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

Well, here we have, once again in this chamber, an ample demonstration of this radical Green Left tail wagging this dog of a Labor government, and it's a government that doesn't know whether it should be chasing its tail or whether it should be chasing the stick. So, instead, it just chases the parked car. We see a government that's completely unable to make decisions in the national interest. Instead, they get dragged ever further to the left by the radical Greens, their fellow travellers in the environment movement and the radical animal-activist movement. We see a government that's completely incapable of acting in the benefit and the interest of the Australian people.

Anyone out there with half a gram of sense knows that gas is essential to our economy. It is essential to the future of our energy grids, and it's crucial to the transition that other countries want to undergo in their energy grids. In fact, I was lucky enough just last week to meet with a delegation from the Japanese parliament to this country, who, once again, emphasised to me the importance of Australian gas exports to their country for their own energy security but also for their transition plans to a less carbon-intensive economic environment. Instead, we have the Greens in here trying to drag the Labor government to the left, and, whether it's through ignorance or incompetence, they allow themselves to be dragged because they cannot make a decision in the national interest.

I've been lucky enough to travel north in Western Australia in the last few weeks, particularly over the winter recess. I took the opportunity, once more, to visit the Burrup Peninsula and look at the quite remarkable development that's going on there—the thousands of jobs for the current construction of the Pluto Train 2 and the ongoing jobs and high-quality investment in infrastructure that the gas company provides in that local area.

But I was also lucky enough to travel to an area that's actually been decommissioned, Thevenard Island, where, once upon a time, about 15 years ago, there were two large condensate tanks, a massive pipe right across the island and, obviously, a workers' quarters. Now you go to that island and not a trace of that activity exists. The large concrete jetty that was there, which was obviously very tall to deal with the massive tides in the north of Western Australia—and I've seen that jetty in the past—is now no longer there. In fact, it has gone without a trace. The two large condensate tanks—and, when I say large, I mean that they would just about fill this chamber—are not there anymore. In fact, they're gone without a trace. In fact, even more remarkable is that the gas and oil rig that was a few miles offshore and could be seen last time I was out there has gone. It's been redeployed elsewhere to generate new economic activity and to generate new supplies that are needed not just domestically for our own energy system but internationally for countries like Japan and their energy transition.

Instead, we get phrases, particularly from state Labor governments, like 'load shedding' and we get bans on new gas in homes. We pay industry in Western Australia to close down rather than have them put pressure on the energy grid, because this Labor government, being wagged by the tail that is the Greens, wants to go for a renewables-only approach to energy supply. That simply doesn't stack up when it comes to industrial development. It simply doesn't stack up when it comes to manufacturing.

The fact is that the Greens, dragging Labor with them, have never seen a mine or an industrial development that they like, but they have the jobs that will be the future of Australia.