Angus Taylor attacks Beetaloo Basin activists and says Australia right to expand fossil fuels

Angus Taylor said after the US ban on Russian oil imports that Australia was ‘investing in new supply for gas and oil in places like the Beetaloo Basin’. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

The Australian energy minister, Angus Taylor, has criticised “activists” for opposing new oil and gas development in the Beetaloo Basin, declaring European nations are now regretting not pursuing a “gas-fired recovery”.

After the United States banned Russian oil imports in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the United Kingdom said it would phase them out by year’s end, Taylor told Sky News Australia that Australia had been correct to continue expanding fossil fuel development.