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

The contempt of this Labor government for my home state of Western Australia knows no bounds. I actually thought they couldn't get any worse in the contempt they show for Western Australia. With the mooted nature positive laws, the floated idea of a 60 kilometre-an-hour speed limit through the Pilbara, the dragging out of approvals of major projects affecting the mining industry, the funding of the Environmental Defenders Office—again, attacking our great mining industry—I didn't think it could get any worse. Of course, there was then the closing down of the live export sheep industry in my home state of WA.

The contempt shown for sheep farmers in my home state is already causing a decline of 25 per cent in the size of the flock, with all industry projections pointing to a crash and to more than half the sheep disappearing from WA in just a few years. I didn't think that contempt could get any worse. Then over the summer I saw a three-quarter-page ad in the Age: 'Phase-out of the live sheep exports by sea transition assistance'.

Senator O'Sullivan, you're from Western Australia. Where is the Age published, Senator O'Sullivan? I think it's published in Melbourne. This policy affects only sheep farmers in my home state of Western Australia, yet this government shows its contempt for the Western Australian sheep industry by publishing a three-quarters-page ad, and I believe it wasn't just in the Age; it was in the Sydney Morning Herald as well. Shame, Labor!