago, it was leaked that this was back on the table—another broken promise from a broken government. It is 'mining tax 2.0'.</p> <p>Labor's own budget has forecast gas and electricity price increases of over 40 per cent and 50 per cent over the next two years. What was their solution? It was to cut critical funding to projects designed to provide a greater gas supply. In the October budget they axed the Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program, a program designed to secure gas supply from the Beetaloo basin—a basin that could supply over 200,000 petajoules of gas. That's 200 years worth of supply.</p> <p>In the same budget they slashed more than half of the funding for the Cooper and Adavale basins plan. Over $30 million allocated to increase domestic gas supplies was gutted, further stranding investors trying to increase our domestic gas supply. To make matters worse, Labor has showered green lawfare offices, like the Environmental Defenders Office and Environmental Justice Australia, with almost $10 billion in handouts.</p> <p>What we have is a government in crisis. Labor has no plan to address the cost of living and no plan to address rising electricity prices. All we have are thought bubbles. Furthermore, state governments that are now baying for reservations, price caps and government interventions are the same states that have locked gas away, reducing supply to the domestic market. The hypocrisy is astounding, for it will not be states like Victoria who suffer under a price cut or resources tax; it will be states like Western Australia and Queensland, who already produce gas for domestic users.</p> <p>Instead of working to get more gas out of the ground to help Australian families and industries, Labor is laying siege to the resources sector from all sides. Mining companies are now warning that up to 33,000 jobs are at risk from a potential new mining tax 2.0 from Labor, as well as from its irresponsible industrial relations legislation. That would imperil projects valued at up to $77 billion, spreading an investment uncertainty contagion. The mining sector has identified 140 projects subject to pre-final investment decisions that would be at risk from new taxes and ill thought through industrial relations changes. More broadly, with Labor reviewing the EPBC Act and creating additional barriers for approvals, potentially up to $100 billion in investments and 174,000 jobs are now at risk from the Minister for the Environment's politically charged project reviews.</p> <p>We know that the surest way to secure, affordable, reliable gas is through increasing supply. The coalition knows this. Minister King knows this. Unfortunately, some of her cabinet colleagues cannot fathom the thought of investing in gas supply. The coalition developed our strategic basins program to target projects that brought domestic gas supply online—projects in the Beetaloo, Cooper, Adavale, North Bowen and Galilee. These projects were backed by industry and, with government support, had the potential to bring hundreds of petajoules of gas to market. The coalition invested over $360 million in our strategic basin plans and the National Gas Infrastructure Plan—funding to ensure Australian households, consumers and manufacturers have access to affordable gas.</p> <p>Gas is and will continue to be a necessity for decades to come, through power generation, manufacturing, industry, agriculture and energy transitions. Labor need to stop their internal bickering and guarantee more gas supply now.</p> ~~<p class="speaker">Jenny McAllister</p>~~ <p>It is really something, isn't it, to be lectured to by the National Party, of all of the parties in this chamber, about division? It's peak Senate; we should probably offer Senator McDonald an extension of time to talk about this more, because this is the group of people who could have done something about this—or any number of things—in the nine years that they were part of the government. But they didn't use their nine years for that, did they? They actually just spent most of their time in government bickering with one another about who was going to get to be the DPM. That was their big priority: working out who was going to get the big position. They didn't pay attention to the very significant policy issues that required the attention of the government and that required the attention of the National Party—and that the regions would have appreciated, had they been dealt with. They didn't do any of those things; they just fought amongst themselves about who was going to be the Deputy Prime Minister.</p> <p>The truth is that energy prices are of course a very real challenge for our economy. We are currently dealing with the most significant shock to energy markets in 50 years, and that is a direct result of Russia's illegal and prolonged attack on Ukraine. The IEA said this about it:</p> ~~<p class="italic">Energy markets and policies have changed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not just for the time being, but for decades to come.</p>~~ <p>So if we think about the context that we're dealing with, it's a pretty sad reflection on the opposition that their choice is to come in here and make a pretty narrow partisan and political point. Exactly: there is a national interest to be dealt with here and it needs to be taken seriously. Australian households, businesses and industries are grappling with the impact of this, and responding to it is made all the more difficult because of the chaos and dysfunction that afflicted the last government—particularly on the question of energy policy.