Press conference, Northern Territory

TODD ABBOTT: I want to thank everyone for being here. This is such a big day for the Northern Territory and for Australia and for Tamboran and our joint venture partner Daly Waters. First, I want to pause and recognise the significance of the place where we’re standing. 

It is such an honour to work alongside our native title holders, and after extensive consultation, to be where we are today, flowing first gas from the Shenandoah South site. What an accomplishment by all involved. And we couldn’t do it without our partners, both our government partners that are standing here with us, and our joint venture partner Daly Waters here alongside me, but also our industry partners, our pastoralists. It takes a lot of hands to lift an asset of this size, and that’s where we are today. 

We’re happy to answer any questions that you may have. 

JOURNALIST: Will it bring power prices down for Territorians? 

TODD ABBOTT: Yeah, it will have benefit to many stakeholders, so there will be benefit to the Territory, starting right away with first production, royalties, taxes, and then royalties also to the native title holders. So it’s immediate benefits for the territory. 

JOURNALIST: What kind of timeline do you see with everything, Todd? I mean, there’s been a lot of talk about national resilience here. How long would it actually take to get gas piped to the east coast and – 

TODD ABBOTT: Well, it’s – I’m sorry, I’m cutting you off. Go ahead. 

JOURNALIST: No. And when will we see exports overseas as well? 

TODD ABBOTT: So the way I think about the sequencing is first – and the accomplishment today – is getting gas to Darwin. And we’ve talked about how fitting that is because the Northern Territory government has supported us so much to get to this point. And it’s appropriate that they get the first fruits of the work. Going forward, I think you can expect to see expansion of our compression facility that’s here behind us. We have some technical things that we’ll work through and regulatory things, but once we get that, you’ll probably see the expansion of that. And beyond that, it’s proving up resource to justify pipeline investment and to justify the gas sales beyond [indistinct] processing. It’s impossible to put a very strict timeline on that, but I think we all have confidence in the sequence. 

JOURNALIST: Todd, can you describe in words that order people can understand the size of this basin and how it compares with the rest of the world? 

TODD ABBOTT: Yeah, the size is impressive – 200 TCF is a technical term. Those in the industry know what the scale is. I can tell you that a 200 TCF gas field is the largest non-associated gas field in the world outside of the Middle East or Russia. So to give you – that just gives you a scope of the globally significant resource that sits here in the Northern Territory. For more of a practical standpoint, if the Beetaloo Basin is producing 5 to 6 BCF a day – which it can do for well over a century – that’s enough gas to power every home in Sydney 20 times over, right? So the scale of this, when we talk about where does the gas go, I think it’s appropriate to have the conversations of that sequence, but ultimately there’s enough gas here to supply a lot. 

JOURNALIST: Minister King, will they be able to use this gas to run data centres in the Northern Territory? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Sorry, excuse me. So you’re referring to the framework, I think, around data centres that the Prime Minister has announced and the importance for data centres is making sure we enable that technology, because it is the construction site of our time, as Pope Leo has said, and I agree with that. We do need to work hard to make sure there is social licence for that. So I know Chief Minister Finocchiaro has had great discussions with the Prime Minister on this. 

What is important about data centres is that they don’t use energy and water to the detriment of local consumers. And that is the goal of the Federal Government, and we’ll work with the Territory, as we’ll work with all State Governments, to make sure that data centres are enabled but not at the cost of local consumers and local water users. And that’s important. 

JOURNALIST: On your point there Minister, where you said the Chief Minister has been talking with the Prime Minister, I mean, the Chief Minister walked out of that national cabinet meeting saying it was a win for the Territory. We then heard Chris Bowen say there’ll be no carve-outs in that push to have renewables alongside data centres. Where does the truth lie here? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I won’t speak for Chief Minister Finocchiaro; she’ll speak for herself, of course. But federal frameworks are important. The same as the domestic gas reservation, the hint is in the name – they’re federal. 

