KIERAN GILBERT: Welcome back to Newsday. Joining me live in the studio is the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King. Thanks for your time. The Opposition immediately targeting the government for blocking the tax indexation plans that Angus Taylor has been arguing for. Is that a vulnerability for you?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Not at all. I mean, what we see -- and it is a delight to be here again Kieran -- is that once again the Coalition seeking to block and vote against income tax cuts for ordinary working Australians. What Angus Taylor and his friends choose to do in their policy development is a matter for them. To have any influence they'll need to win a few more seats. But in the meantime, they have their internal squabbles. We see them forming some kind of alliance with One Nation, with the Liberal One Nation Coalition. So, I guess we have to see how that pans out, but that really is a matter for them. The Australian Government is focused on delivering for working Australians, ensuring they get the tax cuts they deserve and outside of the legislation, ensuring those on the minimum wage have their wages increased, as we saw earlier this week.

KIERAN GILBERT: This is, it's quite a defence, though, that Angus Taylor's got now to say, look, you're saying I'm blocking tax cuts, I want to go further, I want to provide a permanent tax cut for workers.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, this is performative on the floor of Parliament. What we see is the proof is in the pudding, I suppose, on his past votes and that of the Liberals and the Nationals. And that is a tradition now in the Liberal Party of voting against tax cuts for working Australians. So, I mean, not much more I can say about that. That's their record and they'll have to think about that and so will the Australian people.

KIERAN GILBERT: In your speech to Parliament yesterday, you spoke about tax against the gas industry and the fact that the Teals, the Greens, among others, have been arguing for this when in the past they want the gas industry to die. You took quite a spray at them over that.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I made the point that there is, there are other instances in other countries where the windfall profits tax on oil and gas has been introduced. So we have things we can look to and learn from. And what happened in the UK in 2022, the conservative government of the time introduced a 25 per cent windfall profits tax off the back of rising prices because of the war in Europe between Ukraine and Russia. So what that has led to four years later is a lack of, a decline, an extraordinary decline in production of oil and gas in the North Sea, a loss of at least 5,000 jobs, possibly more and--

KIERAN GILBERT: So it's counterproductive.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: It's entirely counterproductive in terms of jobs and supply. So now we see a situation where the United Kingdom has to import and it's predicted to import about 80 per cent of its oil and gas.

KIERAN GILBERT: So, you're saying the Teals and Greens want to kill the industry so, that's why they're saying bring on a tax?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I suspect that those groups and their proxies have seen how this has worked in the United Kingdom to effectively destroy the industry. So it seems like a good model to destroy the Australian industry or at the very least reduce it in a market way. And that is counterproductive to Australia's interests.

KIERAN GILBERT: There it looks like a counter to that. There's an expansion of the industry right now in the wake of the ongoing Iran conflict. The Bedout Basin of Port Hedland. Santos looking at the Dorado Well for oil as well. They're talking about it potentially though as another North West Shelf. What's your understanding of that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, well, any development of it obviously has to go through all the approvals and that's a good thing and that's why reforming EPBC and NOPSEMA work to make sure that that can be done well. The find itself, the Dorado project in the Bedout Basin, as you say I think 2018 it was discovered. So, it takes a bit of time to establish just how good a prospect it is. It looks like it's a very good prospect. I know it was put on the back burner by Santos a year and a half ago I think. And now times being what they are, it is more urgent and there are more prospects for it.

KIERAN GILBERT: Will you welcome that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I welcome--

KIERAN GILBERT: It's a bit more sovereign capacity.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Undoubtedly. The challenge, if it's around oil and crude oil is though, there is no refining capacity in Western Australia after the BP Kwinana refinery was shut down when the Liberals were in power. So, that challenge has not been overcome. So that crude oil, if it were to be extracted would have to go to Singapore or elsewhere.

KIERAN GILBERT: You can't revive that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Not that particular facility. And that would be a matter for BP as well at some point. In 2017 that was shut down I believe, so that's a significant decision that was made. It's regrettable, and it has affected our sovereign capacity.

KIERAN GILBERT: If that oil well is as lucrative as they hoped, would it make sense for them then to set up a refining capacity onshore?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Oh, I mean, perhaps it would. These are commercial decisions, and no doubt if that was a prospect they would seek to engage with government and no doubt we would seek to engage with them because the sovereign capacity is important. But I think first things first. They've got to prove up that prospect. There’ll be approvals just for that. And then there's the gas side of it so, where they process that.

KIERAN GILBERT: The Chevron boss, I was surprised to see that he actually was quite positive about One Nation's policy. Were you surprised by that? One Nation thinking about equity and businesses and so on?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, it's quite curious, Chevron's comments, but also the comments of Australian Energy Producers seeming to welcome Pauline Hanson's One Nation's gas policies, which it is curious. These are policies that seek to take equity stakes, in part nationalise the gas industry of the country. So you know, some might say it's like turkeys backing in Thanksgiving. You know, why would you do that when you're on the chopping block. So it's curious to say the least, but that's a matter of course for Chevron and AEP.

KIERAN GILBERT: And finally, before I let you go, a big focus in your part of the world and WA, as part of the AUKUS arrangement, the submarine facilities and so on. What did you make of Ed Husic's comments this week, raising doubts and suggestions of a revolt within Labor against AUKUS?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the members of the Caucus, Labor Caucus are entirely able to have their own opinions and to voice them. But the commitment of the government is firm and clear. We are very much committed to AUKUS, as are our partners in the United States and the United Kingdom. As Minister in the Cabinet of the Government at the moment, as well as the Member for Brand where these submarines visit right now and will be based, as well as the rest of the fleet that is based at Fleet Base West on HMAS Stirling, I'm strong supporter of AUKUS and indeed the whole government is as well.

KIERAN GILBERT: All right. Member for Brand and Minister for Resources in Northern Australia, Madeleine King. Thanks. Appreciate it.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Thanks, Kieran.