Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The last 50 years have seen Western Australia emerge as the engine room of the Australian economy, particularly through the development of the iron ore, oil and gas industries in our north. Western Australia has provided the revenue, the secure jobs and the royalties that have enabled so many Australians to build their families, to build their futures and to build lives of great dignity and worth because of the value inherent in those industries. But we are at a crossroads.

There are very few major projects currently in the pipeline. So, whilst people—particularly those on the east coast and those in government in this place—still see the extraordinary flows that come directly and indirectly from the mining and gas industries in the north of Western Australia, their approach to the future of these industries leaves them in jeopardy, and that leaves the Australian economy in jeopardy. It was a very short few years ago that Western Australia was ranked as the No. 1 destination in the world for mining investment attractiveness. Under this Labor government, in the latest Fraser Institute survey, this has fallen off a cliff, going from fourth to 17th place in just one year, and it is now the 17th most attractive mining investment destination, down from the best in the world.

What's changed? One of the things that's changed is this federal Labor government's alliance with the Greens, which continues to make it less and less attractive for the opportunities for the next generation and for the future to proceed. How can I prove this? It's not just Western Australia that's fallen off a cliff. Queensland has gone from 13th to 39th place. South Australia has gone from 19th to 35th place. The Northern Territory has gone from 22nd to 38th place. New South Wales has gone from 34th to 62nd place. Victoria has gone from 48th to 63rd place. And Tasmania has gone from the 33rd most attractive investment destination to the 71st. What have all those states got in common? This federal Labor government in alliance with the Greens party.

The sector is worried. I think everyone in the sector would acknowledge that they have done extraordinarily well. They've done well for this nation over the last decade and over the last 20, 30, 40 and 50 years. But the entrepreneurial spirit of Western Australia always looks to the future, and what is over the horizon under the set of policies put in place by this government? I spoke to a particular gas company who was exploring carbon capture and storage and was willing to invest billions of dollars to reduce its emissions by 40 per cent basically overnight. It's presumably something that this government wants to happen.

The best-case scenario for their environmental approvals? Nine years, with 125 different approvals required. Just think about that for a few moments. This is supposedly something that this government believes in, yet it's going to make that company jump through hoops for nine years.

I asked if that included any time for litigation from the Environmental Defenders Office, still funded by this government and by the left-wing activist groups that seek to use lawfare to stop development. I asked if the company had put any time into this nine-year plan for those illegal blockages. They hadn't put in any, so nine years is the optimistic version. And this is for something that this Labor government supposedly wants. The idea that this Labor government is in any way a friend of the mining industry or the gas industry is just absolute nonsense.

To the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies—AMEC, based in Western Australia—their chief executive, Warren Pearce, said:

WA tumbling from 4th to 17th reflects the frustrations and challenges our sector is facing with land access and environmental approvals.

We know that the government is about to come back to this place—by the end of this year, Senator Watt has said—with its rejigged nature-positive laws. Apparently the phrase now is 'net positive', whatever that means; this is a government that's absolutely addicted to spin. But what it really means for the mining industry is a government that won't be straight with them. It'll tell them to their faces that it cares, it understands their issues and it wants to try and support both improving the environment and allowing these approval times to be reduced. But the evidence is on the table. Environmental approval times are not being reduced. They are going out and out, even for things, as I've given you the example of—carbon capture and storage—that this government would theoretically want to support. Nine years—and that's with no time for radical environmentalists challenging it in the courts, which has happened to pretty much every major project in this country for the last 20 years.

This Labor government cannot be trusted when it comes to the future of the laws they will seek to put in place. They cannot be trusted with governance over the Western Australian mining industry or the Western Australian gas industry because they speak out of both sides of their faces. They say one thing when they're in my home state of Western Australia and then they do another thing when they're in this place. The fact that there is, after the first term of this Labor government, no certainty in the future and no pipeline to the rejuvenation of the industry or the ongoing investment of the industry in my home state of Western Australia shows that this Labor government cannot be trusted with the future of the Western Australian economy, our mining industry or our gas industry.

We need a government that understands that the success of families, individuals, small business and companies relies on having a sensible framework in which business individuals can operate—and that includes allowing mining and the gas industry in my home state of Western Australia to continue to lead the world. We should be back as the No. 1 investment destination in the world—not 17th, where we have dropped to under this Labor government.