Australia's right-wing populist party, Pauline Hanson's One Nation, on Thursday proposed creating a Norway-style sovereign wealth fund and having the federal government take stakes in offshore energy projects, multiple news outlets reported.
Pauline Hanson, the anti-immigration senator who founded One Nation in 1997 and remains the party's leader, made the proposal at the Australian Energy Producers conference in Adelaide.
Under One Nation's proposal, a new Australian National Wealth Investment Corporation would take a 30% stake in offshore production licenses in Commonwealth waters.
The government would share development and decommissioning costs and retain part of the production for domestic use, including fertilizer manufacturing and fuel production.
One Nation, which campaigns on nationalist and conservative policies including lower immigration and expanded fossil fuel development, has gained momentum this year after winning its first seat in Australia's House of Representatives.
The party has also received support from mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person who donated a plane and hosts fundraisers for the party.
Rinehart, through her majority stake in the parent company of Hancock Energy, owns coal seam gas assets in Queensland and onshore conventional gas assets in Western Australia.
Those operations are governed by state law and would not be directly affected by One Nation's proposed federal policy, although the party has previously opposed some coal seam gas developments, Reuters reported.
"We want more gas, more oil and more energy to drive our country forward," Hanson reportedly told delegates at the conference.
Hanson criticized the Labor government's recently announced policy requiring gas exporters to reserve 20% of production for east coast domestic consumers, a proposal that has faced strong opposition from the energy industry since being unveiled earlier this month.
Hanson said her party's proposal was "not a socialist takeover," describing it as an industry-led model that would apply only to federal offshore waters. She also pledged to reduce project approval timelines to six months.
Jane Norman, chief executive of Amplitude Energy, said a government joint-venture structure could help align industry and public interests. She said her company expected to spend about 20 million Australian dollars ($14.3 million) to secure regulatory approvals for offshore exploration drilling, Reuters reported.
Critics said One Nation's proposal was more interventionist than the Labor government's existing energy policy and could expose taxpayers to financial risks.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported this week that industry lobbyists had spent 11.2 million Australian dollars on an advertising campaign opposing a proposed 25% windfall tax on gas exports.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected the idea of a windfall tax, citing concerns about Australia's trade relationships with key Asian energy buyers, while supporters argue higher taxes are needed to secure greater public returns from gas exports.
Hanson has described windfall tax proposals as "economic vandalism," warning they would discourage investment and reduce domestic gas supply.
One Nation did not immediately respond to' request for comments.