Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

There is indeed a theme, and it is a very clear one. That is that the answers given to the question, firstly, posed by Senator Johnston and, secondly, posed by Senator Cormann, relate to the impacts of decisions by the Western Australian government.

Off the north coast of Western Australia there exists a huge resource for this country in the Browse Basin that some estimate to be worth $1 trillion. It is no secret that Australia has enjoyed great wealth from the resources of this country. But in Western Australia we have a scandal of epic proportions, where two companies, Woodside and Inpex, have sought over the last years to get permission and approval from the Carpenter government in Western Australia to proceed with providing to Australia riches from those resources. Indeed, we have a situation where Inpex, due to the years of frustration due to indecision and delay by the Carpenter government, are now considering taking that onshore liquefied natural gas refinery to Darwin—and in that delay Australia has been denied the wealth from those resources which it otherwise could have enjoyed.

In Western Australia we have seen, as reported in the West Australian on 26 August, a denial by the Treasurer, Mr Ripper, that any decision has been made by Inpex to move that project to Darwin. It is interesting that, in the same report, that comment by Mr Ripper was not backed by Inpex. In fact, Inpex itself, on its website, has stated that it is drilling and carrying out work in Darwin in relation to a potential development of the project there. It is also interesting that in August this year Knight Frank, on page 16 in an information memorandum for the sale of a commercial property in Darwin, touted the value of this property by citing ‘the imminent announcement of the site for the Inpex gas processing facility’.

What we have here is a situation where Inpex is looking at moving its potential onshore development to Darwin. This would deprive the Kimberley in particular of great wealth, of jobs—in fact we have the statement from Colin Barnett, the WA Liberal leader, who said that jobs, tax revenue, a chance to guarantee more gas for domestic use and WA’s international reputation as a resource state were in danger of being lost if Japanese energy company Inpex built its $12 billion LNG export plant in Darwin rather than the Kimberley.

We are facing a cover-up here, because the state government in Western Australia knows that there is bad news as a result of its negligence, and it does not want the bad news to be known by the people of Western Australia before they go to the polls on Saturday. That is a disgrace. It is something which we are seeing from the Carpenter government—cover-ups and delays in decisions. In the West Australian on 26 August, there was an article which outlined and was entitled ‘The nine things you are unlikely to know before you vote in the state election on September 6’, and the Inpex decision was one of them.

It was interesting that Senator Carr referred to there having been no decision. Of course, when he was pressed by Senator Johnston, he said, ‘As far as I’m aware there is no decision.’ He realised he was on dangerous ground. He realises that in Western Australia there is a huge cover-up as to the reality of the situation.

Similarly, a question posed by Senator Cormann to Senator Ludwig was on a very important issue in Western Australia—the health crisis there. As reported in the West Australian, the  Perth’s hospital emergency departments are Australia’s most overcrowded and have dangerously long waiting times. Again, we saw that this government here has a complete lack of knowledge of that. In fact, when Senator Cormann asked whether the Carpenter government had requested more funding for this crisis, the spokesman for this federal government’s health minister was unable to answer, because there has been no request.