James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers to all questions that were asked by coalition senators.

I'd like to start with Labor's war on the family car and Labor's war on the ute. What we have in Australia is a real disconnect between the governing class, who are based here in Canberra, and those who live out in the real world. What Labor is proposing to do is to make it a lot harder for families when they want to buy a new car, because they have such a focus on EVs. My position as an LNP senator from Queensland is that I don't care what type of car you drive. That's up to you. You make that choice. Whether it's a hybrid, an EV or, if you're like me and you like diesel—that's good. But what the Labor Party do is make it even harder for families, who are suffering under Labor's cost-of-living crisis, if they want to buy a new car because of Labor's ideological focus on anything to do with EVs or renewables. Labor is disconnected from what's going on in the real world. They're the new establishment, the new elite. They're the governing class. They sit up at the front of the plane. They get in their big cars. They go overseas. They sit around their nice, polished wooden tables—they're all very important people. They have thousands of public servants—more of them are going to be appointed, by the way—working for them. They sort of forget what it's like.

This is the Labor Party who promised 97 times that they would cut power bills by $275. Yet power bills haven't gone down by $275, they haven't gone down by $10 and they haven't gone down by a dollar. Power bills have gone up an average of a thousand dollars, so poor Australians are dealing with this government who just want to tax them and make it harder to just get on with life.

This war on cars and this war on utes—I don't understand why the Labor Party don't get it. I tell you what, I have spent a fair bit of time on the road. On the weekend, I was in Senator Wong's home state. I was in Port Augusta and Whyalla. It's interesting: those who drive utes, the tradies, have shifted. Labor's traditional base, the tradies—guess what, Labor?—have shifted. They're getting in their utes and they're driving away from the Labor Party and they're driving towards the coalition, because we're on their side.

If you want to buy a ute, buy a ute. You should not be punished because of the Labor Party's obsession with EVs. When you do roadsides, which we do in the coalition, and you're out there early in the morning, the tradies are also the ones out there at 4.30 to five or 5.30 to six in the morning. Where do you get the toots from? You get the toots from the tradies who are going to their sites, going to do the work, because they're up early. They understand that we're on their side and the Labor Party has just left them behind.

But what was more disappointing about the answers that we got in question time today was the defence by the Labor Party of the Environmental Defenders Office. The minister concerned—I think it was you, Senator Wong, and I apologise if it wasn't—said there are allegations in relation to the EDO. Well, they're not allegations. This is actually what—and I've taken my glasses off so I can read it properly—the Federal Court judge said. They're not allegations; it's what the judge said. Justice Charlesworth said that the EDO's evidence was 'so lacking in integrity' that no weight could be placed on it. Justice Charlesworth went on to say that the EDO were involved in 'distorting and misrepresenting' evidence and that they manipulated and coached a number of traditional owners.

I don't know how the lawyers who were involved in this matter have not been struck off from the solicitors roll or the barristers roll, in their respective jurisdictions. This is appalling conduct from lawyers. These lawyers should be struck off, the taxpayers of Australia should stop funding the EDO and the Labor Party should stand up for what is right and withdraw the funding. We're going to do that. We're going to make sure that no money goes to the EDO.

Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's laughable for the coalition to come into the Senate this week and talk to us about the car industry. These are the very same people, the very same party, the very same coalition who had no regard for our world-class car industry. We heard the good senator from Queensland talk about a war on the family car, but it was those opposite that shut down this industry—an industry that my dad was very proud to work in—and the thousands of people who worked in the industry lost their jobs overnight.

Let's not forget that one of the decisions that former prime minister Tony Abbott's government made was to shaft Holden, when they awarded a brand new contract to BMW to replace the Holden Caprices that had been used to drive every single politician around the country. They went with a foreign owned car company. They chose a BMW over the fantastic, world-class Holden Caprices that we exported to the United States, which was a very lucrative market. They've all gone quiet over there, haven't they—Senator Lambie and others here—because it was an exclusive contract. You shut down a fantastic industry that supported thousands of people directly and indirectly, including the research and development that also was behind the car industry. Guess what? They just wanted to rationalise their spending. They didn't believe in a domestic market we as a country could build a current through.

We are the only country in the OECD that does not make cars. But overnight, one after the other, Holden, Ford and Toyota all went. I still remember that, when I was a kid, those cars cost around the $20,000 to $30,000 mark. It was very affordable for many people—families like mine—to have a car that was made here in Australia. Sadly, now we're in a marketplace where rely exclusively on foreign car companies to export their cars into Australia. What this government has decided to do is open up that market, acknowledging that we don't make cars here anymore. But the best thing for us consumers, for the very people here in the gallery watching, is to open up that market so any car that people want to get they should be able to get. That includes EVs.

