STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr KATTER (Kennedy) (13:38): Mount Isa brings in $1½ billion a year, it is responsible for 15,000 jobs in the Australian economy and it is in desperate, desperate trouble. The trouble arises because the gas reserve resource policy gave Mount Isa gas at $6 a unit, the agreement ran out seven or eight years ago—maybe 10 or 12 years ago—and we've gone up to $16.60.

It was $6; now it's $16.60. Our competitor nations—namely, Brazil, the United States and Russia, but particularly the United States and Russia—are getting their gas at $6 a unit while we're paying $16.60. Everyone has talked about the copper mine, and there is no doubt that it is in desperate trouble without that gas at a competitive price.

All electricity and power, and a whole lot of the chemical processes at Mount Isa, need that gas. Quite separately, of course, is the fertiliser plant, employing over a thousand people directly and indirectly. It is paying $16.60.

It produces diammonium phosphate: two parts natural gas and one part— (Time expired)