Shadow Minister for Northern Australia and Resources, Senator Susan McDonald has welcomed the Federal Government’s backflip on “nonsensical” changes to the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme that caused farmers employment problems.

Reports that federal, state and territory authorities across Australia have signalled their intention to increase buffel grass control efforts through greater regulation and expenditure of many millions of taxpayer dollars, should prompt the agriculture sector and regional communities to question the priorities of our biosecurity agencies.  

The Labor Government’s $8.3 million grant to the Environmental Defenders Office is looking even more scandalous after a review into the organisation’s use of Commonwealth funding in the Barossa gas pipeline case was quietly released on Thursday night.

The Coalition condemns Labor’s last-minute deal to backflip on reducing red tape for Australia’s world-leading gas industry.

Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald, has lashed a decision by ANZ bank to refuse funding for new oil and gas projects as weak and counterproductive, saying that Labor’s homegrown energy crisis is a sure sign that Australia needs more gas and oil projects, not less.

The release of Labor’s Future Gas Strategy marks nearly a year since the Government funded itself to do a study into how to fix the problems they themselves created in Australia’s gas market and the economic damage it has caused.

Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald has slammed an announcement by Federal and State Labor of a $40 million household cyclone resilience grants package for North Queensland, saying the State Government should increase the funding to the full amount North Queenslanders pay in Stamp Duty on insurance policies and relax income eligibility rules to give genuine relief from soaring insurance costs.

 Federal Shadow Minister for Resources, Senator Susan McDonald has hailed the opening of Olive Downs steel-making coal mine in Central Queensland, and urged the Albanese Government to remove impediments on the coal sector.

This is a total failure of leadership by Premier Steven Miles and Prime Minister Athony Albanese.  Sadly, the people of Mossman will pay the price for Labor’s disinterest and apathy towards an iconic far northern business, in an iconic Queensland industry.

Shadow Minister for Resources and for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald, has labelled a Greens-led Senate Inquiry into the Northern Territory’s Middle Arm development precinct a “farce” amid revelations witnesses at this week’s Darwin hearings had been threatened with “tribal punishment”.