What we have seen is that there is now more choice of brand new cars coming into the market. But we've had to apply pressure on the car companies, because we've also had to change the standards for fuel sold in this country. No longer should we, as a leading developed nation in the world, be able to have fuel of a very poor quality and standard. On drive.com and in articles in the Herald Sun and the Age in my home state in Victoria, we now see every week new cars being discussed about being imported here into Australia. They are certainly cheaper, because we're now opening that marketplace. We are now allowing and incentivising those car companies to sell these cars—and they're not all electric, by the way. They are hybrids. I think hybrids are doing a fantastic job at being that medium between electric and petrol, and I think you get the best of both words. I proudly drive a hybrid car, because I acknowledge the world is now moving on.

I want to call out the hypocrisy from the other side when they come in here and talk about us getting rid of the utes or the family car. They started this. In fact, if it weren't for their ideological policies back then, we'd have a fantastic, proud marketplace, where we would still continue to make Ford, Holden and Toyota cars in this country and export those cars overseas. It wasn't just the United States, too, Senator Brockman. I remember Toyota used to actually export the engines of the cars we were making here, the Avalons, back to Japan, and they were just amazed by the fantastic V6s. And I know my office might be laughing, but I had one—a gold-coloured Aurion V6, which had much more power than Ford and Holden. It put to shame those Commodore and Falcon drivers at the red lights. I could have told you that—not that I did anything else. It had more power and more torque than those cars, and it was something we were very proud of as Australians, and we should be, but, sadly, we are not.

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

Senator Ciccone, you opened the door so wide! I was reading an article the other day about how, in America—and perhaps this is happening here, too; we'll have to ask some of your colleagues—people are starting to sell their Elon—sorry, I mean their Teslas! That's because those on the Left of politics don't like to be seen driving around in an Elon—sorry, I mean a Tesla—anymore. But I'll put that to one side. I'll remind Senator Ciccone, because he is younger than me, though I hate to admit it, that my memory stretches back a little further than his. The downfall of the Australian car industry goes straight back to the Dutton car plant, where, in their desire to centralise, control, force and unionise, the then Labor government forced completely separate car companies Toyota, Holden and Ford to share bodies, engines and drive trains. When you went out and bought a Holden Astra, it was exactly the same as a Toyota or Ford. That was the downfall of the Australian car industry, and it was 100 per cent at Labor's feet. They unionised, they controlled, they centralised and they forced massive inefficiencies into the Australian car industry.

What do we have now? We have a Labor government again who hates people having choice. Senator Ciccone says that it's all about giving people choice, but the fact is it's not. The most popular cars in Australia—the D-Max, the HiLux, the Ranger—are all being made more expensive under this Labor government's policy. And guess what will theoretically become a bit cheaper under this Labor government's policies. It's the Elon—sorry, the Tesla. They become cheaper under this government's policies. So you're not giving Australians a choice. You're not giving Australians the choice of the cars that they have demonstrated over a long period of time are the best for this environment, best for workers and best for how people want to live their lives on the weekends. This Labor government wants to suck that out.

We've also seen, in the answers to questions today, the betrayal from the Labor Party of the great Western Australian gas industry, with a two-month delay on a project extension. This isn't a project approval. This is not a greenfield site. This is a project that already exists, the famous Woodside project, which has the sign-off from the state Labor government. Yet this federal Labor government, under Minister Plibersek and Prime Minister Albanese, has got to delay this until after the election. Why do they need to delay it until after the election? This is a really important project for the economic future of Western Australia. This is a really important project for the economic future of not just Western Australia but Australia. This is a really important project to ensure that we have gas supplies not just for ourselves domestically but also for our major trading partners and allies, like Japan.

These are not trivial decisions that should be kicked down the road for two months because of an election where you want to keep the Greens on side. That's not how we should treat policy development. Again, this is not a greenfield approval. This is a project that has been underway for decades. This is a site that has been used for decades. But we've got to kick the can down the road another few months to get it past the election so they don't have a problem on their left flank. What an absolute disgrace and what a revealing statement of the priorities and the values of this Labor government. They don't think about the people of Australia. They don't think about the economic impact on my home state of WA. They only think in terms of their own electoral interests over the next few months. Well, I say let's bring on that election because I think the Australian people are going to have a very different opinion.

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question we saw in question time today from Senator Bragg was quite spectacular. It was only a few short weeks ago that we saw those opposite blocking every single housing bill that we brought into this place and not coming to the party at all on fixing what we know is a housing crisis in this country. That is a fact. We have a housing crisis, but it did not just appear overnight. This is something that has been building for well over a decade. What exactly did those opposite do when they were in government? Oh, that would be approximately nothing. In fact, for a significant part of their time in government, those opposite, the coalition, didn't even have a housing minister. That's how important they thought it was when they were in government. This is just a trend that we're seeing across the board. The things that they were actively against and actively crushed when they were in government, they're now standing there claiming they're the champions of. I would say to anyone: 'Don't listen to a word that they are telling you because it all appears to be rubbish. Just look at the facts. Look at the history. Look at what they've actually done in the past, not the rubbish that they are spouting now.'

