Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's now clearer than ever that Labor is not committed to the resources sector—that is, those jobs for many locals and associated industries, or FIFO workers. Mining companies are now warning that up to 33,000 jobs are at risk from a potential new mining tax 2.0 from Labor, as well as from their multi-employer bargaining changes.

Senator Watt rejected those numbers, so who are they listening to? Yes, their favourite unions. This would imperil projects valued up to $77 billion, spreading investment uncertainty and contagion. Who would invest amid an environment operating in investment uncertainty? The mining sector has identified 140 projects subject to pre-final-investment decisions that would be at risk from new taxes and ill-thought-through industrial relations changes. Of those 140 projects, 46 of them are critical minerals projects—critical minerals which are supposed to be part of the renewal technology supply chain Labor keeps talking about. Mining companies themselves are saying that these changes will slow down Australia's energy transformation and that we need more lithium for batteries, more copper for solar panels and more cobalt for electric vehicles—not more uncertainty and risk, which will simply chase away investment from our shores at this crucial hour.

Multi-employer bargaining and Labor's rushed industrial relations policy will only lead to more strike action and put mine developments at risk of cancellation or delay. The proposed workplace changes represent the most radical shake-up of Australia's industrial relations system in decades. Such reform is taking place with so little consultation, except with the unions. Labor have made it clear they want to hand over all workplaces to the unions. Small, medium-sized and large businesses opposed it—I've heard it myself. Industry-wide bargaining will be devastating for the mining sector and the broader Australian economy, leading to widespread strike action, including potential sympathy strikes by those unrelated to a particular dispute, just like we saw in the 1970s.

In my own state of South Australia, mining production is worth in the vicinity of $5.4 billion a year. What's the risk to that under this policy? The introduction of multi-employer bargaining is a breach of faith with all Australian businesses who took the Treasurer at his word when he said last year that industry-wide bargaining was not Labor's policy. I heard it, and so did the Australian public. This needlessly threatens the mining industry, which earns over $413 billion in exports, employs over 277,000 Australians in high-paid jobs, and contributed $43.2 billion in taxes in 2020-21. In the last 20 years, employment in mining has tripled and wages have doubled, benefiting hundreds of thousands of Australians, especially in regional areas.

In what is a recurring theme, Labor has no plan to support jobs and the economy; Labor is not supporting Australian families struggling with the increasing cost of living; and, clearly, Labor does not support the resources industry. While the coalition wholeheartedly supports mining and the jobs it creates, Labor is beholden to its own left wing and its allies in the Australian Greens who want to shut down the resources industry and the jobs of thousands of Australians, including those in regional and remote areas. Who are they listening to? Businesses actually delivering jobs for Australians in those areas? They don't like that you didn't consult with them on the common interest test, multi-employer bargaining or the removal of the ABCC. Your union masters like it, though.

Question agreed to.