Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Shadow Treasurer) | Link to this | Hansard source

The strongest criticisms of Labor's budget are now coming from Labor people themselves. In an extraordinary development, the Labor Premier of Western Australia and the Labor Treasurer of Western Australia had to travel yesterday from Perth all the way to Canberra to make WA's case against the budget and the dangerous budget measures that will hurt the very industry that supports Western Australia's development and prosperity and, indeed, Australia's development and prosperity.

Premier Cook was right when he said that mineral exploration is by its very nature an exercise in creating capital gains. Western Australians know that they are prepared to take high-risk exploration chances in order to grow the resources industry in Western Australia, to the benefit of Western Australians and other Australians. But that is something that Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fails to understand.

Why is it that federal Labor representatives have been so silent? Why is it that the federal resources minister, Madeleine King, Labor's Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Patrick Gorman, the Minister for Small Business, Anne Aly, and the five Labor senators in this Senate chamber—Senators Ghosh, Sterle, Whiteaker, Cox and Lines—have been silent in standing up for WA and making the case for a better WA deal from Labor? Without investment, projects stall. Without projects, discoveries do not occur. Without discoveries, future mines are never built. WA Labor says that it stands for Western Australia, but, when it really matters, WA Labor just backs down. (Time expired)