JOURNALIST: So there’s no carve-outs? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: These are discussions that are held in national cabinets, but I’m pretty sure the Prime Minister has acknowledged that there are different energy uses, different energy sources in different states. So there’ll be a framework, and how it applies may alter, but ultimately it goes to that overall objective of making sure that domestic users, industrial users of energy, aren’t falling behind data centres because of the intensive use of data centres. 

And the reason for that is we need to have these data centres to train AI in Australia. That’s really important for our future prosperity, for productivity and so many things. But they need to have the support of the community. And if that is sacrificed because we don’t think about the needs of the local community, then we lose out on data centres. And we don’t want that. That would be the worst possible outcome. 

JOURNALIST: Chief Minister, can we get your understanding of what was discussed in national cabinet, where you stand, and will you power your data centres on gas? 

LIA FINOCCHIARO: We’ve been explicitly clear that we will not accept a heavy-handed approach from the Federal Government. And coming back from national cabinet where I met with my state and territory counterparts and the Prime Minister, it was very clear recognition by all that the Northern Territory and, indeed, Queensland have very different energy situations to the rest of the nation. Now, we wholeheartedly subscribe to making sure there is a national framework around water, around location, around data sovereignty and security. But we draw a line at energy. In the Northern Territory, we are not connected to the National Electricity Market. We have Beetaloo Basin powering the Territory from today, providing more gas than this country would ever know what to do with. And we recognise that this is about creating jobs and opportunities for our people. So the recognition by the Prime Minister that the Territory is different and that data centres in the Territory can be powered by Beetaloo gas is a very important landmark opportunity that we’ve secured for Territorians. 

JOURNALIST: Chief, on today’s announcement about the gas flowing to the Territory, how much of that, of the Territory’s market, will be powered by Beetaloo gas? And do you have commitments from the company that it won’t be just appraisal gas, that it will go further than that and forward? 

LIA FINOCCHIARO: The Northern Territory’s gas future is secured. We have gas sales agreements with proponents right across the Beetaloo and the Territory to make sure that when Territorians go home and turn the light on, they can have that security and certainty, but most of all, the affordability. It is a terrible shame that in the Territory up until today we have had to have tanks full of diesel ready to power the Territory because of an insufficiency in gas supply. Now, that ends today with the Beetaloo Basin coming online, and we’re very proud as a government to have stood by the development of the Beetaloo Basin from day one, stared down the activists and people seeking to bring more [indistinct] to cut off opportunities for Territorians. We have stared down the hypocrites, and today there is a project that is going to literally change the future of the Northern Territory’s economy. 

JOURNALIST: Does it mean the end – Chief Minister, I mean, the CSO said that it’s costing an enormous amount of money. Will power prices for consumers and businesses go down because of this gas? 

LIA FINOCCHIARO: What the Beetaloo Basin does for the everyday Territorian who is an energy user and power bill payer is mean that those prices will stabilise over the long term. It means we stop buying spot gas, it means we have the security of supply, and it means we can really start to focus on making sure our generation poles and wires business is running as efficiently as possible so that costs don’t have to continue to go up. This is about certainty and stability and affordability above all else, and that’s our energy policy. 

JOURNALIST: Can I just go back to the data centre issue. Chris Bowen [indistinct] on Friday saying that there’s no carve-outs for the Northern Territory – a hundred per cent renewables for data centres with gas for firming. Who’s right? Is Chris Bowen right or is the Prime Minister right? 

LIA FINOCCHIARO: Well, I sit in national cabinet with Premiers, Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister, and Chris Bowen doesn’t. And thank god he’s not the Prime Minister. 

JOURNALIST: Can I ask Minister King just on that issue, have you spoken to the Prime Minister or to Minister Bowen about this? Because there does seem to be a lot of confusion. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Not specifically on data centres. But I am briefed on national cabinet, as we all are, and we obviously see the public announcements and press conferences that go on afterward. I go back to what I said before – this is a national framework. It’s about enabling data centres but not at the cost of local consumers or businesses, whether that be in energy or water or location. 

