Greens set out demands to pass Future Made in Australia legislation

Adam Bandt has set his price for passing Labor’s Future Made in Australia legislation, demanding that $1.5bn for the NT’s Middle Arm precinct be redirected to clean energy projects.

Greens leader Adam Bandt. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Greens have set their price for passing Labor’s flagship Future Made in Australia legislation, demanding a $1.5bn equity investment in the Middle Arm industrial precinct on Darwin Harbour be redirected towards clean-energy projects.

Guarantees on the public ownership and reservation of critical resources under the $22.7bn Future Made in Australia program were also being sought by Greens leader Adam Bandt, who said the minor party was prepared to negotiate in good faith but that “Labor needs to be ready to shift as well”.

The Coalition will oppose the government’s legislation seeking to establish a framework for the spending of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, leaving its ­passage hostage to the demands of the Greens and Senate crossbenchers.

The Greens have made clear they will abstain on the Future Made in Australia bills in the lower house and reserve their position in the Senate, allowing space for Mr Bandt and Treasury spokesman Nick McKim to open up negotiations with the government.

Mr Bandt said Labor needed to “drop its insistence on opening more coal and gas mines”, and the Greens wanted changes ensuring big corporations would be prevented from exporting wealth and jobs overseas while leaving Australia to face shortages.

“Public ownership and reservation of critical resources will help avoid the mistakes of the previous mining and gas booms,” he said.

The Greens said expanding coal and gas developments past 2050 would “suck investment and labour away from critical minerals, green steel and green hydrogen”.

“A Future Made in Australia can’t be a future for more coal and gas,” he said. “Labor has already approved 23 new coal and gas projects to run as late as 2080, and they’re using public money to prop up fossil fuels, like $1.5bn for Middle Arm.”

The government has said the $1.5bn to support the development of the Northern Territory’s Middle Arm project was aimed at transforming it into a globally competitive, sustainable precinct with a focus on renewable hydrogen and minerals processing.

The Greens are critical of the project because it would facilitate the expansion of gas production in the Territory’s Beetaloo basin.

Mr Bandt previously accused the government of “greenwashing” by promoting the project as a sustainable development precinct, arguing that it would instead allow for the export of massive quantities of gas to Asia and further fuel the climate crisis.

Senator McKim said Australians would “all live through ecological collapse and its massive consequences if we do not force governments, including our own, to stop digging up more coal, oil and gas”.

“What we’re putting to the government is an abundantly sensible set of principles,” he said.

“The government would be foolish to refuse to engage in a sensible conversation over these fundamental and obvious shortcomings.”

Opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor told parliament last week the government’s Future Made in Australia agenda was a plan for more “pork barrelling” and “more government, not more business investment”.

Mr Taylor expressed concern the bill could entrench greater union influence across the economy while failing to direct investment into gas and other key energy technologies including blue hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.

Mr Taylor said Australian manu­facturers would benefit more from stronger policies aimed at “getting the basics right”, including “affordable and reliable energy, flexible workplaces, less regulation and an incentive-based tax system”.