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

I too rise to make my contribution. I'm from WA, a mining state, and I'm not antimining by any means. I am a supporter of mining. I also know that mining creates some 300,000 jobs here in Australia. I know my industry, the great road transport industry—we're the first ones there. We're the ones that clear the turf, we're the ones that bring in all the supplies, we're the ones that bring in all of the infrastructure and we're the ones that move in all the people. So I do absolutely get the importance of mining to the Australian economy.

I had not heard of this gold project of Regis Resources until this morning, when I read something in the paper. I listened intently to Minister McAllister's answer, and I also listened intently to my good friend Senator Scarr's contribution and how he read what the company said on the ASX today. From the information I have received today, the minister is very clear. It's about a tailings dam, I think; the minister was concerned about traditional owner sacred site issues around where the tailings dam is. I don't know the full size of the site and all that, but I did hear Minister McAllister say very clearly that they hope the project—this is what I've picked up. I see you shaking your head, my learned friend over there. I get that, but I still have faith that the minister has said that in this chamber, and I see no reason why the minister would make anything up.

I also know proponents of mining projects and others—when something get knocked back, there's a big ballyhoo. You know yourself, Senator Scarr, that your door, my door and every door in this building—except for the fairies at the end of the garden path—gets knocked on by all the lobbyists and companies that come in and tell us what's really going on, or what they hope is going on. What I'm picking up is that there's a bit of ambit here. I hope that something better does come of this. I just wanted to clear that.

I also want to go to the first question that was put, in terms of the IV fluids shortages, which came to light last week—it was raised in this chamber. We know that it's saline—it's salt water. I remember someone saying to me on Friday, 'How hard is it just to get some salt water?' We've got to dig a little bit deeper. We know they're critical hospital medicines and are used in routine and critical care settings. We all know that. We know sponsors of IV fluids have noted global supply issues—'global' is what they're saying, loud and clear—with an unexpected increase in demand and manufacturing constraints that have contributed to shortages. Everyone in this building and everyone out there, even those poor devils in the chamber that have to listen to half the stuff going on—good on you; thanks for coming, but gee whiz I take my hat off to you!—know of global shortages around the nation. I know that from all my conversations since the pandemic, as I ask every decent employer that comes through my door to see me here and in Perth: 'What happened to everyone? Where have all the workers gone? Where has everything gone? What happened since the pandemic?'

In my trucking industry, road transport, we've had skill shortages for years. Mum and Dad don't want their son or daughter to come out of school and go into road transport, which is so sad. It's such a brilliant industry, and you can make a magnificent earning—boy or girl. You can have your hands on the steering wheel of a forklift, or you can be in administration or sales. But for some reason we've really struggled in that. But where have all these workers gone? Let us talk about the global supply chains. This doesn't get mentioned, but when our previous Prime Minister quite rightfully decided to shut down the country and stop all the flights to keep us all safe and when the state premiers acted, we understood why that was done. But we must not forget this: the shipping industry and the Chinese did us no favours. This doesn't come out: they absolutely squeezed the supply chains down.

I know from my great mates in the trucking industry—one of them is a great mate; I introduced him into the industry as a 19 year old back in 1979. He brings in mill balls. He has a contract where he's got about 10 or 15 road trains running throughout the week carting mill balls for the gold mines in the mid-west. I can't quite remember the exact figure, but the cost of getting containers off the Fremantle port before the pandemic was around $1,200. By the time the international shipping companies had finished squeezing the daylights out of us Aussies, it had gone to something like $7,000 per container. When we talk about global supply chain squeezes—anyone tried to buy a Toyota lately? Good luck with that! There is a lot more truth in it that gets put out that doesn't come out in this building in here.