Shadow Portfolio — 14 May 2026

Senator Canavan used three separate Senate interventions on 14 May to build a coherent attack on the government's energy and fiscal record. The sharpest exchange came at question time, where he cited a 40 percent electricity price rise and an additional $18 billion in net-zero spending to question the program's value, and pointed to budget projections showing mining investment growth falling to zero by 2027–28 as evidence that the critical-minerals dividend the government promised has not materialised.

In his budget response speech, Canavan advanced a Nationals alternative: directing 80 percent of future mining windfall revenue into a future-generations fund and establishing a $5 billion housing infrastructure fund for regional Australia. Across both legislative debates — the donations bill and the competition amendment — he applied the same consistency test: whether the government's rules apply equally to all actors and whether extraordinary powers are being drafted more broadly than the stated emergency justifies.