Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to join the member for Swan and to second the motion that she moved, speaking to the importance of our critical minerals sector and of passing the legislation for the production tax credits for both critical minerals, including rare earths, and hydrogen. I am absolutely shocked and aghast that last night the Liberal senators representing Western Australia failed to back that legislation in.

In Western Australia, we have over 135,000 workers who specifically work across the mining sector. A good portion of those people work in my electorate of Hasluck. They work hard. They work long hours. They fly north, away from family and friends for weeks at a time. They work in sweltering heat to make a future here in Australia, and they look to us. They called on us to be able to advance the production of our critical minerals and not just to dig them out and ship them off—which is all the Liberals care for, clearly—but to actually work on downstream processing, because that is where the future is. That's where the jobs are. That is what is going to lead to the production of renewable energy—through wind turbines and batteries—and EV cars. This is where Western Australia wants to lead. It wants to be a global leader on this front. The introduction of production tax credits was the way in which we would change the rules of the game. It would absolutely put us at the forefront, attracting capital into Western Australia and bringing certainty to industry so that they can have the confidence to make the significant investments required to actually start to move into this downstream processing and production.

So where were the Liberals? Because we're coming into election season, I'm naming and shaming these members, because when they come knocking on doors I want people to know how they voted. I want my constituents to ask the Liberals who come onto our turf, 'What way did you vote on jobs for me, my family and my friends?' This is their record. The member for Canning, the member for Forrest, the member for O'Connor and, extraordinarily, the member for Durack, where most of these mines actually are, all voted no to this legislation. Further, Senators Cash, O'Sullivan, Dean Smith and Brockman failed to stand up for Western Australia. What on earth are they there for? They are there as Western Australian senators, not Liberal senators. They are there to back in Western Australia's industry. Where were they? They've let the Western Australian people down. They've let my constituents down. These are the jobs of the future, and people want certainty. They want to know that, irrespective of the election outcome, those jobs of the future will be there. But instead, sadly, we now have a Liberal and National opposition that hope to get into government but will be prepared to cut Western Australia's future. We will not let that happen. I will stand up for Western Australians, and I know that the voters of the electorate of Hasluck will absolutely back in jobs for themselves and their families and will back in a Labor government to provide those jobs.