But I think what’s really important is the NT, the Territory, and the Federal Government and all the other states have a common goal – we do want data centres because we want to train AI in Australia. We do have to have discussions, and they’ll be robust, and that’s fine. That’s acceptable. We need to do that to make sure we enable that training to happen here in Australia so that AI in Australia has an Australian flavour and we’re not, you know – we don’t [indistinct] others. And we’ll work together. Minister Bowen, the Prime Minister, I will work with the whole Territory team to make sure we get that right for the Territory, as we will for Queensland, as we will for Western Australia, which also has a different energy and gas mix as well. So, you know, this is the challenges of federation. They’re really important. But we’ll get it done. I’m really confident about that. 

JOURNALIST: Minister King, [indistinct] realise the potential of this basin, that we need to get the gas to where it’s actually needed – that is the East Coast, that’s New South Wales and Victoria. To do that, we need a pipeline. Will the Commonwealth commit to building that pipeline so that the people in New South Wales and Victoria can get access to this gas? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: The development of the gas, the National Gas Reservation policy, is stimulating that investment already because of the proposition in that of the need to supply gas. We are obviously still working through that with really extensive consultations, and I want to thank people from everywhere – the gas industry, the manufacturers, state and territory governments who are participating very thoughtfully in that process. But that reservation scheme itself is driving interest in that really important investment in that infrastructure. I anticipate it will be private funding that goes into the gas infrastructure, as it is right around the country right at this moment, and that’s really important. 

JOURNALIST: Can I just ask on the Secret Harbour by-election at the weekend, I think you said yesterday that social media and misinformation was responsible for Labor’s loss. Were you misquoted? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I don’t think I actually said that, and I apologise if that’s how it was taken. What I think I said – and I’m sorry, I don’t have my own transcript with me – is that social media is different to what it might have been a few years ago and there are bots and there are other influences on social media that are also reflected, and that’s been reported. We’ve seen this since 2016 with the interference in the American election. We’ve seen it in the interference in the Brexit referendum. And I’m not saying that that’s why Labor lost the seat of Secret Harbour, but I am saying that in social media there is this incredible participation from others – be they bots or some automated systems – that’s not local communities. It’s not local communities actually registering. Some local communities, but a lot of it is really not true. 

JOURNALIST: Are some of your colleagues contributing to that, though? I mean, even yesterday we see Anika Wells doing, you know, the Ooshie stunt, you know, when it comes to housing. Would you – 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I don’t think – I’ve not actually seen it. I’ve heard about it. I think that’s just explaining something. That’s not misinformation or bots that attack someone or AI-generated fake news, which is, quite frankly, disgusting in relation to the Labor candidate Georgia Tree in that election, and the Premier. But I’m sure it happened to other candidates in that; I just didn’t see it. But – and that’s what’s awful about social media at the moment, is the really offensive nature of it when it comes to political discussion. And I think those of us that are elected have been through these kind of things, I think would agree that it’s getting a bit much. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, on today – 

SPEAKER: Can we [indistinct] questions in, please. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, on today, the Greens, as we’ve been sitting here talking, have come out and said the Beetaloo announcement is a sad day, it’s a carbon bomb. How do you go back to Canberra and talk to these people about, you know, we’re helping the climate if there is this criticism about it being a carbon bomb? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I would say that no government, no federal government, has done more in relation to combating climate change than the Albanese Labor government, legislating ambitions, putting it in law that this country is committed to net zero by 2050, reform of the safeguard mechanism to make sure that emissions are controlled. So we are dealing with climate change. But what’s really important is – and we acknowledge this in the time we took to do the future gas strategy a couple of years, which is the first time any government has considered how a really important resource like gas fits in to the net zero transition for Australia, for Australian consumers, for Australian manufacturers, but also for our regional partners in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and a bit further widespread as well. 

So we have to make the two work together for our future prosperity as Australians right around the country – there’s no exceptions to this – but also for our regional partners and their prosperity and peace in the region as well.