LIFT THE GAS BAN OR PAY THE POWER PRICE
Member for Western Victoria Region, Bev McArthur used an Adjournment Debate in Parliament to ask the Labor Government to lift the moratorium on onshore conventional gas exploration.
In 2017, the Andrews Labor Government passed the Resources Legislation Amendment (Fracking Ban) Bill 2016 which extended the moratorium on all onshore conventional gas exploration until 2020 and permanently banned all onshore unconventional gas exploration.
Bev McArthur said “Victoria has the highest electricity prices in the nation, causing a significant burden on both households and businesses. A driving factor of our high power prices is the fact that it costs six times more to pipe gas down from Queensland than it does transporting it from within the state.”
“The Federal Labor Resources Spokesperson, the Honourable Joel Fitzgibbon, said that the Andrews Government’s ban makes ‘neither economic nor environmental sense’. Everybody is calling on this Government to lift the ban: the Federal Government, industry groups, energy retailers like Weston Energy, and now even their own party!”
“Unfortunately, this Government seems completely beholden to the Greens and their radical left ideological allies, who want to ban any form of productive industry that they don’t personally agree with, recently demonstrated in the announced plan to shut down the native timber industry.”
"It is clearly ridiculous to have this easily extractable energy resource lying idle while we are energy poor and paying dearly for the privilege of pandering to green ideology. The Coalition’s policy at the last election also provided for ‘royalties to landowners’ which is only fair."
Mrs McArthur suggested that the Minister for Resources should “follow the advice of her Federal Labor counterpart and ensure that her government lifts the moratorium on onshore conventional gas exploration.”
ENDS
27 November 2019