</p> <p>Since coming to government, we have been taking steps to remedy that. In the first days after the Albanese Labor government ministry was sworn in, we had to deal with a very significant crisis emerging in the energy market—in the electricity market. That was successfully navigated in a collaborative and orderly way, using the institutions of the market and by working with colleagues in the states and territories. We have since had to deal with the gas supply issue—which, again, we have dealt with in orderly and collaborative way. And now we are dealing with pricing.</p> <p>The truth is that Senator McDonald likes to talk about their legacy on gas, but the Morrison government's gas fired recovery failed to get more gas into the system. It was all talk and no action. They said that they'd enforce 'use it or lose it' conditions on gas licenses and that actually didn't happen. They said they'd develop a gas reservation scheme and that didn't happen. They said they'd avoid a shortfall in the domestic gas market, with new agreements with the three east coast LNG exporters, but they didn't bother to extend the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism or the heads of agreement before the last election. It was a lot of talk and not much delivery.</p> <p>We understand that this matters for Australians and we're taking prudent, responsible and careful action to reduce energy price pressures on Australian households and on Australian industry, without undermining investment. As the IEA points out—and almost any other serious commentator—these are extraordinary times. Energy markets around the world are being reshaped, and the government is working on options to bring prices down. Greater transparency in the market is urgently needed, and the solutions lie not just in one place—there is no silver bullet—they lie across the energy supply chain. So the ACCC is advising the Treasurer on how the gas industry's voluntary code of conduct is operating and how to ensure reasonable pricing. As the Treasurer has said, our first preference is not a tax outcome here; our first preference is a regulatory outcome. But it makes sense to leave other options on the table until we conclude a view; it's not wise to rule other options out.</p> <p>The budget contains $67 million to modernise energy market regulation and to increase the ACCC's scrutiny of gas markets. Any additional action that we take on energy prices will be balanced against the need to maintain investment confidence and to support Australian industry and households.</p> ~~<p class="speaker">Lidia Thorpe</p>~~ <p>Fossil fuel companies in Australia are amongst the dodgiest polluters in the world and are destroyers of First Nations cultural heritage. For decades they have been aided by a succession of Labor and Liberal governments.</p> <p>Supply is not the issue here. Don't be fooled! Don't be a fossil fool! We export around 80 per cent of Australia's gas. The idea that we simply need to increase supply is a complete joke, but it's a joke that governments have adopted as energy policy over the last decade. More gas production just means even more exports and profits for oil and gas companies, like Santos, Woodside and Chevron. This is a government that is captured by these fossil fuel companies, allowing them to continue destroying our lands, water, air and sacred sites, facilitating manufactured consent rather than ensuring traditional custodians provide free, prior and informed consent.</p> <p>Climate change is here. The climate science spells it out clearly. At the recent COP we heard stories from First Nations people across the globe who are being displaced, leaving their ancestral homes and losing their ancestral bones because of climate change. The International Energy Agency itself has said that if we are to have any chance of sticking to 1.5 degrees of warming and protecting our cultural heritage there can be no new oil and gas projects. This sounds simple, right? But the government are more interested in protecting their corporate donor mates in the fossil fuel industry than taking meaningful climate action. This government had $42.7 billion in fossil fuel handouts in its recent budget, while we are in a cost-of-living and climate crisis and while First Nations people in the Beetaloo and across the country are fighting to protect their country against fossil fuel companies.</p> <p>Just yesterday, the Greens tried to stop the government lending their mates in the Victorian government $32 million for a dodgy gas development on my country, Gunnai country. It will be at Golden Beach: pristine, beautiful country that's part of Ninety Mile Beach. The audacity of the Victorian Labor government to talk treaty while they log our country and drill into our oceans, destroying our lands, waters, totems and sacred sites. <i>(Time expired)</i></p> ~~<p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>~~

~~Glenn Sterle~~
I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 22 November 2022, from Senator McDonald:
The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2022-11-22.130.1) introduced by Queensland Senator [Susan McDonald](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/queensland/susan_mcdonald) (Nationals), which means it failed.
### Motion text
> *That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:*
>
> *That the Senate reaffirms the need for investment to ensure future domestic gas supply and that the Government's axing of policies to increase supply, coupled with its internal divisions on gas market policy, will only drive gas prices higher.*
Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move: "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:
That the Senate reaffirms the need for investment to ensure future domestic gas supply and that the Government's axing of policies to increase supply, coupled with its internal divisions on gas market policy, will only drive gas prices higher.
