Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill 2024. Well, if it was unclear before, it is certainly made even less clear now. The Albanese Labor government is completely confused. Where they name a bill 'nature positive', they risk significant increase to carbon emissions, and, where they name a bill 'future made in Australia', they suffocate one of the fastest growing sectors that we have. This bill promises a 10 per cent production tax credit to Australian companies in the critical minerals sector, but it's not without the typical add-ones of a Labor government bill, a definite hindrance to economic and industry growth. Described by Mr Gary Banks as a 'fool's errand', this bill is the Albanese government's latest attempt at dampening our vibrant resources.

Australia's economic decline has been happening at pace under this government. Australia's economy has gone from leading the world under the coalition to trailing the world under Labor. By any economic measurement, Australians are now worse off than they were three years ago. We trail the rest of the world on interest rates, on inflation, on productivity and on economic growth. Australians with a typical mortgage have spent more than $50,000 in additional interest since Labor was elected. Every Australian knows what this is about. Those on that side seem to avoid the pain, because their lack of action in ways that actually have a material impact, a positive impact, demonstrates that they don't really understand it. But everyone else out there who is feeling the cost-of-living pressure knows exactly what it means. It's impacting upon their wellbeing. It's impacting upon their ability to make ends meet. More and more Australians are living pay cheque to pay cheque. And, in fact, even more now are living beyond what their pay is able to deliver for them.

The cost-of-living crisis is impacting Australians. It costs 45 per cent more to build a house than before the COVID pandemic. Underlying electricity prices are now 30 per cent higher than they were before the last election. And Labor have done nothing to address the issues in our energy system. In fact, what they've done and the measures they've put in place have actually made things worse. Under Labor, Australia is experiencing the longest household recession on record. GDP per capita has gone backwards for the past seven consecutive quarters, and Australia has returned to the weak economic growth of the 1970s. That's how far you've got to go back! Yet, the Treasurer parades around like he has presided over an economic renaissance. It's like he has put up a big banner saying, 'Mission accomplished!' It's unbelievable. Australians don't feel that.

Yes, the inflation curve might have moderated, but the prices that Australians have seen increase are now baked in. Their wages have not kept up with those increased prices and are not likely to without causing even greater inflationary pressure. The small and medium sized business sector continues to suffer under Labor's watch. According to the January 2025 NAB SME Business Insights report, three in four small to medium sized businesses believe their costs will increase over the next 12 month. That's a 76 per cent increase. This means prices will continue to rise for Australians. Forty-one per cent of SMEs expect the level of red tape experienced by their business to increase in 2025, a key cost impost on business, which, of course, increases consumer prices.

Yet again, this Albanese Labor government has shown nothing but contempt for the Western Australian mining industry, an industry that I'm very proud of, particularly coming from Western Australia myself. I'm very proud of it. Time and time again this government is wrapping our industries in red tape and creating an array of hoops for businesses to jump through. The prosperity of this nation right now is contingent on a thriving mining industry, particularly in Western Australia—and, of course, I'm sure Senator Roberts will speak about the virtues of the mining industry in Queensland.

This Labor government is hell-bent on repealing investment in the sector. Their decisions are having a chilling effect on investment into this important sector. The Minerals Council of Australia has already stated that the community benefit principles outlined in this bill will likely drive up costs and slow down projects. The Business Council of Australia's submission to the committee also noted that 'the model for administration of the schemes is appropriate but will be inherently complex and costly to administer and comply with'. Only a Labor government, and certainly only an Albanese Labor government, could have a bill named Future Made in Australia and actually make that future even harder for Australians and for Australian businesses. There is no surprise here. The Labor government specialty, which is to provide unnecessary complex red tape and economically destructive policies, is writ large here with this government, and that is the case here with this bill that we are debating here today.

Western Australian people must be thinking that this Albanese Labor government has a bone to pick with them. Whether it is their on-again off-again nature positive legislation or this deceitfully named Future Made in Australia Bill, it seems that the only requirements for bills to be tabled here in this place are that those bills that are going to constrain Western Australians, their businesses and the jobs they are employed in. The Albanese government's very own 2024 report showed that 81 major resource projects in the resources sector are now stalled or at risk. Eighty-one major projects valued at over $119 billion are currently stalled. This is the cost that Australians bear because of this government.

