CQ Today – A chance to back Australia

In 2018, a Queensland businessman approached me with plans to build a diesel refinery in Gladstone. I was enthusiastic because Australia lacked refining capacity — and we had none in northern Australia. As the Northern Australia Minister at the time, I put him in touch with the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, or NAIF. The NAIF was effectively a government bank that could lend to projects to develop our north. The businessman had good discussions with the NAIF, but things were different when he approached Australian banks for help. Australian banks would not even let him open a bank account. So, the project did not get off the ground. He had investors from overseas, but foreign investors get jumpy when domestic banks won’t back a project. The Australian banks killed the idea of the first oil refinery in northern Australia at birth. The banks did this because they were addicted to a net zero agenda that has failed Australia. That net zero agenda has put the pursuit of global ambitions above everything — including fuel security and national security. We can all now see the folly of the net zero thinking. Our dependence on foreign oil has led to the spectacle of the Australian Prime Minister having to beg for oil in foreign countries. How have we allowed a situation to emerge OPINION MATT CANAVAN, SENATOR where we are dependent on other, much smaller countries than ours for basic essentials? It has happened because we have locked up our energy resources. This now means that trucking companies, farmers, small businesses, and many families are on the brink of ruin thanks to skyrocketing fuel and fertiliser prices. Even our hospitals are running short of basic essentials because things like masks, gowns, and other medical equipment are made from oil. If there is one good thing about these hard knocks, it is that it might finally wake the Australian corporate sector from its slumber. The banks now have a chance to rectify their past mistakes and back this refinery again. The Queensland businessman has resurrected the project in light of the fuel crisis. He has reacquired the land from a failed hydrogen project. Investors are keen again, given the clear need to diversify the world’s refining of liquid fuels. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to all of the major banks asking them to clarify whether they would now support a diesel refinery project — and not just with the bare minimum of a bank account, but by considering financing and support for such a nation-building project. The good news is that some banks have said they would now do so. The banks have not completely abandoned the net zero madness, but it is good progress. We now need the Labor Party to come through with the goods. Even if this project gets support from the banks, it faces impossible red tape and tax hurdles unless it gets government support. Any new refinery would be subject to Labor’s carbon tax, and that would make it a non-starter. Labor should exempt any new oil refineries from the carbon tax. Last year, in a deal with the Greens, Labor removed the ability for a “fossil fuel action” to be given a national interest exemption from environmental laws. If anything is in our national interest now, it is the construction of a new oil refinery. We offered to reverse Labor’s bad green deal in the Parliament last time we sat. The offer remains on the table. And Labor should roll out the red carpet from the NAIF. A new oil refinery in Gladstone would deliver jobs and help support Central Queensland’s farming and mining industries, which are heavy users of diesel. Australia needs more oil refineries and if the Labor Party backs Australia, it will back a new oil refinery in Gladstone.