Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, with the mining investment boom coming off the boil and Western Australia's unemployment spiking to a 10-year high, all under a Liberal state government, will the Prime Minister accept Greens Senator Scott Ludlam's challenge for WA Senate candidates to debate their long-term plans for jobs in the economy after the mining boom?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is too much noise on my right. There is far too much noise in the chamber. I will not have a wall of noise as we experienced earlier. That question is not in order. Asking for a debate is not part of the standing orders. If you wish to rephrase your question, you may.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. Prime Minister, with the mining investment boom coming off the boil and Western Australia's unemployment spiking to a 10-year high, all under a Liberal state government, why do the Liberals have no plan for Western Australia's economy after the mining boom comes to an end?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We would like to restart the mining boom by scrapping the mining tax and scrapping the carbon tax. That is our plan for Western Australia. Our plan for Western Australia is to get rid of these anti-Western Australian taxes, the carbon tax and the mining tax. Even the Leader of the Opposition wants to get rid of the mining tax when he is in Western Australia. It is just that he opposes it in Western Australia and supports it here in Canberra, where it counts. I suggest to the member who asked the question—and I am sure he does genuinely want to help the people of Western Australia—that, if he thought about it, if he wanted to help the people of Western Australia in reality as well as just in theory, he would change his position on the mining tax and the carbon tax. He would vote to scrap these anti-Western Australian taxes which are holding back the people of that great state.