~~Is the proposal supported?~~
~~ More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—~~
I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set clock accordingly.
~~Susan McDonald~~
~~I move:~~
~~That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:~~
That the Senate reaffirms the need for investment to ensure future domestic gas supply and that the Government's axing of policies to increase supply, coupled with its internal divisions on gas market policy, will only drive gas prices higher.
It has become apparent over the last few weeks that this is a Labor government of old, not of Hawke or Keating or Curtin but of the disastrous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd days. Labor has been marred by cabinet leaks, indecision and warring cabinet ministers. This has culminated in the latest failure: domestic gas policy. They've shot themselves in the foot and now they're complaining it hurts.
Back in September, after the Jobs and Skills Summit, the Prime Minister unequivocally ruled out any thought of a new mining tax, and yet, less than two weeks ago, it was leaked that this was back on the table—another broken promise from a broken government. It is 'mining tax 2.0'.
Labor's own budget has forecast gas and electricity price increases of over 40 per cent and 50 per cent over the next two years. What was their solution? It was to cut critical funding to projects designed to provide a greater gas supply. In the October budget they axed the Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling Program, a program designed to secure gas supply from the Beetaloo basin—a basin that could supply over 200,000 petajoules of gas. That's 200 years worth of supply.
In the same budget they slashed more than half of the funding for the Cooper and Adavale basins plan. Over $30 million allocated to increase domestic gas supplies was gutted, further stranding investors trying to increase our domestic gas supply. To make matters worse, Labor has showered green lawfare offices, like the Environmental Defenders Office and Environmental Justice Australia, with almost $10 billion in handouts.
What we have is a government in crisis. Labor has no plan to address the cost of living and no plan to address rising electricity prices. All we have are thought bubbles. Furthermore, state governments that are now baying for reservations, price caps and government interventions are the same states that have locked gas away, reducing supply to the domestic market. The hypocrisy is astounding, for it will not be states like Victoria who suffer under a price cut or resources tax; it will be states like Western Australia and Queensland, who already produce gas for domestic users.
Instead of working to get more gas out of the ground to help Australian families and industries, Labor is laying siege to the resources sector from all sides. Mining companies are now warning that up to 33,000 jobs are at risk from a potential new mining tax 2.0 from Labor, as well as from its irresponsible industrial relations legislation. That would imperil projects valued at up to $77 billion, spreading an investment uncertainty contagion. The mining sector has identified 140 projects subject to pre-final investment decisions that would be at risk from new taxes and ill thought through industrial relations changes. More broadly, with Labor reviewing the EPBC Act and creating additional barriers for approvals, potentially up to $100 billion in investments and 174,000 jobs are now at risk from the Minister for the Environment's politically charged project reviews.
We know that the surest way to secure, affordable, reliable gas is through increasing supply. The coalition knows this. Minister King knows this. Unfortunately, some of her cabinet colleagues cannot fathom the thought of investing in gas supply. The coalition developed our strategic basins program to target projects that brought domestic gas supply online—projects in the Beetaloo, Cooper, Adavale, North Bowen and Galilee. These projects were backed by industry and, with government support, had the potential to bring hundreds of petajoules of gas to market. The coalition invested over $360 million in our strategic basin plans and the National Gas Infrastructure Plan—funding to ensure Australian households, consumers and manufacturers have access to affordable gas.
Gas is and will continue to be a necessity for decades to come, through power generation, manufacturing, industry, agriculture and energy transitions. Labor need to stop their internal bickering and guarantee more gas supply now.
~~Jenny McAllister~~
It is really something, isn't it, to be lectured to by the National Party, of all of the parties in this chamber, about division? It's peak Senate; we should probably offer Senator McDonald an extension of time to talk about this more, because this is the group of people who could have done something about this—or any number of things—in the nine years that they were part of the government. But they didn't use their nine years for that, did they? They actually just spent most of their time in government bickering with one another about who was going to get to be the DPM. That was their big priority: working out who was going to get the big position. They didn't pay attention to the very significant policy issues that required the attention of the government and that required the attention of the National Party—and that the regions would have appreciated, had they been dealt with. They didn't do any of those things; they just fought amongst themselves about who was going to be the Deputy Prime Minister.
