Article by Tom Rabe courtesy of The Australian Financial Review
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has told energy producers he will halve project approval times for new projects and release new gas fields annually for development as he works to win back support from the west-coast resources sector.
Mr Dutton accused the Albanese government of treating the country’s gas sector with a hostility that threatens to undermine confidence of international investors.
A day after the Federal Resources Minister, Madeleine King, accused Mr Dutton of jeopardising national security and undermining a future critical minerals processing industry by opposing the Albanese government’s tax credit scheme, Mr Dutton flagged he would consider further support for the mining industry.
“I understand some of the concerns in relation to those issues. We will continue to work with the sector to see what further support we can provide, and we’ll outline that detail as we run up to the election,” Mr Dutton said in a speech to an Australian Energy Producers conference in Perth on Thursday.
The opposition leader promised a Coalition government would cap assessment timeframes for new mining projects and limit the ability for third parties to challenge projects under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
Mr Dutton also vowed to give states the power to approve projects which meet Commonwealth legislation requirements.
He seized on the government’s move to back down on expediting approvals processes for gas projects to secure the passage of laws cracking down on car emissions last week.
“The problem with walking both sides of the street of saying something in the west and something different in the east, is it can always be reconciled,” Mr Dutton said.
“I don’t think the industry should be under any misapprehension, the government is ideologically opposed to gas.”
Mr Dutton likened the Labor government’s move to push back aspects of its so-called ‘nature positive’ environmental reforms until after the next election to its approach to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
“That’s akin to the process that was undertaken in relation to the Voice that the detail will be provided after you vote. And Australian shouldn’t trust that process.”
While the opposition has described the incentive scheme as a “tax cut for billionaires,” the federal and WA Labor government have said the Liberal opposition to the policy as “anti-WA”.
WA Premier Roger Cook said Mr Dutton’s latest peace offering to the mining industry would mean little without longer-term assistance, such as in the form of the $14 billion tax credit scheme for critical minerals and hydrogen.
“Peter Dutton has come up with a thought bubble that means nothing and rings hollow if he’s not prepared to support the production tax credits,” Mr Cook said on Thursday.
Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King told The Australian Financial Review Mining Summit on Wednesday that Mr Dutton’s opposition to the plan risked Australia’s national security by hampering efforts to cooperate with the United States and shore up critical minerals processing sovereignty.
Despite widespread industry support for the production tax credit, Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable told the Summit that it risked creating “white elephants” without proper control.
