Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Western Australia's prosperity is every bit as critical to the nation as it is to those in the west, but it is under attack on multiple fronts from Anthony Albanese and his Labor government. The government isn't merely overlooking matters of concern in my home state; it is pursuing policies that are actively damaging key industries and the jobs and communities they support. As I've said, this impacts all of us. Under this Labor government, the resources sector and the agricultural sector, among others, are being strangled by red and green tape and burdened by uncertainty. Vital projects are stalled, investment confidence is down and WA's global competitiveness is in jeopardy.

I'll start with the nature-positive laws, by any measure a policy that is bad for Western Australia and all the things that we need to be doing there. This policy has been on and off the Albanese government's legislative agenda. While it has again dropped off the program for the time being, do not think for a moment that we have seen the end of it. Nature positive threatens the viability of not just mining but also housing, agriculture and infrastructure projects across Western Australia. Labor claims these reform will deliver net positive environmental outcomes, but let's be clear about what they really involve: bureaucratic interference that forces businesses to offset any environmental disturbance, even if it's unavoidable. A report commissioned by WA business and mining industry groups has revealed how damaging these laws would be to Western Australia. WA's wholesale electricity prices could surge by 38 per cent, energy capacity could fall by 2.6 per cent and coal-fired power generation could increase by 244 per cent, completely contradicting Labor's stated and supported environmental goals. Indeed, residential land prices in Perth's northern suburbs could rise by up to 10.6 per cent due to additional red tape further exacerbating the housing crisis amongst Western Australians and their families.

WA Premier Roger Cook knows it better than most. He has warned that these changes would disproportionately impact Western Australians and has said that nature-positive laws, the laws of the Albanese government, should not be progressed. His message to those federal Labor parliamentarians who support it has been clear: do not for a moment think that we will stand idly by and allow you to damage our economy. That is the Labor Premier talking about the damning effect of the Labor Prime Minister's nature-positive laws.

Industry leaders have joined the chorus. From the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Western Australia to the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, they've made their positions equally clear: these are bad laws for Western Australia. The legislation is bad for business and bad for Western Australia. Major mining projects are now at risk. The property sector is facing delays. Even clean-energy projects could get caught up in Labor's environmental mess.

The Albanese government has refused to release the full report detailing these impacts, raising serious questions about transparency and what else it might be hiding from Western Australian businesses and families. If these laws are as beneficial as Labor claims, why is Labor hiding the truth? Recent analysis has pointed to yet another disturbing reality: as Labor's regulatory burdens increase, the toll is evident in lost opportunities. Reports have confirmed that, despite WA's strong economic potential, investment is stagnating under this government's leadership. Rather than capitalising on WA's natural strengths, Labor is focused on ideology driven policies that deter investors and stifle economic growth.

The cost is not just measured in dollars and percentages. It is measured in lost jobs, closed businesses and wasted opportunities. Labor's own Resources and energy major projects: 2024 report reveals that 81 major resource projects worth $119 billion are now stalled or at risk. That's 47,000 jobs in doubt and 47,000 workers left in limbo because of this government's incompetence. It's a simple equation: when investment dries up, so do jobs; when projects stall, so do wages; and, when businesses are buried in regulation, they start to look elsewhere. WA competes on a global stage, and investors don't have to put their money here. Under Anthony Albanese and Labor, they are increasingly turning away from Australia and from Western Australia in particular.

These misguided policies have a compounding effect, so the timing of Labor's Future Made in Australia (Production Tax Credits and Other Measures) Bill, which passed the Senate on Monday night, is particularly unwelcome. The bill lacks essential details on how credits will be measured, distributed or enforced. The lack of clarity surrounding the community benefit principles component poses the greatest risk—something clearly identified in the Senate Economics Legislation Committee inquiry into the bill. The Treasurer will make the rules based on these principles—rules we are yet to see but which will determine whether a company is eligible for the tax credits or is to be penalised in the form of reduced credits for alleged noncompliance. They may include forcing mining companies into compulsory union agreements and duplicative consultation on Indigenous and environmental matters.

On behalf of the coalition, I introduced an amendment aimed at giving industry some certainty around these community benefit principles. Labor and the Greens voted against it. The Minerals Council of Australia has warned that Labor's tax credit conditions could duplicate existing regulatory burdens, increasing costs and slowing down projects. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia has raised concern that these so-called benefits provide no actual value while adding additional hurdles. As with the Nature Positive Plan, ongoing regulatory uncertainty, rising project costs and a less competitive WA economy under Anthony Albanese and Labor make Labor a big risk for Western Australia.

The Albanese government has taken an equally damaging and equally ill-informed approach to WA's agricultural sector, something close to my heart and those of my colleagues in this place. The disastrous decision to shut down the live sheep export trade by 2028 is not just an attack on farmers but an attack on entire rural communities across all of Western Australia. The impact is already being felt. WA's sheep flock declined by 25 per cent last year alone, two major abattoirs have already closed, wool production is at its lowest level since the 1920s and shearers have reported business losses of up to 30 per cent in the past year. Labor has ignored the sector's superb advocacy, led by the Keep the Sheep campaign, and is forcing WA farmers into economic ruin while offering them a measly $139 million transition package. The WA government itself has said the real cost will be at least $1.2 billion. The Prime Minister had an opportunity to meet farmers in Canberra and to listen to their concerns. He declined. His declining sums up this government's approach to our state and our Western Australian farmers. The government's refusal to consult and refusal to consider the implications of their policy leaves Western Australia the poorer for it.

Again, it's the compounding effect of these policies that makes them so damaging. which brings me to Labor's $150 million biosecurity protection levy, another direct hit on Australian farmers. This proposed new tax on farmers is fundamentally unfair, charging Australian farmers for the biosecurity costs of importers. Let's put this in the simplest of terms: the government taxing its own farmers to pay for foreigners to bring their products into Australia is absurd. It makes no sense. And, of course, the impact would have been felt widely if the Senate had not today successfully discharged the bill from the Notice Paper. The coalition, acting decisively this morning, has given Australian agricultural producers some relief from Labor's bad policies.

It is important to stress, of course, that the federal coalition absolutely recognises the importance of a strong and robust biosecurity system in protecting Australia against pests and diseases. Western Australia's biosecurity is guarded with particular care, and for good reason. We support a sustainable funding model for biosecurity, but, of course, that tax would have hurt WA farmers.

Western Australia's a state that has given so much to our national economy; it deserves better from Labor. We need a government that supports investment rather than discouraging it—a government that reduces red and green tape rather than wrapping businesses in layers and layers of bureaucracy.