ADJOURNMENT

Senator BROCKMAN (Western Australia—Deputy President and Chair of Committees) (19:30): The Australian economy is the proverbial frog in boiling water. Sometimes, as we go through the cycle of time, we don't realise just how bad things have got. This government, just since it's been in power, has had to bail out the Whyalla Steelworks, the Nyrstar smelters in Tasmania, the Glencore copper smelter and Liontown's lithium production.

Why have they had to? Why has this government had to step into those situations? The reason is quite simple: this government's policies are failing the Australian industrial sector and, in fact, the entire Australian economy.

Now we have the Tomago smelter, with the stated reason it is under threat being energy prices driven by this government's policies. Up to 1,000 jobs are at risk. In my home state of Western Australia, we've had the announcement that the Yandi iron ore mine is going to reduce its workforce by hundreds.

We've already had the shutdown of the Kwinana alumina refinery in my home state of Western Australia. And what are the policies that are driving this frog in boiling water—the deindustrialisation of the Australian economy, driven by the Labor Party? They are high energy costs, the penalisation of success through the so-called safeguard mechanism, massive overregulation of our economy, a complete inability to cut the red and green tape that they talk over and over again about cutting and an industrial relations system that has been completely rewritten by the union movement, their paymasters.

This Labor government has literally done everything it can to destroy the industrial base of the Australian economy in 3½ short years, and heaven help us with the next 2½ years still guaranteed, sadly. The Australian economy cannot take much more of this. Labor government bailouts are not the solution to our industrial base in this country surviving and thriving.

Penalising success through the safeguard mechanism is not the solution. High energy costs driven by Labor's renewables-at-any-cost policy is not the solution. More regulation—more red and green tape—is definitely not the solution.

And giving in over and over and over again to the union demands in industrial relations is not the solution to the problems facing the Australian economy. In my home state of Western Australia, everybody knows that, as large mines open overseas and as the Australian economy under Labor becomes less efficient and less internationally competitive, we will see pressure on the iron ore sector that has delivered rivers of gold to the state Labor government and the federal Labor government.

Rivers of gold have come out of the Western Australian economy to support this Labor government in Canberra and the state Labor government in Western Australia. But there are storm clouds on the horizon, and everybody knows them. They are no laughing matter, and, unless we get the settings right, the next wave of mineral and industrial development in my home state of Western Australia and in Australia as a whole will not happen.

It will not happen, regardless of the platitudes of this Labor government. The Australian economy is the proverbial frog in boiling water, and we need to do something about it.