Mr O’DOWD (Flynn): My question is to the Minister for Resources and Water. Will the minister update the House on how the strength of the Australian resources and energy sector and how our plans for a stronger Australia have and will continue to benefit regional Australia in this year’s budget. Is the minister aware of any alternative policy approaches?
Mr PITT: I knew that if I waited long enough the opportunity would come, I knew if I waited long enough there’d be a purpose and I knew if I waited long enough it would provide something useful. It’s finally happened, and I’ve got to thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition: I’ve found a purpose for Twitter. The claims by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition about apprentices and trainees, I knew I’d heard before. An ABC fact check on Twitter classifies it as a four-letter word: spin.
Mr O’DOWD: My question is to the Minister for Resources and Water. Will the minister provide an update on the strength of our resources sector under the management of the Morrison-Joyce government and what this means to regional communities like mine? Is the minister aware of alternative and uncertain policy approaches that may put local jobs in the regional communities at risk?
Mr O’DOWD: My question is to the Minister of Resources and Water. Will the Minister outline to the House how the Morrison-Joyce government is ensuring a secure supply of affordable gas supplies for Australian manufacturers while assisting our friends and allies to meet their energy needs? Is the Minister aware of any alternative policies?
Mr BANDT: My question is to the Prime Minister. This week in estimates, government officials confirmed that projections for emissions from the enormous Beetaloo methane gas basin have increased by a whopping 5,000 per cent, and this is before any of the gas is even burnt. Prime Minister, why are you continuing to push ahead with this giant climate bomb? If the 114 new coal and gas mines proposed by Liberal and Labor government go ahead, we will blow any chance of meeting even your weak climate targets, so will you back the Greens’ call for a moratorium on new coal and gas mines?
Mr PITT: They’ve heard it all before, I have to say. This mob have got form. The Australian people know exactly what would happen if they came to government in a Labor-Greens alliance. I rarely get an opportunity to talk about my local electorate and doing our job and what it means for the people whom I represent, and I want to talk for a little piece just about what happens locally.
Mr PITT (HinklerâMinister for Resources and Water) (15:54): The Leader of the Opposition always wants to talk about ‘pretenders’, but he wants to pretend that facts don’t existâthat it’s all about feelings and not about facts.
Mr RICK WILSON: My question is to the Minister for Resources and Water. Will the minister provide an update on the progress of important job and wealth-creating resource projects in Western Australia and outline what this will mean for the community I represent and for our economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?
Ms MADELEINE KING: My question is to the Minister for Resources and Water. Yesterday the member for Mallee said about solar panels:
They don’t work in the dark, and neither do our wind farms.
Does the minister agree?
Mr COULTON (Parkes): My question is also to the Minister for Resources and Water. Will the minister inform the House how the Morrison-Joyce government is positioning Australia as a leading supplier of critical minerals and rare earth elements to meet the growing global demand for the new energy technologies required in a modern economy, and what will this mean for the communities in the Parkes electorate? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?
