Whish-Wilson, Sen Peter

Senator WHISH-WILSON: I won't go into Senator Watt's line of questioning, but I suppose that is part of it. Typically would your business case take into account the social costs of any scope 1, 2 or 3 carbon emissions from an investment like this in opening up new gas fields, given we are in a climate emergency? Dr Bacon : I think it will take all of those things into account: the economic implications, social implications, environmental implications. Part of the government policy here, as the secretary has explained, is an infrastructure-led approach to regional development, and part of the key policy element in that is to actually take a very integrated approach, where there is major infrastructure investment and development occurring, and look at how that works around more holistic, economic, social and environmental outcomes. So carbon capture, for example, is one of the project opportunities that have been talked about in the announcement.