Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

billion!—slush fund for the Labour government. And that hypocrisy, again, has shone forth in the deal done behind closed doors on the Orwellian named safeguard mechanism. The Reconstruction Fund is Orwellian named, in and of itself. 'Reconstruction' was the recovery after the Civil War. To call manufacturing in Australia in need of reconstruction is highly Orwellian, and this safeguard mechanism is now a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of industries, particularly very important industries like the gas industry of Western Australia—an industry that is over 40 years old and employs many thousands of West Australians.

We've seen the hypocrisy shine through in the way that the respective leaders of the Labor Party and the Greens party have approached the safeguard mechanism. According to the leader of the Greens, half of new gas and coal projects are going to face the axe—half of them. According to the Prime Minister: 'That's not right. None of them will.' Well, goodness gracious me. The left hand doesn't know what the other left hand is doing! I think you'll see, as we examine the impact of this bill, that it's going to hurt Australians. (Time expired.)