After two days of hearings into the Senate Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources, one thing is abundantly clear: this inquiry is not about getting a fair return for Australians, it is about shutting down the gas industry altogether.

Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Susan McDonald, says hearings this week into the Senate Select Committee on the Taxation of Gas Resources have revealed a coordinated campaign by the Greens and Independents, supported by Labor, to shut down Australia’s gas industry.

Mining doesn’t just support the Australian economy, it is the economy. 
But numerous forces are arrayed against this important industry. Forces who receive foreign donations from sources they refuse to reveal.

Whilst there remain many challenges facing Australia and our energy mix, there is still hope on the horizon. As I have said, I have faith in the Australian spirit. 
We have the best resources in the world. We have the ingenuity, the drive, and the knowledge to maximise them. 
We should not be energy-reliant, but energy-independent. We should not be in the position that we are in – today – ever again. We should be pulling every lever available to us: coal, gas, uranium, oil – and we can do that by drilling and digging what we have in abundance here.

Mining pays the bills for Australia. These words remain as true today as when I made the same statement two years ago, when we last gathered for Minerals Week, and as true as 100 years ago.
The copper fields of Cloncurry to the development of coal in Queensland transformed my state from an agrarian economy – and cheap electricity (as well as the removal of death duties) turbo-charged the state into a powerhouse of small businesses, manufacturing, tourism and the arts. 

It is clear that Australia holds the minerals and the capability to supply the next mining boom, and deliver the strategic and critical minerals our partners need. What is not clear is whether we will be able to maximise this opportunity – and this is where the Albanese Labor Government has been asleep at the wheel.

A Dutton-led Coalition Government will turbocharge our resources sector – and we see the future of gas as being instrumental to that.

The radical Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) has been referred to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to assess whether the organisation has complied with its tax-exempt charity status, after it was forced by the Federal Court to make a $9.04 million settlement with Australian oil and gas company, Santos.

The Albanese Government must urgently cease payments to the taxpayer-funded Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) following the release of Federal Court documents that showed it tried to fabricate Indigenous heritage in an attempt to stop an essential gas project in the Timor Sea.

Calls for the Departmental review into the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) to be expanded into a comprehensive investigation and for the next multi-million dollar payment to be cut have been turbocharged by Coalition Senators after more revelations over the mishandling of the $8.3 million grant were exposed at Senate Estimates.