Senate debates

Tuesday, 2 July 2024

Statements by Senators

Labor Government

1:41 pm

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

Labor is bad for the bush and bad for WA. I'm going to go through the list, and it just keeps getting longer. We can go back to the Aboriginal Heritage Act, an absolute shemozzle and absolute failure of process from the WA Labor state government. Never let it be forgotten that this federal Labor government has an Aboriginal cultural heritage act in the wings, which they are keeping hidden in a bottom drawer because they're too frightened of the electoral consequences of releasing it.

We've got the axing of almost $400 million in regional road projects and infrastructure projects in the bush in my home state of WA. Let's think about the offshore wind projects which have been proposed, most notably in the Geographe Bay area—the pristine, prime tourism and fishing heart of the Western Australian south-west—and which the community has said very loudly and very clearly they do not want. There's the South Coast Marine Park, a Western Australian Labor government initiative put through a federal international treaty obligation, which again the Esperance and surrounding communities are not happy about. We've seen an attack on commercial fishing in WA and an attack on recreational fishing. We've seen a massive cut to regional representation in WA. The list goes on and on; I can never get through the whole list. Now, on top of that, we have a direct attack on the fabulous Western Australian sheep industry. Keep the sheep.