GINA RINEHART: Drill, baby, drill! We have so much natural gas in Australia. If we are deciding not to use our vast coal deposits, let’s bring online as much gas supply as we can

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has spoken at a series of Bush Summits where the billionaire businesswoman outlined five key priorities for Australia.

Below is a transcript of Ms Rinehart’s fourth speech in the series, delivered earlier this year in Orange, New South Wales.

In the speech, Ms Rinehart calls on Australia to double natural gas production.

Hello and welcome to all the farmers, small business people, miners and other regional Australians who struggle with time-consuming government paperwork and policies that do not take into account the people of our land areas!

It is fantastic to welcome you to the Bush Summit here in Orange. The birthplace of Australian Banjo Peterson, and the song we love, Waltzing Matilda.

The Bush Summit has become increasingly important as I hope it will give people in rural areas the opportunity to be heard, rather than taken for granted and overlooked. No matter how hard we work, how much we contribute.

We have developed primary industries that shine on the world stage. Our agricultural products are among the best in the world.

Thank you to all members of our primary industries, and to the companies that support our primary industries.

Our standard of living is no coincidence. They are the result of investments and our incredible people in our primary industries.

All other activities are based on these primary industries. We cannot have manufacturing without mining and agriculture.

It seems that some too easily forget that every aspect of our lives is affected by the agricultural or mining industry. As you know, everything must be grown or extracted, whether it is the food on our tables, the energy used to cool or cook it, or the utensils with which it is eaten, and much more.

These Bush Summits are a refreshing opportunity to listen to the people of our countries, and I hope with the help of the Bush Summit media that our governments are listening.

This is our moment to let our politicians know that we don’t want to go down as an industry or a country we want to go upwards. We want policies that don’t deter investment, but instead lead to higher investment, higher living standards and more money in your pocket after taxes, which you can spend as you please. We want to hear from the pollsters that they will be the leaders who will take the lead. ‘

We’ve certainly had enough of ‘the down‘. ‘The down’ causes many parents to worry about the future of their children and grandchildren. And many in agriculture are concerned about whether the agricultural sector can survive.

The decline will continue if we don’t cut back on government approvals and tapes, which means costs and delays. But it’s not just companies that are affected. Given these expensive government charges and costly delays, there is less money available for wages and employee benefits, less money for hiring more staff, less money for training and retraining, and less money for charitable donations or for research.

And it gets worse when expansions or new projects are delayed or lost thanks to government takeovers and slow approvals, because all of the above suffers more. Let’s stop thinking that government burdens don’t matter, that they only affect businesses and not really, that they impose costs on everyone, and that many people suffer from them.

In some parts of Australia, investment has been delayed for years because litigants have no interest in the area. They do not own the land, or even the surrounding land; they may not even be Australians, or they may be funded by overseas interests. Or even funded without the taxpayers wanting it, by taxpayers.

At first glance, some may think this is okay, everything is okay in the name of the environment. Perhaps a closer look is warranted, for example at the Nature Positive plan, in which seventeen of the species it requires to be protected are so dangerous they could kill you. Hopefully the Nature Positive plan will not have any consequences for your region. The government’s classified map, which will restrict 30 percent of Australia’s land and 30 percent of our oceans, must be made available. 30 percent of Australia is a large part of Australia. Moreover, farmers are already very angry about wind farms, solar panels and transmission lines taking up their farmland.

And we all know the rising cost of living. During these rising costs, I especially feel for all those trapped in poverty with pensions of one kind or another, our 2.5 million retirees, wonderful veterans, college students and the disabled, who are not allowed to work without onerous paperwork, and just a few hours to work. per week. They should be able to work as long as they want so that they do not fall into the trap of being unable to cope with rising costs.

Given the government’s restrictions, too many people in our country are wrongly confronted with ‘heat or food’. This is unacceptable; our politicians must take immediate action. And we have a crisis of labor shortages, hardly helped by expensive immigration, while our government makes it too difficult for our own Australians to work if they want to. Let’s not forget that the approximately one million migrants this administration brought in resulted in only approximately 40,000 being added to the workforce. But the nearly one million people who are contributing to our housing crisis, who are creating many disadvantages, raising rental costs, putting pressure on the police resulting in even more crime, and increasing hospital delays, and even being turned away from emergencies because our doctors, nurses, medical facilities simply cannot handle this. Your family’s medical treatments are postponed.

If only our governments would take into account the farmers and many who are struggling and reduce wage costs, license fees and stamp duty as they said they would when the GST was introduced, it would not help the cost of living and the costs of housing. And wouldn’t it help if the federal government dropped taxes on fuel, not only by lowering the cost of our cars and other vehicles, but also by lowering the cost of all goods transported, and all goods that use fuel? need for its processing or production! Again, this would actually help the cost of housing if all these government charges were abolished.

Unfortunately, we are on the ‘downward’ path. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia has experienced negative per capita economic growth for the past five consecutive quarters.

Instead, let’s ‘lift up’ our country.

Please use your time and voice, at every opportunity, so that Australia returns to this ‘upward’ path.

This is my fourth speech at the Bush Summit, and time for my next major topic that I believe should be a priority for our governments, and essential to progress. You think almost everyone would want this, or maybe once they run out and pay even more, but unfortunately governments have stepped in, prices are rising and our competitive advantage is eroding along with it.

These are of course reliable, cheap and abundant energy sources.

It is clear that our governments have had the wrong energy policy. Our bills keep rising, supply and demand are disrupted and our energy system is becoming increasingly unreliable.

Many warned about what happened. But our governments chose not to listen. Instead, they focused too much of their efforts and our taxpayers’ money on forcing more and more so-called “renewable” energy sources into the grid, and on pushing for the closure of cheap and reliable coal-fired power plants, while disrupting gas development.

The Liberal-National Opposition led by Peter Dutton has announced its ambition for proven nuclear energy to help our future. But this will take more than a decade, and with government withdrawals and approvals, probably twenty years from now. So, what do we do here and now? As a pro-energy security friend says, “drill baby, drill.” Let’s develop our vast natural gas reserves and create as much supply as we need.

Some people like to say that our country can run on sunshine and windmills. Place these on your own property if you want, but don’t force it on us if the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, even at night! Natural gas is needed as a raw material for production and processing, in addition to its use to generate electricity for homes, offices, hospitals, shopping centers, hotels, restaurants, traffic lights, schools, sports and entertainment centers. Those who don’t want to use gas, let them choose not to use it, but let those who want reliable energy get it.

We have so much natural gas in Australia, and if we decide not to use our vast coal reserves, let’s at least make use of our gas reserves.

If a billionaire wants to spend money on unproven, highly flammable, explosive hydrogen, let him, but it should be at his expense, not as a burden on taxpayers, and not to further increase our national debt.

Please don’t forget to join us for this year’s National Agriculture and National Mining and Related Industry Days, taking place in Penfolds and Santos this year, with more information on screen. These are important national days, November 21 and 22 every year. Make sure they are on your calendar. I hope to see you there.

Thank you.