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

I return in continuation to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025, and, when the Greens party in this place earlier were carrying out yet another stunt, bringing a dead fish into the chamber completely against any standing orders or any good sense for that matter, it did put me in mind—I've already quoted one movie today, but I'll quote another one—of TheGodfather. I did wonder whether Senator Hanson-Young wasn't commenting on Tanya Plibersek's career when she brought that dead fish into the chamber. We all remember that classic scene from The Godfather where Luca Brasi's jacket was returned to the Corleone family wrapped around a dead fish, and Michael Corleone looks at the dead fish and doesn't understand. He hasn't grown up with the mafia traditions, and his brother explains to him that the dead fish, of course, represents swimming with the fishes—it means Luca Brasi is dead. I do wonder whether that was some reflection on the career of Minister Plibersek and the decision that this government has taken. But if there's any blame to be shared at home, it's to be directed to the minister, because she has now kicked the can on the North West Shelf project down the road past the election date, trying to cover for this government's lack of decision-making ability. Now, for political reasons, the Labor Party has decided to override the EPBC Act here, and, again, I'll pay tribute to Tasmanian senators—Senator Chandler is in the chamber—who have stood up for the salmon industry in their home state, and rightly so.

It does beg the question of why a $30 billion project in my and Senator Cash's home state, Western Australia, is being kicked down past the election. Why? Why would they do this, Senator Cash? I ask the question. Is it because it causes too many problems within the Labor Party itself for them to make a decision? Is it that they don't think the six years of consideration given to it at the state level is worthy, even though that was completely under the control of their own Labor colleagues in Western Australia, the Cook Labor government? There has been six years of consideration and approval, yet even though the first due date was 28 February, and then another date was set—that was changed, again—now it's been kicked down past the election. It should cause everyone whose job in Western Australia relies directly or indirectly on the oil and gas industry or the mining industry, as well as small businesses that rely on gas as an energy source, to worry, because we have commitments to our trading partners overseas, and we must meet those commitments.

I was lucky enough to be in Japan last year, meeting with very senior figures. The supply of gas to Japan, particularly from Western Australia, is absolutely essential, not just for their economic security but for their national security. Anyone who thinks that the relationship with Japan, particularly in the challenging geopolitical circumstances which the world faces, is not of utmost importance to Australia is, quite frankly, fooling themselves and letting down the whole of this country, particularly my home state of Western Australia.

But it's not just that we need to do the right thing by our export partners, our partners that helped invest in those projects—billions of dollars in those projects in the first place. We also need to do the right thing by my home state of Western Australia. The fact is that there is risk to the near-term gas supply—that is, in the next four or five years—if this project is not given the go-ahead.

This is not a new project. That is the thing that is so baffling to all Western Australians. This is not a new project. This is a continuation of a project that was begun in the 1970s. I was a lad of seven or eight when the North West Shelf first kicked off under Sir Charles Court. It is ridiculous to think that the Greens can somehow describe this as a new project. It isn't, in fact. It's a decades-old project. It is ridiculous that this extension they are seeking was with the Western Australian state Labor government for six years, but the fact that the federal Labor government cannot make a decision keeps delaying the project, kicking the can down the road, whether for political reasons or because they know they might have to make a deal with the Greens after the next election to retain government. It's horrifying, and it should be horrifying to every Western Australian. You can be sure of only one thing. If you believe in the economic future of Western Australia, if you believe in the ability of households to continue to get their energy supplies, if you believe in manufacturing in Western Australia, and if you believe in the jobs of all those FIFO workers linked to the mining industry and the oil and gas industry in Western Australia, there is only one way to protect them, and that is: don't vote for Labor, don't vote for the Greens; put Liberal as No. 1. That is the only way of protecting those jobs, our economy, our future, our relationship with key partners like Japan and $30 billion worth of investment in Western Australia. The only way you can protect that is to vote Liberal No. 1 and put Labor and the Greens last in the upcoming election.