Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Sterle for the question. It is probably a good lesson for people, because if you do not know something you should ask questions; we encourage people to ask questions. It is quite clear from Senator Sterle’s question that he knows very little about this process. I am happy to inform all senators about this project, because the Australian Labor Party in Western Australia seeks to mislead the people of Western Australia on a regular basis on this.

Senator Sterle correctly—and this is one of the few bits of correct information in the question—draws our attention to a serious deficiency in Western Australia: the lack of a monitoring regime for pollutants coming from brickworks in the Midland, Guildford and Hazelmere area. The environmental assessment report, which I released in full a few weeks ago, goes very much to the point that the Western Australian Labor government has totally failed the people of the Swan Valley, Guildford and Hazelmere because it does not have in place a monitoring regime. If Senator Sterle were smart enough to read the approval that Mr Truss gave to the brickworks proposal, which contained 60 stringent environmental conditions, he would see that the proponents—the Perth Airport Corporation—are required to put in place a monitoring regime because none exists in Western Australia under his state comrades’ regime. I remind all senators that the Western Australian Labor state government—