Doorstop interview, Brisbane, Queensland

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well thanks very much for coming along today. Today I have some terrific news for Tasmanians, Victorians and all Australians, with the Albanese Government giving a green light to the Marinus Link project's environmental approvals. This is a nation-building, transformative project which involves building a massive underwater sea cable between Tasmania and Victoria which will transport clean, cheaper energy from Tasmania to the mainland and also allow for electricity to be taken to Tasmania from the mainland.

You may be aware there's already one underwater sea cable between Tasmania and Victoria. What this project is about doing is two more underwater sea cables which will significantly increase the amount of cheaper, cleaner energy that can be transported between the mainland and Tasmania going forward. What this means in practical terms is that this project will allow for power to be provided to 750,000 homes along the mainland, but also, as I say, it will allow for more power to be taken from the mainland to Tasmania, providing jobs, providing new industries, and helping with power prices, both in Tasmania and the mainland itself.

So this is a fantastic next step in this development. It's another sign that the Albanese Government is committed to working with businesses, state governments to facilitate important economic development while also protecting the environment through a range of conditions that have been imposed on this project. It stands in very stark contrast from what we've seen from the Coalition over the last couple of weeks. While the Coalition is still debating whether they even believe in net zero or even believe in climate change, Labor is getting on with the job of building the renewable energy projects that our country needs. To provide the cheaper, cleaner energy that we all need going forward. Happy to take any questions on that or anything else.

JOURNALIST: What are the strict conditions you put on the environmental approval for this project?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so this project has been a complex one and it's been assessed by state governments as well as ourselves over the last four years. And the conditions that have been imposed relate to ensuring that in the construction and operation of this project we don't see impacts on threatened species, -whether they be on land or in the water. Obviously, being an underwater project, we've got to think about the environmental impact of the project on marine animals, and that includes where the project is built, how the project is built, but even things like the underwater noise that would be emanating from this project and making sure that that's kept at levels that won't create a major disturbance for those marine animals that we want to care for. So, as I say, a wide range of conditions focusing on both on-land and underwater matters.

JOURNALIST: Will the capacity of the current cable be impacted during the construction of the two others?

MURRAY WATT: That's not our expectation. The Basslink current cable is a really important interconnector between Tasmania and the mainland already when it comes to power supply and it's not our expectation that there would be an impact on that through this construction phase. But as I say, this will massively increase the amount of power that can be transported back and forth between the mainland and Tasmania. It'll be happening in two stages. The first stage alone, as I say, will generate enough power to supply 750,000 homes. And we expect that it will also prompt a range of new industrial development, both in Victoria and Tasmania, creating lots of jobs as well.

JOURNALIST: There are other Tasmanian energy projects waiting for environmental approval, such as Robbins Island. When will they get clarity?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so you will have seen that the time frame for considering Robbins Island - I recently extended that to allow for the consideration of further information that had been received. That project, we expect an approval decision to be made by the end of this month. And when we have more to say about that, we will be. But you're right, I mean, there are many projects being proposed in the renewable energy space in Tasmania. There's an opportunity for Tasmania to become a massive supplier of cheaper, cleaner energy to the whole country. That's obviously good for the whole country in terms of the power price impact and managing power prices, reducing emissions through our power use. But it provides a massive economic opportunity for Tasmania as well. We've got to consider those projects carefully because we do want to make sure that they don't impact in a negative way on our environment. So we're giving that and a number of other projects full consideration at the moment.

JOURNALIST: On the topic of major infrastructure, the CopperString project in Far North Queensland, does the Federal Government support that going ahead and are they in any talks with the Queensland State Government?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, we've for a long time now been supporters of the CopperString project. It's a project that I've had personal experience of, both in the Queensland Government and now in the Federal Government. And you will have seen the Prime Minister say that he's a massive supporter of this project. So we're continuing to work with the Queensland Government on that and a number of other projects going forward. We recognise that CopperString has the potential to really open up the North West Minerals Province in North West Queensland, again, creating jobs and allowing access to the kind of critical minerals that we need for the clean energy transition.

JOURNALIST: Is it fair to say that it's an open door for possible funding as well?

MURRAY WATT: Well, of course we need to be working with the Queensland Government on costs around those projects, the business cases, and to ensure that there are sufficient buyers of the electricity that would be transported through that project. But as I say, we've always been supporters of that project, and we remain very willing to work with the Queensland Government on it.

JOURNALIST: Sticking with infrastructure projects, on the North West gas shelf, has Woodside responded in that? I know they had a ten day period that’s expired.

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, you will have seen a few weeks ago now, I made a proposed decision around that project, and the proposed decision was to approve it, subject to a number of strict environmental conditions. Since that time, my department has been having some very productive discussions with Woodside about those proposed conditions, and I would expect that that would come to a completion quite soon.

JOURNALIST: Given that they sort of didn't respond in time, are you concerned that they'll sort of treat environmental conditions with the same contempt?

MURRAY WATT: No, I wouldn't read into the amount of time anything about Woodside’s view or the Government's view about these things. I think what it does show is that when we consider these large projects, particularly energy and infrastructure, what we're always trying to do is balance the economic gains that can come from those projects with the really important environmental considerations around them as well. As I say, when I made that proposed decision, I imposed some strict conditions. I don't think it's a surprise that for a project of this magnitude that it takes a little bit of time for the proponent to work through those conditions with my department. And we'd be certainly hopeful that that would wrap up fairly soon.

JOURNALIST: Baby bonus?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I've seen some reports today in some of the newspapers about calls for another baby bonus. From our Government's point of view, we think it's families who are best to make a decision about whether they want to have children, and if so, how many. Our approach has been to be supporting families with cost of living relief, whether that be the tax cuts we're providing, the cheaper medicines which we've announced more of this week as well, along with cheaper childcare, free TAFE, and all of the other measures that we're taking to reduce pressure on families. But as I say, we think it's best to leave it to families to make their decisions about how many kids they want.

JOURNALIST: Stuart Wood has been appointed the commissioner for the CFMEU inquiry in the state. He's got a lot of known ties and definitely a past membership, if not current, with the LNP. What's your take on that? Is that an appropriate appointment?

MURRAY WATT: Well, you'll remember that our Government took serious action around the completely unacceptable allegations that we were seeing regarding the CFMEU. That's why we enabled the appointment of an administrator to clean up that union and ensure that it was focusing on the interests of its members, rather than the sort of allegations of criminality, corruption and violence that unfortunately had infiltrated that union.
In terms of the state government inquiry, ultimately it's a matter for them. But I think, you know, it does send a message to the public the choice of commissioner, the sort of previous views of those sorts of people, and I think the State Government need to be conscious that it's important that this inquiry is seen to be properly independent. So, ultimately that's a matter for the State Government, though.

JOURNALIST: If I could switch to negative gearing, is Labor open to making changes to negative hearing and capital gains if that's what's put forward at the productivity roundtable?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I suspect what you're referring to is the comments of the ACTU Secretary Sally McManus this morning on the ABC, and our view on this is that our policies regarding tax haven't changed. What our focus is on is continuing to deliver the tax cuts that we promised at the last election. Obviously, we've got legislation before the Parliament regarding taxation of high superannuation balances. We continue to make progress on taxing multinationals and having proper arrangements for the taxation of petroleum and gas companies.

When it comes to the roundtable, what we've said is that we don't want to be unfairly limiting the kind of ideas that can be discussed, and we haven't been getting into ruling things in or ruling things out. We've seen comments made and views expressed by business groups in recent weeks. We've seen now today views from the ACTU on behalf of working people. I think it'll be a really productive discussion that we have at the roundtable about where we go as a nation going forward.