The Labor Government has put Australia’s natural gas market under extreme pressure, with heavy-handed interventions and policies that are harming investment, and suffocating supply.

Claims that banning commercial net fishing is necessary to protect the Great Barrier Reef and tourism jobs ignores the human cost of unnecessary and harsh government intervention, and also raises serious national security questions for North Queensland.

The Federal offshore oil and gas regulator is listing aimlessly in the murky waters of poor regulatory clarity, taxpayer-funded environmental lawfare, and a Government that seems intent on persecuting the oil and gas industry to appease Sydney and Melbourne elites.

Farmers and environmentalists alike must be alarmed by the lack of action by State and Federal Governments on fire management but there is still time for urgent action across Northern Australia to prevent further destruction.  As bushfires begin to rage, time is still available to prioritise clearing firebreaks, backburning and banning any firelighting activities, particularly in national parks. 

Federal Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald, has labelled Queensland and Federal Labor’s attacks on Australian coal mining “utter madness” as figures show coal’s enormous contribution to Queensland’s economy.

In just a short time, Labor will ban live sheep exports to the protein-starved Middle East, deprive Murray-Darling farmers of enough water to irrigate 100,000 hectares of prime growing land, remove funding for important new agricultural water projects in North Queensland, give the green light for wind farms and power lines to limit activity on  farms and offshore fishing, and announced a ban on commercial net fishing.

Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald, said she was shocked when the hearings revealed the Federal Environment Minister and the Fisheries Minister had not sought advice on banning gillnets from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) or the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) before a letter was sent to UNESCO announcing the bans.

Shadow Minister for Resources and for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald, has called upon the Queensland and Federal Labor Governments to commit to the future economic strength of North West Queensland and the workforce of Mt Isa, and outline how it will support further development in the North West Minerals Province after Glencore’s decision to close Mt Isa Mines.

Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald, said today’s Federal Court decision to overturn the regulator’s approval for a significant offshore natural gas project in Western Australia, was another example of Labor’s funding for green activists undermining Australia’s future prosperity.

So I thank for the work you do; the work you have done and the work you will do – the contributions to building our modern society, in the workplace and economically, through safer workplaces, and well paid opportunities for a diverse workforce; taxes and royalties paid, contributions to regional communities as well as investments environmentally, and partnerships with traditional owners all of which often goes unseen and underappreciated by wider society.