Maybe if you are in the inner city here on the east coast, you might not think much about the mining industry as you go about your daily lives. But let me tell you, it is feeding the nation. These projects are providing the prosperity of this nation. They are actually enabling our roads to be funded. They are enabling our hospitals to be funded. They are enabling our important safety net of the social services system to be funded, the NDIS to be funded, Medicare to be funded. If you take those projects out, if you destroy the resources industry, you can't achieve any of those things. We cannot see the prosperity of this nation continue in the way that it has over many decades when it is declining, sadly, at this point because of the poor judgement of this government.

I recently heard from companies based in Western Australia that want to produce hydrogen, who pointed out to me that this legislation does not even include provisions for clean hydrogen production that utilises carbon as part of the process—that is to say, a hybrid model of production of hydrogen, where you would use carbon sequestration. It doesn't allow for that. It doesn't allow for blue hydrogen, as it is commonly called. They only want the green type of hydrogen. But if we are going to create a market, there is debate as to whether this can even be done, whether green hydrogen is even viable. There are many projects across the world that are actually falling over. Queensland has just didn't announced that the project up in Gladstone is not going to be able to go ahead. We have not seen any progress on any large-scale production of hydrogen. There are a few pilot projects around the place using fully renewables to supply an electrolyser, but we are not seeing anything at a large scale that is going to meet the objectives of this bill. It is in the pipeline—maybe. But one way, if you do believe that that is even possible, that you could ensure a future market would be to establish the supply chains from production all the way through to delivering the product to the markets and actually utilise existing production capacity through steam reformation to create hydrogen, and sequester the carbon that is pulled out as part of processing the natural gas—use carbon capture and storage—as a way to hold the carbon and store it securely. You would then, as part of that, develop the market that would actually take that product for, one day, maybe, a green product to be able to follow through. But that's many, many years away, and meanwhile pink hydrogen—plugging an electrolyser into a nuclear power plant where the demand actually is—might be the easier way for Korea, Japan and other places to go ahead and have their hydrogen delivered to them. This bill does not even meet those objectives. It doesn't even allow for those hybrid projects to be able to occur.

Favouring only one production pathway, rather than aligning with the least carbon-intensive product, this bill again keeps Australia on the back foot in the race against international competitors in the industry. This means that green hydrogen projects which utilise, as I said, steam formation and reformation technology, for example, would be exempt from the incentives of this bill. Unnecessarily disadvantaging projects like these, which have the capacity to contribute greatly to our emissions reductions target in the near future, is nothing short of counterproductive.

The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia's submission to the committee on this bill reaffirmed this, stating that support for a range of hydrogen production technologies is essential for global market expansion. Another submission, from the Business Council of Australia, reaffirms that this bill risks 'increasing costs, duplicating other policies already in place, and offsetting competitive gains,' leaving Australia 'now less attractive as a destination for investment' than it could be. Project delays, increased costs and shallow policies are what have characterised the legislation that we have seen produced by this government.

While this bill might seem to some to be a step in the right direction, it fails to position our nation as a key frontrunner on the international stage, despite our abundance of natural resources. This so-called Future Made in Australia bill does little to create economic growth. Australia needs an economic plan and strong stewardship of the economy, not slogans. Simply slapping on top of a bill a title that misdirects as to the actual intention or effect of the bill is not the way to lead the economy. It needs to be more flexible. We need an economy that's more flexible and adaptable. We need an adaptable industrial relations framework, not one that benefits the trade union movement, as has occurred under this government's watch. Australia has experienced its slowest economic growth in 32 years under this government, which has presided over elevated interest rates and a cost-of-living crisis.

As I said, contrary to the name of the bill, this piece of legislation acts as a ball and chain to the Australian resources sector, an industry that continues to be plagued by this government's regulatory impositions and microwavable money-grab policies. Despite numerous submissions from leading voices in the industry, the government presents this half-baked policy in this place on the eve of an election. When will this government deliver legislation that can provide anything more than a headline with a dollar sign? WA, unfortunately, is going to lose yet again under this policy from this government.