Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his introductory comments. The partnership between resources and science is important, and in Australia we are blessed with some of the great institutions that do support the interaction of science and our resources sector. The most important of those, we believe, is Geoscience Australia. I ask the minister to outline to the House the impact of the budget cuts on Geoscience Australia and its interactions with its counterpart organisations in the states and territories.

Geoscience Australia provides a significant body of precompetitive data that helps inform explorers and the industry on the prospectivity and, most importantly, helps to drive the exploration sector in the most meaningful possible way. The discovery of the Gawler Craton occurred out of the PACE program in South Australia, which grew out of the insights that have grown from Geoscience Australia. Geoscience Australia's role in supporting science in understanding the interaction of water and coal gas extraction is something in which our community has a great deal of confidence. Geoscience is not simply a Canberra based organisation. It is a world-leading organisation that has been consistently supported by successive governments, so I am enthusiastic to understand the minister's views and intent behind the cuts to Geoscience Australia.

We also have in our country at the moment a significant and growing issue on the east coast, and that is gas supply—the extraction of gas from coal seams to support the domestic gas supply needs of the east coast. I would like to know from the minister what the Commonwealth is doing to assist that industry to grow. We hear many poorly-thought-through arguments that associate the export gas industry with increasing prices on the east coast. We know our gas prices are being internationalised, but the renovating impact of that LNG investment, in particular in the minister's home state of Queensland, has had a significantly beneficial impact on gas supply. But there are clouds over how advantageous that resource could be for Australia and the lack of willingness in some jurisdictions to see that gas extracted in a safe way. I stress the word 'safe' because that relates organically to my previous question about Geoscience Australia.

These things are connected not just by ideas but they are connected organically—the foot bone connects to the shin bone connects to the knee bone. Good science, through Geoscience Australia, gives our community confidence that we know what we are doing. Good science underpins community confidence that gas extracted from coal seams can be done in the best possible way. On this side of the House we strongly stand for good science not as a dalliance but for good science underpinning good industrial and environmental management practices.

I would like to hear from the minister specifically about the cuts to Geoscience Australia—how those cuts will improve the operation of Geoscience Australia; and the measures that the government will practically take to assist increased gas recovery from the east coast into our pipeline network in the east coast to drive our domestic markets?

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