MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator McDONALD (Queensland—Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (17:16): I move: That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency: The Albanese Government must take immediate action to reject Scope 3 emissions forming any part of approvals processes and restore Australia's standing as a pro-mining, pro-industry country, before our prosperity suffers any more.

I brought forward this urgency motion today because the risk to our resources sector from scope 3 emissions uncertainty is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to our nation's prosperity, to our standing and to future investment success, and it sets a dangerous precedent when we start bringing in this kind of scrutiny. We cannot keep making it harder to produce the very commodities that bring Australia its prosperity.

Australia is a resource superpower. We have been for some time. We all benefit from mining, whether it be in the wonderful, well-paid jobs right across this country, whether it be through the corporate taxes or whether it be through the royalties that we receive that pay in large part for the schools, hospitals, roads and other programs that Australia is so fortunate to be able to provide.

But we are becoming one of the hardest places on the planet to invest. We are becoming uncertain. We now have sovereign risk greater than other countries that previously we would have scoffed at.

We have endless approvals, regulatory uncertainty, activist litigation and now, it seems, an ideological opposition to mining. And the latest threat is the use of scope 3 emissions to obstruct Australian projects. We are effectively allowing emissions produced in other countries to determine approvals for our own projects.

Now, this sets a dangerous precedent. For years, mining ministers—resource ministers—in this country had rejected any attempt to include scope 3 emissions. Ministers Canavan and Pitt had held the ground on this.

Unfortunately, Minister King has folded to pressure to include scope 3 emissions in the statement of expectations for NOPSEMA, the offshore regulator for gas. Most recently, the recent High Court decision concerning the Mount Pleasant expansion included the idea that we should be considering scope 3 emissions on that approval. This highlights the legal uncertainty facing Australian miners.

And, of course, activists started sharpening their pencils for a wave of legal action. We should not be held responsible for project approvals—decisions—made by sovereign countries about their own energy consumption, not to mention the complexity of calculating emissions generated in other countries that may well be offset by their own carbon emissions reduction programs like CCUS and others.

Yet we seek to do that here. Mining's contribution to the Australian public purse is between $65 billion and $75 billion every year. There are 300,000 well-paid jobs.

Investors have choices. Capital has choices. Indeed, capital goes to where it is wanted and stays where it is appreciated.

We are not sending that message to those investors. Labor's ideological attacks mean that we are delaying projects. That means fewer jobs, fewer investments and less revenue for hospitals, schools, roads, defence and essential services.

We have to stop appeasing international activists. We must start looking after Australians first. Limiting Australian coal is crazy.

Our higher calorific, high-quality coal, mined to world's best standards—whether that be workplace health and safety or environmental—means that coal demand will not reduce. It means, simply, that it will be extracted from other jurisdictions with lower standards. The coalition's alternative is the belief that Australia should be proudly mining.

It should be proudly pro-mining, pro-industry and pro-development. We will stop these scope 3 emissions being used to block or restrict Australian resources projects. We will ensure that we maintain national prosperity and sovereignty, because we believe that we should be a nation that can feed itself, fuel itself, defend itself and make choices for itself.