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

I thank the very hardworking member for Swan for that question. A Future Made in Australia will be built on the most significant budget for the resources sector in a generation, including a 10 per cent production tax incentive credit for critical minerals, valued at over $17 billion. This production tax incentive will drive investment in processing critical minerals onshore, here in Australia, and ensure that Australia gets a greater share of the benefit of adding value to our vast mineral resources. It will help create well-paid jobs, open up training pathways, and protect our sovereign capability. We will make more here in Australia and help the world to decarbonise.

I'm asked what is standing in the way. Well, you don't have to look too far: it is, of course, the Liberals and Nationals opposite. It took mere minutes for the coalition to reject this industry supported incentive on budget night earlier this year, but apparently the opposition leader is now changing his tune and, according to some reports in the media, a package is shortly on its way. But we know Western Australians and, indeed, all Australians can't really believe a word that is said by those opposite. As we know, the Leader of the Opposition says one thing on the west coast and a completely different thing here in Canberra and on the east coast.

In the absence of any coherent policy or any way to explain their failure to support the critical minerals industry, the opposition leader, as the Minister for Industry and Science observed yesterday, simply says, 'We will have more to say.' Well, that may be a pithy catchphrase, but it would be far more useful for the critical minerals sector if the Leader of the Opposition simply said yes to production tax credits. But, of course, the Leader of the Opposition can't say yes, because, while he's in Perth trying to fool Western Australians, the shadow Treasurer is on the east coast opposing production tax incentives and calling them welfare for billionaires. This is a form of class warfare I did not expect to come from the opposition.

The coalition are also at odds with their state colleagues in Western Australia. Libby Mettam, the Leader of the Liberals, and Shane Love, the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Nationals, have joined Labor Premier Roger Cook in backing the production tax incentives. The coalition are, surprisingly, also at odds with industry, despite claiming to be their great protector. Of course, they were once so enthusiastic about the resources sector that they had two ministers for resources. But it's an even bigger mess now they're in opposition than when they were in government. Of course, we can't forget the time they tumbled the resources portfolio right out of cabinet so that the Nationals could have their little argument about who was going to be their leader. Instead of supporting PTCs, they say all sorts of things about the policies of the government.

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