Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan is calling for shale reserves to be unlocked as the federal government considers new emissions reduction measures.

Mr Canavan says the United States is “leading the way” on emissions reduction through investment in shale oil and gas extraction, and he wants Australia to follow suit.

“There’s a whole lot of people out there talking about targets, and net-zero emissions – all these things are arbitrary, artificial, and ways of kicking the can down the road.”

The Queensland senator tells Luke Grant there are unused shale reserves in the Northern Territory, which he is “desperately working on to get unlocked”, and in Victoria, where ‘fracking’ – the shale oil and gas extraction process – is banned.

“[It’s] that kind of Green-left-Labor madness that has led to high power prices in this country and thousands of factory jobs at risk.”

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Image: Getty/grandriver