Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I cannot believe that a senator for South Australia would stand in this place and cheer the loss of investment and jobs in South Australia, as Senator Hanson-Young just did. I cannot believe that the invitation has been made for me to join her in congratulating people for deterring this investment and this creation of jobs in South Australia. This is a disappointing decision by BP. It is a disappointing decision that reduces the employment prospects for South Australians in the future. It is particularly disappointing for the communities of the west coast of South Australia who will loose out the most from investment that BP were planning to undertake as part of their continued exploration activities. I have been continually disappointed in this place by the fact that the Greens, in cooperation with other political parties, have sought to politicise BP's activities in relation to exploration and have sought to, indeed, create an environment where it is less attractive for somebody to actually proceed with a good, strong investment into the state of SA.

Of course, all of the usual environmental standards and procedures were being applied and NOPSEMA was doing its job in putting BP through all of the right assessments and conditions before final permits and approvals could be granted. But I cannot believe that we have a circumstance yet again where the Australian Greens seem to think it is appropriate to be a cheer squad for the loss of jobs and the loss of investment rather than actually recognising that this is another disappointing act in relation to investment in South Australia, which I am pleased that our government is working hard to try to rectify through programs like, of course, our record levels of defence industry investment. But also, as we have discussed previously, we need to continue to work— (Time expired)