Shane Jones will begin a mining resurgence.

[C_T_Russell]

Great example of the use of 'patsy questions' to allow a fellow MP to promote their pet policies. Shane Jones has very little appreciation of international opinion in regards to fossil fuel use and extractive industries. If he thinks that exploration and consumption of hydrogen is ever going to be a viable strategy he's more deluded than his party leader. Jones is full of bluster about restructuring the electricity sector to save the timber mills that have closed this week but has been conspicuous by his silence when the hammer finally came down on 230 jobs there.

So far as CT's comment regarding EVs is concerned he seems to be wholly ignorant of both the comparative mineral requirements for EVs vs ICEVs, and the lifetime advantage EVs enjoy over ICEVs in terms of their emissions and environmental impact. Also the changing mineral makeup of EVs' batteries and associated energy storage infrastructure. For a quick and easily understood lesson on the pros and cons of EVs and fossil fueled vehicles this may help:

I'm sure you are correct about the longer lifetime that EVs can experience, but pretty much every consumer product, including electric cars needs mined minerals. In fact, EVs probably contain alot more gold inside due to the amount of electronics they would hold.
As far as drilling for hydrogen, that seems  pipe dream, but I'm pretty pissed off about the mills closing and the blame 100% lies with labour and the greens shutting down oil exploration, while at the same time providing zero alternative solutions to supplement our energy sector to make up for the losses from gas.
Now we are running out and might be having to rely on LNG imports.
Way to go labour, you were supposed to be all about he working class.
What's more, as more mills close, our timber gets send overseas to be processed and shipped back, and guess what, more fuel producing co2 to ship it here.
Brainless, these people who were in charge are idiots.
We need to start oil and gas exploration ASAP so we can get our energy costs down for business to stay operational.