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

It may be 2008. The point is, whether it was 2008 or 2009, technology is moving incredibly quickly in so many areas. Of course, in the energy sector it is moving incredibly quickly.

In the last 1½ minutes I've got I want to give a shout-out to those people who work in the energy sector in my electorate of O'Connor. In the town of Collie, which I am very proud to represent, we have the only coalmining province in Western Australia and the coal-fired power stations that generate around 50 per cent of Western Australia's electricity. According to AEMO's website, as at this point in time coal is producing 47 per cent of Western Australia's energy. That's in the middle of the day when all the solar is operating. I'm very proud of those coalminers.

I reiterate what Minister Taylor has said: we won't sacrifice jobs and industries in regional Australia for no global emissions benefits and we won't impose taxes to get there. It's not just the coalminers in Collie who work very hard to enable enormous productivity and benefits for this country; the Worsley Alumina refinery employs 3,000 people and relies on the baseload power that's produced from the Collie power stations just up the road. It employs so many people and puts so much wealth into the economy in the south-west of Western Australia.

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