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

Not only would there be five consecutive quarters of recession but unemployment, Senator Fifield, through you, Madam Acting Deputy President, is hovering around 7.3 per cent. But if I am wrong I am sure Senator Fifield will come to the defence of the leader of the Liberal Party, a person who just thinks that economics is boring. It just says it all Anyway, we do not hear a lot. I am not hearing a lot over there now, so I must be on the money.

I want to get back to the budget. There have been some wonderful announcements in the budget, there is no mistake about that. I would like to talk about health: an extra $2.2 billion in health investment that will take us to a reform of $7.3 billion over five years, which adds up to about $23 billion over the rest of the decade. Where is the leader of the Liberal Party, Mr Abbott, on this, who is the ex-health minister from the Howard government? What was his main claim to fame? His main claim to fame was that he ripped out $1 billion from the health portfolio.

Time does not allow me to go through verse by verse on how good the budget it. It is a responsible budget. But there is one part of the budget that I do want to home in on in the short time that I have left, and that is the big spending on jobs and skills training. Unfortunately, the minister responsible has left the chamber, but I do want to take this time to congratulate him; he is a minister with foresight. The minister had foresight when that fantastic gas site off the coast of Western Australia was announced—the Chevron operated Gorgon project. The Prime Minister, the Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister Ferguson, and Minister Arbib actually thought, ‘Heck, we’ve got some problems.’ This government took over the reigns during a global financial crisis, but even when things were going well—and I come from that fantastic state of Western Australia, where mining is just about everything—what did the Howard government do in their 12 years? They sat there and witnessed the boom. They wasted the boom.

I know the word ‘boom’ gives some people problems, particularly people like the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I was in a conference in Karratha a few years ago, and this is their line of thinking: we should not call it the boom, we should call it a ‘once in a lifetime paradigm shift’. This is the sort of nonsense that you have got to put up with—it goes on. But to cut a long story short, they squandered the boom—they cut back in skills training and they cut back in apprenticeships. What did they leave us? A massive hole. Thank goodness for the Prime Minister, for Minister Ferguson and Minister Arbib for having the foresight to say, ‘What are we going to do? Where are we going to get these workers when the Gorgon project gets off and running?’

Through the hard work of the Hon. Gary Gray, the member for Brand, who is chairing the National Resource Sector Employment Taskforce, we have sat down and consulted extensively with industry—mining, construction, gas and the whole resource sector—and asked, ‘Can someone please tell us how we can identify, if all these mining projects go to final investment decision in the next five to 10 years, how many workers we will need?’ We think we know from the good work of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy and APIA and the like around the country that we will need 80,000 workers in construction alone and 30,000 in production in the next five to 10 years. So I want to applaud Minister Arbib for his foresight and the Treasurer, Mr Swan, for the big spending blitz on skills training.

I will list a few key points, if I may. There will be $661 million for the Skills for Sustainable Growth strategy. That is fantastic, as this area was very seriously lacking and nonexistent in the Howard years. There will be $300 million to address skill hot spots, with a $200 million critical skills investment fund to support training through partnerships with industry. It is expected to fund no fewer than 39,000 training places. Also, there will be $79 million for small and medium businesses to take on young traditional trade apprentices. This is all fantastic foresight, which was seriously lacking throughout the Howard years. There will be $20 million to encourage competency based apprenticeships. As someone who was fortunate enough to have been awarded the Centenary Medal by the Prime Minister at the time, Mr Howard, for services to training in the transport industry, training is close to my heart. I am happy to have an argument with any senator or member about the need for training and skilling young Australians.

There has been a lot of conjecture over the new Resource Super Profits Tax, but I want to bring to the chamber’s attention a full-page article in the West Australianthat fine newspaper in WA—on 27 April 2010 written by Ms Gina Rinehart. Ms Rinehart is very well known in mining circles. She is also Australia’s richest woman, and good luck to her; I wish I could say I was Australia’s richest man. I would be happy to be in the top 20,000 but, unfortunately, I am never going to get there. In her article Ms Rinehart talks about Rio Tinto, one of those mining giants which are all around Australian but particularly in Western Australia, and how it has taken advantage of the African country of Guinea’s:

… relatively low labour costs to export iron ore in increasing quantities to Asian markets, markets that we would like to think of as Australia’s forever. These changes will occur in the near future—within four to five years—meaning that Australia has a very short time to prepare.

I take it that means to prepare with low labour costs. I am quoting bits and pieces but I am happy to table or supply any senator on the other side with a copy of this article. If they want a copy, I have got many in my office and am very happy to pass it on so that they can read it themselves. Ms Rinehart goes on to say:

In West Australia, as the Gorgon project and other resource developments occur, we must address a critical problem that is already becoming obvious again, that is, the shortage of construction workers willing to work in remote Northern areas.

That is not news to us; we know that very well. Ms Rinehart continues:

Let’s remember Asian markets will not want to buy more expensive minerals from Australia, their priority will turn to countries that can supply minerals competitively.

Does that mean that she will take a drop in her profit for the sale of iron ore? We are not sure, but she says that Australia must set up special economic zones, either brownfield or greenfield, and she then goes on to say that we as a nation should not build these massive mining projects in the north of Western Australia using Australian labour—because it is too expensive. She is saying, ‘We must build these projects in a northern economic zone with cheap overseas labour.’ As a proud Western Australian and a senator for Western Australia, I will go to my grave fighting for Australian jobs and Australian conditions. I understand that we need robust migration systems but I will be damned if I will see Australian jobs go offshore. (Time expired)