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Gippsland › Latest news › Darren Chester MP

Importance of resource sector of economy neglected by federal Labor and Greens and needs greater support

The speaker praises the resources sector's importance and criticizes the lack of support from Labor and Greens while commending the current minister's efforts.

By news@gippsland - 31st March 2023 - Back to News

I have great pleasure in joining the debate on the statement by the Minister for Resources, and I congratulate the former minister for his very thoughtful contribution on the social and economic value to our nation of the resources sector. I must say it surprises me that, when I look at the speaking list for this particular statement, I can't find anyone here from the Labor Party or the Greens willing to talk in relation to the resources sector. That surprises me.

Workers were praised for their dedication to securing their family's future and calls for support for the resources sector

Industry's critical role

It is such a critical industry to the future of our nation. The former minister explained in very good detail how, when we faced the challenges of the pandemic, there was one industry, the resources sector, which kept operating, kept cash flowing into our nation, kept people employed and kept our nation moving during some of the darkest times. It's now an industry worth in the order of $460 billion per year.

It's an industry which is actually paying for our primary schools, our secondary schools and the roads and hospitals we want, but it's an industry which, I find, in this place, is often maligned by those opposite. When the current minister speaks in question time, the silence on the other side is deafening. The members opposite are suddenly very interested in their iPhones or iPads, and can't even bring themselves to murmur, 'Hear, hear!'

When the minister talks in support of the industry, it is quite interesting to watch from our side of the chamber. She has more support on the coalition side of the chamber than she does amongst her own backbench colleagues. I think she's a very good minister. I think she does her best in a portfolio which has no love whatsoever amongst the Labor-Greens alliance.

Concern for Labor's representation

The minerals resources sector is such a critical part of our nation's past but also our nation's future. I speak with some level of authority in this regard, representing the Latrobe Valley energy sector. Keep in mind, 100 years ago Sir John Monash helped form the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

It is the reliable, affordable base load energy out of the Latrobe Valley, over that past 100 years, which has provided the extraordinary wealth of much of the south-east of Australia and certainly of the manufacturing sector of Victoria. Without that reliable, affordable energy coming from the Latrobe Valley, Victoria would look nothing like it does today. I am deeply worried when I look at those who represent the Labor Party, who used to represent blue-collar workers.

Labor neglects workers

Their silence on the issues around transition and the way power station workers are being treated in the Latrobe Valley right now is extraordinary for me to witness, as a local member of parliament. I cannot find a Labor Party member of parliament willing to stand up for blue-collar workers in the Latrobe Valley.

It's no wonder that the seat the Labor Party held with great distinction for 40 years, the seat of Morwell, they now haven't held for more than 20 years, because they have gone missing when it comes to blue-collar workers in the mining and resources sector.

Industry boosts prosperity

The previous speaker also mentioned the joint venture partners in Bass Strait. If you want to see an example of where the resources sector has made an incredible contribution to a small regional town, you need to go no further than the city of Sale. In the mid-sixties, joint venture partners in the Bass Strait, Esso and BHP, started realising the oil and gas deposits were world class and were able to be secured and supplied throughout south-east Australia.

That industry has given generations of young Gippslanders the capacity to invest in our town, to invest in their family's future, to secure their family's future in the Gippsland and Latrobe Valley area. It has been an extraordinary contribution to the wealth of the Gippsland region. Without it, we would not have seen the training and trade opportunities, the helicopter pilots, the maintenance crews working on the helicopters, and the people working at the gas plant in Longford.

Critical industry function

If you're wondering whether that industry's important, let's think back to that terrible day when lives were lost at the Longford gas plant, and Melbourne didn't have gas and how Melbourne reacted to that interruption in supply - think back to that tragic day when lives were lost at Longford, and how that was received in Melbourne when they could no longer have hot showers.

These are the things that people need to understand. While the mining and resources sector is critical to, provides jobs to and underpins the economic future of our regional areas, it's also critical to our cities as well, and that's often misunderstood in this place.

Mining investment scale

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Pilbara. I was invited to go and check out the mining operations of FMG at the Cloudbreak mine. We flew in from Perth. It's quite a sight to see when you turn up at the airport in Perth at five o'clock in the morning and you're wearing casual clothes and you are well and truly the odd one out because everyone else is wearing hi-vis.

We flew a couple of hours from Perth to the mine site, and we saw that operation up close and the incredible investment in our nation's future which is occurring there. The operations at FMG really do need to be seen to be believed - the scale of those operations and the way the ore is extracted, processed on site, put into trains and transferred to Port Hedland and then into ships, off to earn the wealth for our nation.

Workers sacrifice appreciated

The most impressive part of that experience, though, was to talk to the workers who are out there and to understand why they're there. They are often enduring - on the day we were there, it was 44 degrees - tough conditions: the heat, the flies and the dust. But they're securing their own family's future by doing shifts, sometimes four days off and three days on - flying in and flying out, or living closer at Port Hedland.

They appreciate the support they received in this place from the previous government, and they're worried about whether the new government is going to offer the same level of support for the resources sector. So I call on those opposed to take the time to appreciate and understand the importance of the resources sector and to understand that it plays such a critical role in the social and economic future of regional communities.

Pictures from Darren Chester Facebook page.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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