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

Let's compare the pair. We have two examples this week from Minister Tanya Plibersek, the minister for the nature positive laws, the minister with the secret cultural heritage act hidden somewhere in the back draw, refusing to be revealed. She has made two decisions this week. Let's have a look at them. First, we have the McPhillamy's mine, blocked, vetoed by the environment minister because of a 260 hectare tailing dam—260 hectares. Just remember that figure for a few moments. What is the other project that Minister Plibersek approved this week? Well, SunCable's solar power development in the Northern Territory, with a footprint of 12,000 hectares—12,000—including habitats of endangered animals like the iconic Bilby. What else does SunCable bring to the Northern Territory? It brings 800 kilometres of transmission lines, once again through many sensitive areas. It also brings underwater cabling offshore, to the boundary of Australia but on to Singapore, and that stretches thousands of kilometres, including through sensitive marine habitats. Guess what? That project gets the tick. So 12,000 hectares of sensitive country covered with solar panels, 800 kilometres of powerlines and thousands of kilometres of undersea cable are fine, but a 260-hectare tailing dam is enough to kill a project that would employ hundreds and generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the local community. That's the way this Labor government operates.

This week we've seen the Prime Minister and this Labor government once again demonstrate their contempt for the Western Australian agricultural sector. First they made fun of the grassroots movement to protect the sheep industry in WA. We heard not just the Prime Minister but those opposite in this chamber mock the name Keep the Sheep. It's a grassroots movement of farmers, truckies and shearers who want to keep the sheep industry in Western Australia, so they called their movement Keep the Sheep, but that had to be mocked by this Prime Minister. And now, at an agricultural dinner with key figures from the agricultural industry, the Prime Minister decides to tell a joke about destroying the great Western Australian sheep industry by banning live exports from my home state of Western Australia.

This is a Labor government that has no care or concern for the farmers of Western Australia, for the shearers of Western Australia, for the truckies of Western Australia, for all the ancillary industries, for the communities and for the towns that rely on those industries—no concern. In fact, all they show is contempt, all they do is mock and all they do is make jokes.

The joke will be on the other side of their face once we see the rally come to Canberra on 10 September. The Keep the Sheep campaign is coming to Canberra, and it will show this Labor government that that contempt is returned in full, because the agricultural industry is jack of it. It's jack of this Labor government. The Western Australian agricultural industry in particular is sick of the abuse and contempt that the Prime Minister and other members of this Labor government continue to heap upon it. We need to keep the sheep.

Senate adjourned at 19 : 53