In housing, they have no credibility whatsoever. We know full well that the issue we have is one of supply. After all that time of no building, no commitment to housing, no care in the world for people who were doing it tough, no care in the world for people who were trying to get into the housing market, no policies to help them and no support for people who were renting, their audacity to front up to this chamber and fake the outrage on the housing crisis is beyond belief.

In Labor, we know that whether you're trying to rent or buy, more homes mean more security for everyone. To have that, we need to increase supply. What are we doing? We are training more tradies and funding more apprentices. Growing the construction workforce is a critical part of getting houses on the ground. We are kickstarting more construction by cutting some of the red tape, giving incentives to state governments to build homes more quickly.

I can assure you, in South Australia, the Labor government under Peter Malinauskas is doing a spectacular job of working alongside the Labor federal government to get houses on the ground for South Australians. We have got heaps of development. Appropriately designated land is being fast-tracked, and those houses are being built. You can see it across South Australia, because of two Labor governments in the state and a federal government making a fundamental difference to people who we know are doing it hard.

We're delivering the biggest investment in social housing in more than a decade, helping to reduce homelessness and taking pressure out of the rental market. Strengthening renters' rights across Australia is a critical part of this because renters are, without a doubt, doing it the toughest. We've got to make changes. We've got to ensure that renters get more relief and they're better supported. In strengthening their rights, minimal rental standards are critical, as are limits to rent increases and requiring genuine, reasonable grounds for any form of eviction.

We have delivered a more than 40 per cent increase to rental assistance—that's the largest increase in more than 30 years—to take that pressure off people who are renting. We're not there yet, we know that. We know there's more to be done and we are trying to do it but we are constantly getting blocked by the coalition over there and the Greens over there. This is ridiculous. Everyone admits this is a housing crisis, yet every single great policy that we bring in this place, every single great piece of legislation to build more houses, make life easier for renters and to lift that pressure is being blocked. Then we are seeing fake outrage from across the chamber and the audacity to come in here and talk about the housing crisis as if you ever cared in your 10 long, horrible years in government.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a very proud West Australian senator, it is absolutely shocking what those opposites are doing in relation to the gas policy for this nation. Not only are they exploiting and paying the environmental defenders offices to do their dirty work for them, but we've seen in question time alone just how dirty that work is.

But I am very proud to say that gas is good. In fact, gas is great, and those opposites speak with terribly forked tongues. You have the minister for minerals and energy in Western Australia saying how good it is, how important it is, but they do not back it up with action. Natural gas is a vital part of the energy mix, and the energy transition, over time, to net zero or zero energy. Government must not just say, on one side of the country, that we need gas. Whatever your view on the energy market going forward, whether you support nuclear energy or you want a heavier load of renewables, gas is essential. It is still going to be essential for decades and decades to come, so let's just have a look at the hypocrisy of those opposite.

Now, it's not just me who thinks gas is good. Reece Whitby is the Western Australian Labor environment minister who gave the approval in Western Australia last year—after six years, mind you. They had to start the review process over again because a bureaucrat left. It took them six years to approve it. The Western Australian Labor state minister said that gas is the enabler of renewables, especially in Western Australia. If you want to use renewables, you must have gas. The whole of Western Australia is essentially powered by gas. It runs all of our industries. All jobs in Western Australia—tens if not hundreds of thousands of jobs in mining, manufacturing and mineral processing—are powered by gas, and they will continue to be so for decades to come.

While gas is poured out of Western Australia, investment and jobs have poured in, not just into the gas sector itself but also into all of the enabling industries in Western Australia. But the North West Shelf does need to be extended—in fact, out to 2070. It has had six years so far. As Meg O'Neill, the amazing CEO of Woodside, has said:

We have a plant. We're not changing the fence line, we're not changing the stuff that's inside the plant. If anything we're going to be improving the emissions performance.

It took six years for the Labor government in Western Australia to finally come to the conclusion that gas is good and necessary. She said that it was baffling. And now we come to the federal environment minister. She's got to get the report on the project from her department by the end of this month, but I'll bet you anything she ain't going to make a decision on this before the federal election. And why? It is because their partners in environmental and economic crimes, the Greens, will absolutely go mad at them—we've heard them.

So what do we need to do from here? In fact, I might put it this way: Tanya Plibersek, the Minister for the Environment and Water, has a decision to make. We are running out of gas in Western Australia. There are three new projects, which will feed into the existing infrastructure. They will bring in $30 billion of investment and will provide Western Australia with the gas security that it needs. Of course, gas is far cleaner than coal, which is why it is so necessary for the transition. But I say this to Tanya Plibersek: you approved the environmental vandalism of the Perth Hills—the destruction of 60,000 trees to make way for a property developer's high-density housing development in the Perth Hills in the middle of the most fire-prone area of Western Australia.

Question agreed to.