Speeches

Mr PITT: I rise to associate myself with the remarks of the member for Moreton and others. I wasn’t scheduled to speak.

Mr PITT: There’s a very famous quote that goes like this:

Back then, government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Mr PITT: In Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, it’s business awards season, and there are some cracking businesses that have been recognised in both Bundaberg and the bay. I can’t name them all in three minutes, but I have to point a couple of them out.

Mr PITT: I am pleased we have the two ministers from the portfolios here. Perhaps they could exchange numbers and not have to have that discussion on the front page of ‘The Oz’ about how they’ll manage gas and the resources sector.

Mr PITT: There were those who said it wouldn’t happen, there were those who said it was a pipedream and there were those who actively stood in the way, but I can tell you it is happening.

Mr PITT: We’ve heard a lot about mandates and we’ve heard a lot about the impact of this proposed bill, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill, even from the Independents who recognise the risk to the Australian economy, the risk to small business and the risk to our country.

Mr PITT: The member for Macnamara has spent 10 minutes mocking those Australians who are struggling to pay their bills. They are literally losing their homes, going to live in their cars and losing their jobs.

It was the coalition government that had the foresight to establish Australia’s first critical minerals strategy in 2019. That was a strategy that has been updated and which has been incredibly important to the development of critical minerals industry in Australia. As I know you know, Madam Deputy Speaker Sharkie, nothing is more important than local politics.

Mr PITT: What the Australian people know after last night is that under a federal Labor government the only way is up in Australia. That is for interest rates, because they are going up. The cost of living is going up. Mortgage repayments are going up. Electricity costs are going up by up to 56 per cent in the Labor budget. Gas prices are going up. Everything is going up.

Mr PITT: I rise to talk on the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Legislation Amendment Bill, and of course support the opposition’s amendments. As a former resources minister, I’ve had some exposure to offshore structures. We continue to see from those opposite—I will give Minister Bowen, the member for McMahon, his due: he is 100 per cent committed to his ideals. He is an idealist, but he is absolutely not a realist and a realist is what we need in this space.

Mr PITT: When you think about the English language, admittedly with an Australian bent, and you think about a single word that can evoke so many others—words like patriotism, loyalty, courage, honour, valour, sacrifice, mateship—that word, and I’m sure everyone in the chamber knows it, is Anzac. Every day should be Anzac Day.

Mr PITT: It’s always a pleasure to follow the member for Paterson—one of the few on that side who is relatively sensible, I’ve got to say. I rise to support the motion. There are some fundamentals around gas in Australia, there are facts around gas in Australia, there are deliverables around gas in Australia and then there are the premiers and their decisions around gas in Australia. We have only to look at Victoria to know why there is such a challenge in Victoria and such a shortfall in gas; it’s because they’ve had a moratorium on exploration. If you do not explore for more gas, you will eventually run out. These are the fundamental propositions of how it works. You have a resource which has a finite life which will eventually run out.

Mr PITT: What we have seen today is, once again, the Labor Party being all about feelings. That’s fine. You can be about feelings. It’ll feel good for people to vote this way because they think that is a good outcome for them, but on this side we are more concerned about facts and the impacts that this will have, particularly in regional Australia. We’ve even seen the Treasurer say that the budget is about feelings. What’s next? The number nine will be upset with the number six because it is not closer to zero? If there was a snake oil salesman around—those opposite would be able to sell that too!

Mr PITT (Hinkler) (13:30): I rise to advise the House that, on 27 July 2022, local legend John Kennedy, better known as JK, retired from the LifeFlight aircrew as an officer. John has been a pretty handy lifesaver and a great ski paddler. He is the husband of Kerry and the father of Kate, and for more than 20 years he has voluntarily jumped out of perfectly good helicopters to rescue people across our local region.

Mr PITT: You might not know this, Mr Deputy Speaker, but Matty Hauser from Hervey Bay, the first Australian medal winner at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, got the bronze medal in the triathlon. It was a fantastic result. He’s a local kid. He went to Kawungan State School and Xavier Catholic College in Hervey Bay, and he was originally coached by Brian Harrington in the bay. He’s been working under Dan Atkins on the Gold Coast since 2015.

What an appalling attack on democracy—an appalling attack on democracy—an automatic gag at 10 o’clock. There are 151 members in this House who have just been gagged by the Labor government. This is outrageous. This is Australia’s democratic right. We are elected to come here to speak. I will go on to speak about the Social Security (Administration) Amendment (Repeal of Cashless Debit Card and Other Measures) Bill, but this is an outrage, an absolute outrage.

Mr PITT: Labor’s proposition on the cashless debit card is pretty straightforward. They intend to remove it, and they will replace it—and I’m sure you’ll be surprised at this, Mr Deputy Speaker—with nothing, with absolutely nothing! In fact, we had some $30 million in additional support services committed to those trial sites, and yet the minister will not commit to continuing that funding—$30 million worth of services. I will give those opposite an opportunity here, because I think they’ve just been significantly misinformed. I am sure it’s just straight off the talking points.

Mr PITT: Deputy Speaker, you may well ask, ‘What’s up?’ Well, I’ll tell you what’s up. Fuel is up, rent is up, the cost of housing is up, electricity is up, inflation is up, the cash rate is up—for those of us who actually know what the cash rate is. There are a couple around who might have no idea, I’m sure. And all of these things are costing the Australian people money. They are costing the Australian people more than they paid before, and this is an absolute disgrace. They cannot afford to pay more—they simply cannot.

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 (Hinkler—Minister 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 exist—that 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?

Mr PITT : I come back to what’s in the title of the MPI. This is the allegation from those opposite: neglect of regional Australians and a misuse of taxpayers’ money. Let’s have a look at what’s actually happened in my electorate and let’s see them defend some of those things.

Mr CONROY: My question is to the Minister for Resources and Water. Can the minister confirm he traded away his opposition to net zero for the resources sector for a cabinet promotion with extra salary? Why is it about your job, not regional jobs?