Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister update the House on how the government is supporting economic development and exports from Western Australia? Is the minister aware of any alternatives?

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for O'Connor for his question. I recognise his deep interest in economic development in Western Australia through exports. Australia is an energy superpower, and we are on track to becoming the largest exporter of LNG in the world by 2020. This remarkable growth has been built on the foundation of a $200 billion investment phase. Of course, our success in attracting overseas investment has to do with many factors, including our significant gas reserves and our proximity to Asian markets but also our skilled workforce and the certainty that we provide in terms of tax and regulatory regimes. For example: the INPEX-led Ichthys project—the $45 billion LNG project at Browse Basin—is the single-largest overseas investment by the Japanese company. This will not only be a great story for Western Australia but also for Australia. The life of the Browse Basin project is about 40 years. There will be about nine million tonnes of LNG produced and the construction phase alone provided 10,000 jobs, many of them in Western Australia. This project came about because of positive engagement by the then Liberal Western Australian government and the coalition federal government, underpinned by long-term supply contracts.

I was asked about alternative approaches, and there certainly are alternative approaches. It is like A Tale of Two Cities. I can draw the analogy between what has happened in Western Australia and what has happened in Queensland. In Perth, the Browse Basin project was backed by the Western Australian Liberal government and the federal government. We backed investment, we backed jobs and we backed this project back in Western Australia. But in Brisbane, the Queensland Labor government is in chaos over the Adani coalmine. They are in absolute chaos over the mining project. That is because the Premier is in an ideological battle to the death with her deputy, the Greens proxy, who is trying to undercut the Adani project—putting at risk jobs and investment.

Now, here in Canberra the Leader of the Opposition is all over the place when it comes to jobs and investment. He tells Adani that he backs the project, yet Labor voted against our efforts to finalise amendments to the Native Title Act, which are fundamental to secure this investment. They are absolutely fundamental to secure this investment. So, you can back the coalition on jobs; you cannot trust Labor on jobs.