Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

How good is smiling for the cameras outside a Queensland fuel refinery when 600 devastated workers at the BP refinery in Kwinana are still in shock at losing their jobs just a few months ago? The images of a beaming Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a refinery in Brisbane, going the full 'thumbs up' alongside the workers he was motivated enough to save, serve as a reminder to Western Australians that we do not count in the political calculations of this Prime Minister. The announcement of a $2 billion rescue package for Australia's two remaining fuel refineries, one in Brisbane and one in Geelong, really is most welcome and Labor will support this package, and I support the amendments moved by the member for McMahon.

It is a stark reminder of just how willing Mr Morrison is to leave many workers behind while he tries to shore up support on the east coast. I was disgusted—I felt ill—to see our smiling Prime Minister taking credit for saving jobs while, clearly, not giving a second thought for the 600 skilled workers and their families who derive their livelihoods from the Kwinana fuel refinery in my electorate of Brand. Then there are the 300 refinery workers at the Altona refinery, in Melbourne, who are also abandoned by a federal government that simply does not care about them.

Before BP announced the closure of its Kwinana refinery after 65 years of operation, it had been sending out warning signs that this closure was imminent unless it received assistance. The media had been speculating for months about the closure of refineries before the hammer came down on Kwinana. Where was this government when the Kwinana refinery was in trouble? Where were Western Australia's federal Liberals in all of this? Why weren't they fighting for the fuel security of Western Australia within their own government? East coast backbenchers lobbied the Prime Minister and the minister for energy to get this important $2 billion support package for their refineries. But there was barely a murmur of protest or even disappointment from our local Liberals as they all waved goodbye to the capacity of Western Australia to maintain independent fuel-refining capabilities and therefore Western Australia's fuel security.

The Kwinana refinery was the largest refinery in the country and arguably the most efficient—something worth saving, you might have thought. When it was built by BP in the 1950s the Kwinana refinery was the largest international investment ever made in this nation. It formed the cornerstone of the Kwinana industrial area which grew around it and which has continuously been at the heart of WA's economic development. Today the legacy of the Kwinana refinery is the creation of a world-leading example of industrial symbiosis whereby businesses exchange by-products—water and energy—rather than discard them. The Kwinana industrial strip is now home to facilities that will produce the ingredients to make batteries around the globe and help the world achieve net zero emissions.

My father worked at BP from the start, from 1956, in the laboratory on night shift for years, to give our family a good life in the seaside suburb of Shoalwater, where we grew up and where my mother still lives. Until the refinery closed, this had been the story for so many workers and their families in my community. Many of my friends from Safety Bay Senior High School, where I went to school, used to work there. Some still do, although we know that the workforce has been reduced from 600 to 60. I want to say hello and give a tribute to my friends who used to be at BP: Ross Walker, Chris Greaves, Shane Kendall, Tony Crooks and the many others who went to Safety Bay.

The Prime Minister has declared that maintaining Australia's refining capacity is a matter of economic and national security. But in choosing to back refining capacity only in Brisbane and Geelong the Prime Minister is choosing to maintain the economic and national security of just the east coast. Energy minister Angus Taylor has said that Australia must have sovereign refining capability. Well, I'm glad the penny finally dropped for this minister, but unfortunately it's too late for the sovereign refining capacity of the state that literally drives the national economy with its vast mining and agriculture industries that require this refined fuel to operate.

The fuel security for the industry that underpins the Australian economy has been entirely cut adrift, and it looks like this government simply does not care. The question must be asked: how does this $2 billion fuel security package help Western Australia? When a plane lands in Perth from Sydney, we know it's out of avgas. We used to refuel it from avgas refined at the Kwinana refinery. Now the fuel will be imported from Singapore and will travel along the pipelines that used to carry locally refined aviation fuel. In the event of a crisis in Western Australia, how would refined fuel get across the Nullarbor? Does the government plan to truck it across and then up to the Pilbara in a crisis? Don't bet on it. My money is on all fuel staying exactly where it is, supporting the needs of east coast cities, towns and industries. Well, that's a positive result for them—and terrific. But we all know that this latest vote grabber will do nothing to help Western Australia. That's because this government's priority is saving its own skin. Frankly, there is little doubt that Australia's fuel security is worse than ever, and the Morrison government is still far from doing enough. We have arrived at this position after years of inaction and neglect. The Morrison government should have supported refineries and ensured adequate oil reserves years ago, yet they started only at the last possible opportunity and still had to be pushed, kicking and screaming all the way.

These bills will have a positive impact for the remaining two refineries in Australia, but it is too little too late for the people of my community, for the BP workers and their families who live right across the electorate, from Baldivis to Rockingham, and even in nearby electorates. But they all derive their income from the employment security in the work they did refining fuel in Kwinana. The government has done too little too late for these workers. They have been left behind by a government that simply does not care about the people of Brand and particularly the people of Kwinana.

On indulgence, Mr Speaker, I note that it is national bowel cancer day. I wear the ribbon today and I want to acknowledge the great tribute paid yesterday to the Queensland parliament Duncan Pegg, who suffered from and ultimately lost his life to this disease. My sister had bowel cancer when she was 49, many years ago now, and the price I pay for my sister having that disease—very thankfully, she survived it—is that I have to undergo colonoscopies regularly. It's not something you really want to do, but I totally acknowledge that it's a great thing to do to make sure we can resist the devastating impacts of a terrible, terrible cancer that kills many people in Australia. I urge everyone to do what they can on bowel cancer day to think about their health, go get the test if you're of a certain age and make sure you are proactive about your health and your bowel health.

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