Kieran Gilbert, host Sky News NewsDay: Welcome back to NewsDay. Let's go live to the CEO of the Minerals Council, Tania Constable. Tania Constable, thanks for your time. This last week, you've launched this campaign, Hands Off Our Fuel. What's prompted that? Are you worried the government might flip on the diesel fuel rebate?
Tania Constable, CEO Minerals Council of Australia: Great to be with you, Kieran. We launched the Hands Off Our Fuel campaign last week because we were deeply concerned with the growing activism that we're seeing across Australia in some of the institutions with the Greens and the Teals, and their attack on local jobs and communities in regional Australia, and a push against what is occurring in regional Australia, a push against the farmers, the fishers, the foresters, the construction industry, the freight industry, the miners, the industries that are doing the heavy lifting for Australia. And if we lose a fuel tax credit because road users are taxed with fuel excise, and if you're not using roads, then you shouldn't be paying an excise. So our regional industries don't use roads, they're on mine sites, they're on farms, they're on construction sites, they're on water, so they're not using that fuel that would normally be taxed on roads. So, we launched this campaign because this is a vital input into business. It's not part of the budget process, and we want to make sure that it's preserved. So, getting ahead of those activists and making sure that communities across Australia, but all Australians understand the importance of this to their hip pocket, to the cost of living, and getting that point across, so that politicians can make sure that they're preserving it. We're really pleased to see major parties now supporting regional Australia and saying back off to those that are working against regional Australia. We want to see that this is preserved.
Kieran: Do you welcome the strong support from the Resources Minister, the Minister for Northern Australia, Madeleine King, on this issue?
Tania: She has done an amazing job in supporting the industries across regional Australia. She's made it very clear over on numerous occasions that the fuel tax credit is in support of regional Australia, and that road users should pay road taxes, and we are not using roads. So, she's been very consistent in that approach. We've seen that from other senior ministers, we've seen that from other major political parties now.
Kieran: Yeah, Madeleine King was on this program a couple of days ago and made that very point that if they're not using the roads, those big employers and investors in the economy should get that excise back now. Hence, the rebate. Now, the One Nation MP, David Farley, he sought to clarify. He issued a statement saying they've got a lack of staff. He ended up on the wrong side of the parliament for that vote, that he didn't support the Greens and the Teals on this issue, where he did vote with them earlier in the week, but basically it was a stuff up. Do you, are you pleased to hear that, that it was a mistake as opposed to conspiracy?
Tania: Well, we're very pleased to see that One Nation has joined with the other major political parties in supporting fuel, the Hands Off Our Fuel campaign, and not supporting the Teals and the Greens. Unfortunately, we have seen a push by the Teals and the Greens against local jobs, against regional communities. We want them to back off and make sure that they are supporting regional Australia too. So, that I think that's the message we want to get out to every political party, to independents, to the whole of Australia, that this is a really important business input, and if we don't have it, we can't grow the economy. This is one of economic resilience for our economy, and making sure that everybody's onside to support regional Australia.
Kieran: We saw recently the need, haven't we, the last few months, the need for that, that resilience. But I want to ask you before you go, the gas reservation. What's the view among the membership in that industry when it comes to the government's plans on that front? Are they working with the government in relation to the gas reservation?
Tania: Well, the mining industry are a big customer of gas. We're a big user of gas, one of the largest users of gas across Australia. And we don't have gas in our membership, but we certainly work in partnership with the gas industry. It's one of increasing supply across Australia, making sure gas is available for domestic purposes, but it's an important export industry, just as the mining industry is, and important to countries that are close by to the Asian countries like Japan, Korea, across, you know, at a global level. So I think it's a combination of making sure that we have enough gas to support our industries in Australia, but also the investment coming into Australia. If you constrain our gas industry or constrain industries like mining, then investment doesn't come into Australia. We need to provide confidence to the upstream gas sector that this is a good place to invest, that we have the right policies in place to support that. So, I think that the importance of the gas industry working with government to get an early resolution on this will be to the benefit of the mining sector, other sectors across Australia that are users of gas to other industries, and importantly, to be providing that confidence to the rest of the world that this is a great place to invest in Australia.
Kieran: Yeah, indeed. It seems like it's all part of the same message, isn't it? When the government, the Prime Minister and others went to the region, saying we give you a lot of LNG and coal, and we'd like to get that refined oil back as well. So, I can see those links in terms of the message to the region as well. Tania Constable, thank you. It's great to see you, as always.
