To maintain our strong economy we must continue to develop the resources of our nation. It's also important to continue to do that to help secure our nation. In history, in the past, we were a proud producer of oil.  Read more

Safety is the No. 1 priority of myself as the Minister for Resources, and I believe it is a No. 1 priority of all resource ministers around the country as well as for the trade unions that represent workers and the vast majority of business leaders as well. It should be the No. 1 priority to protect people in the industry. Read more

This Bill contains important measures making amendments to the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006. The Bill will transfer regulatory oversight for offshore greenhouse gas storage environmental management and well operations from the responsible Commonwealth Minister to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, or NOPSEMA. Currently, NOPSEMA is the regulator for offshore petroleum environmental management and well operations. Read more

The availability and price of gas in Australia is not only important for many Australians to heat and cook in their own homes; it also underpins thousands of jobs—tens of thousands of jobs—in businesses that have very high expenses in term of gas use, so price is extremely important to protect those jobs. To protect those jobs, the Liberal-National government took action a couple of years ago to help lower gas prices. Read more

I rise on behalf of the Nationals party to pass on our commiserations and condolences on the passing of the Hon. Jim Forbes, and particularly to pass on our condolences to his family and many children and grandchildren, as well as to members of the Liberal Party. As has been expressed here, Dr Forbes was a remarkable contributor to our nation over decades of service, not just in this parliament but also in wartime. Read more

Just a few years ago our resource sector exports were below $180 billion. At the time there were people out there saying, 'This is the end,' and those opposite were saying: 'We don't need resources anymore. They're not important for our economy anymore.' Well, in the space of just a couple of years, our exports of resources and energy last financial year hit nearly $280 billion—so up nearly $100 billion in the space of just a couple of years. Read more

There are quite a few premises in that question that I fundamentally disagree with. The first and most important point to make is that the government is taking action to reduce Australia's carbon emissions and doing so in cooperation with the rest of the world. The best way we can respond, of course, to issues around climate change is to do so in unison and cooperation with the rest of the world, which we are doing. Read more

I too would like to honour the life of the Hon. Tim Fischer. Tim's penultimate speech to the House of Representatives was in response to a motion condemning the September 11 attacks. In his contribution Tim expressed his confidence that:       The United States of America will recover from this human tragedy … And he said he was:       … quietly confident … Australia will play its part and … do so in honour of those who have died, been injured and been so seared in a direct way … Read more

I rise to oppose the Great Australian Bight Environment Protection Bill 2019 because it's unscientific and would unnecessarily threaten the health and security of our nation. Read more

The Liberal-National government does recognise that, too often, changes have been made through the CASA regime that have imposed unnecessary costs with little or no safety benefit but that have come at a great cost to the aviation sector itself. That's why we have progressed changes to the CASA act through the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill that was passed through this place.  Read more