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

Yes, you are right, Senator Abetz; that is doubtful. I agree with you! I am being very hopeful in saying that Senator Cormann could learn anything!

There are a lot of mistruths and ridiculous figures being espoused around the country about how many workers we may need, should these projects go to final investment decision. With the great work of the task force, which includes mining representation, gas representation, tertiary education representation and construction representation, the best figure which has been agreed to by the members of the task force is that we would probably need about 80,000 construction workers if these projects were to go to final investment decision. As best as we can ascertain, those 80,000 workers would be needed in the next five to 10 years. Of that, we would need some estimated 30,000 production workers to run those plants. That is a far cry from the figures that we have heard today.

The West Australianand it is fine newspaper—has unfortunately been conned or fooled by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Western Australia into thinking that, in a state with a population of some two million, in the next seven years we will need some 441,000 workers just in WA. I can tell you now, Mr Acting Deputy President—and it is on the record—that, if you were to check with the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, with the Minerals Council of Australia, with APIA or with whomever else you may want to check, you would find that that figure is absolute nonsense.

To come back to the figures that have been thrown around today—and you can see where the hysteria and the hype come from—they go off the record and become absolutely ridiculous. I encourage opposition senators, if they are going to get up and speak for the big end of town, to do a couple of things. One, through you, Mr Acting Deputy President, if you on the other side have financial interests or shares in any of these mining companies or resource companies, the decent thing to do would be to declare it before you start ranting and raving and attacking the Rudd government. That is a process of the Senate, one which I would follow if I had those shares or those interests, which I do not.