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

Welcome to 2025. We've barely started the new year and the Albanese Labor government have already backflipped. You guessed it—I'm talking about the proposed nature positive bill. Classic Labor—weak leadership, empty promises and an attempt to completely sell out Western Australia. Their so-called nature positive laws were mining negative, jobs negative and economy negative. They would have slammed WA's mining sector with red and green tape and cost blowouts, and delayed major projects. Even the Premier, Roger Cook, the champion of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, said that these laws were a threat to WA jobs. But what did the Prime Minister do? He played both sides, telling industry one thing and the Greens another and hoping that no-one would notice.

Last year, these laws were going to happen. Then they were off, and then they were back on again, and now Labor has dropped them once again. Let's be real: Labor isn't scrapping these laws; they're just stashing them away until after the election. And we know why—a vote for Labor is a vote for a Labor-Greens coalition, and the Greens have made it clear that they want these laws. They want to ban native forest logging, and they will demand even more extreme policies as their price for keeping Labor in power.

Mr Dutton said it straight: if WA votes Labor, these laws will be back. That's the plan—a Labor-Greens minority government that will sell out Western Australian jobs to keep the inner-city elites happy. Don't be fooled; Labor have only backed down because there was a growing backlash in WA, not because they've had a change of heart. If they're re-elected, they'll roll this out again, and WA will be the one that will pay for it. The only way to stop them is to vote for the coalition.