Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can take one of two lines in this matters of public importance debate today, and I will take the more mature, grown-up line. I could feign anger, like Senator Mason, wave my hands around and pretend that I am absolutely disgusted and that the more I raise my voice the more people will be listening out there. But I am above that. We will leave that out of it. Or I could take the Senator Joyce line, where I just prattle on and talk about nothing, as long as I am screaming and going red in the face.

While I am on that, I do want to clarify what I mean by that. I had the misfortune to walk past the television when Senator Joyce was prattling on about something to do with the economic boom and how it is still alive and well around Australia. They were not really his words; it was something like that. I was reading the West Australian, that fine Western Australian newspaper, today and I noticed on page 17 an article by one Dawn Gibson. I have not met Dawn yet, but no doubt I eventually will. Dawn was talking about cashed-up bogans. For all those out there who are not aware, cashed-up bogans are those middle-aged people, probably about my age, who all own a V8 and a couple of houses and have made a lot of money on the back of the skills shortage and the mining and commodities boom—which has been fantastic, especially in my home state of Western Australia, as I have no doubt it has been in Senator Joyce’s and your home state of Queensland, Madam Acting Deputy President Moore.

Senator Joyce made the outlandish statement that the boom is still going and that everything is fine. If Senator Joyce does come across to Western Australia to check out how the boom is going or not going—and I do not want to get into Mr Brendan Grylls’s ears about who he should and should not be talking to—he might want to take note of page 17 of the West Australian and Dawn Gibson’s article. I would like to quote from it. She interviewed KPMG demographer Mr Bernard Salt. Most of us have heard of Mr Salt and the outstanding work that he does. Mr Salt talks about the mining boom in Western Australia and he says his warning comes amid the following indications:

Global economic woes will impact heavily on WA’s employment market. Several big mining companies, including Consolidated Minerals, Newcrest Mining and Mount Gibson Iron have announced in the past month that they have axed or plan to axe hundreds of jobs because of plummeting metal prices and reduced demand.

Having to requote that article does not make me feel good, but, whether Senator Joyce and other senators opposite want to believe it or not, the world is changing daily. Yes, we have been through a wonderful economic boom, a financial boom, through the commodity markets—especially in the fine state of Western Australia, which has every mineral you could want and more. And, yes, the Commonwealth of Australia and Australian taxpayers and users of infrastructure and the like have made a lot of money out of that. But I do not know how many times ministers will have to get up in question time and reiterate to those opposite that we have a global financial crisis. One would hope that, by now, senators opposite would climb above politics—I take that back; they are not mature enough to actually do that—but I am still waiting for the tooth fairy. One day the tooth fairy may bring you back the tooth you lost when you were four or five years old, Senator Williams and Senator Nash—