Labor’s resources spokesperson, Madeleine King, is launching a full-throated defence of Australia’s gas industry, including supporting opening up new reserves “subject to independent scientific assessments and effective environmental regulation”.
King will use a speech to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference in Perth to champion gas jobs, gas exports, gas as “a critical feedstock for Australia’s manufacturing industry, as well as in electricity generation” and the opening up of new reserves, like the Beetaloo basin.
“It is important that people are aware that the Beetaloo is a world-class, low-carbon gas basin – containing about 3% carbon dioxide,” King will tell the conference on Thursday.
She will tell oil and gas executives the federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, will convene a shadow ministry meeting in Port Hedland later this month, with the trip “an opportunity for many of my east coast colleagues to see this incredible region for themselves and to listen to the concerns of the resources industry workers who contribute so much to our national wealth”.