The truth is that energy prices are of course a very real challenge for our economy. We are currently dealing with the most significant shock to energy markets in 50 years, and that is a direct result of Russia's illegal and prolonged attack on Ukraine. The IEA said this about it:
~~Energy markets and policies have changed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not just for the time being, but for decades to come.~~
So if we think about the context that we're dealing with, it's a pretty sad reflection on the opposition that their choice is to come in here and make a pretty narrow partisan and political point. Exactly: there is a national interest to be dealt with here and it needs to be taken seriously. Australian households, businesses and industries are grappling with the impact of this, and responding to it is made all the more difficult because of the chaos and dysfunction that afflicted the last government—particularly on the question of energy policy.
Since coming to government, we have been taking steps to remedy that. In the first days after the Albanese Labor government ministry was sworn in, we had to deal with a very significant crisis emerging in the energy market—in the electricity market. That was successfully navigated in a collaborative and orderly way, using the institutions of the market and by working with colleagues in the states and territories. We have since had to deal with the gas supply issue—which, again, we have dealt with in orderly and collaborative way. And now we are dealing with pricing.
The truth is that Senator McDonald likes to talk about their legacy on gas, but the Morrison government's gas fired recovery failed to get more gas into the system. It was all talk and no action. They said that they'd enforce 'use it or lose it' conditions on gas licenses and that actually didn't happen. They said they'd develop a gas reservation scheme and that didn't happen. They said they'd avoid a shortfall in the domestic gas market, with new agreements with the three east coast LNG exporters, but they didn't bother to extend the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism or the heads of agreement before the last election. It was a lot of talk and not much delivery.
We understand that this matters for Australians and we're taking prudent, responsible and careful action to reduce energy price pressures on Australian households and on Australian industry, without undermining investment. As the IEA points out—and almost any other serious commentator—these are extraordinary times. Energy markets around the world are being reshaped, and the government is working on options to bring prices down. Greater transparency in the market is urgently needed, and the solutions lie not just in one place—there is no silver bullet—they lie across the energy supply chain. So the ACCC is advising the Treasurer on how the gas industry's voluntary code of conduct is operating and how to ensure reasonable pricing. As the Treasurer has said, our first preference is not a tax outcome here; our first preference is a regulatory outcome. But it makes sense to leave other options on the table until we conclude a view; it's not wise to rule other options out.
The budget contains $67 million to modernise energy market regulation and to increase the ACCC's scrutiny of gas markets. Any additional action that we take on energy prices will be balanced against the need to maintain investment confidence and to support Australian industry and households.
~~Lidia Thorpe~~
Fossil fuel companies in Australia are amongst the dodgiest polluters in the world and are destroyers of First Nations cultural heritage. For decades they have been aided by a succession of Labor and Liberal governments.
Supply is not the issue here. Don't be fooled! Don't be a fossil fool! We export around 80 per cent of Australia's gas. The idea that we simply need to increase supply is a complete joke, but it's a joke that governments have adopted as energy policy over the last decade. More gas production just means even more exports and profits for oil and gas companies, like Santos, Woodside and Chevron. This is a government that is captured by these fossil fuel companies, allowing them to continue destroying our lands, water, air and sacred sites, facilitating manufactured consent rather than ensuring traditional custodians provide free, prior and informed consent.
Climate change is here. The climate science spells it out clearly. At the recent COP we heard stories from First Nations people across the globe who are being displaced, leaving their ancestral homes and losing their ancestral bones because of climate change. The International Energy Agency itself has said that if we are to have any chance of sticking to 1.5 degrees of warming and protecting our cultural heritage there can be no new oil and gas projects. This sounds simple, right? But the government are more interested in protecting their corporate donor mates in the fossil fuel industry than taking meaningful climate action. This government had $42.7 billion in fossil fuel handouts in its recent budget, while we are in a cost-of-living and climate crisis and while First Nations people in the Beetaloo and across the country are fighting to protect their country against fossil fuel companies.
Just yesterday, the Greens tried to stop the government lending their mates in the Victorian government $32 million for a dodgy gas development on my country, Gunnai country. It will be at Golden Beach: pristine, beautiful country that's part of Ninety Mile Beach. The audacity of the Victorian Labor government to talk treaty while they log our country and drill into our oceans, destroying our lands, waters, totems and sacred sites. (Time expired)
~~Long debate text truncated.~~