Madeleine King: WA Senator Michaelia Cash’s pop up to talk complete rubbish is a sign of the silly season

It’s the silly season.

And there is no better sign that we are deeply into the silly season than having WA Senator Michaelia Cash pop up to talk complete rubbish.

Senator Cash has a storied history of peddling nonsense, misinformation and scare campaigns.

But her effort in these pages of The West Australian on Wednesday were indeed something special.

The Albanese Government has introduced legislation to provide production tax credits worth $17 billion in support for critical minerals and rare earths producers.

Combined with $3.6 billion to ensure future generations of mineral and resource exploration, this is the largest package of support any Australian Government has ever provided to the resources sector.

The Government is providing this support in line with our Future Made in Australia plan.

This is the Government’s plan to grow industries of the future like critical minerals and rare earths processing to create those jobs of the future that are highly skilled and well paid.

Just like the iron ore industry needed Government help to get established back in the 1950s with tax breaks and State agreements, the critical minerals and rare earths industries also need a leg up — not least because they trade in thin and opaque international markets.

The iron ore industry now powers our economy and has made this State what it is today.

Those supports for the iron ore industry back in the day were mostly driven by the Brand and Court Liberal State governments.

Who in WA would argue today that was a bad thing?

Well, if you follow the bent logic of Peter Dutton’s Opposition and Michaelia Cash, they would have found themselves opposed to the policies of Sir Charles Court.

Mr Dutton found himself opposing our production tax incentives after shadow treasurer Angus Taylor ruled out supporting the policy on Budget night on the grounds the proposal was “welfare for billionaires”.

It’s unclear if Taylor consulted anyone in the WA Liberals about this before he made his declaration.

He certainly didn’t consult the State WA Liberals or the WA Nationals. Both State Nationals leader Shane Love and WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam have signalled their support for production tax incentives for the critical minerals and rare earths industries.

There’s also a good deal of doubt as to whether Mr Taylor even consulted Mr Dutton on this most important of policies.

When he was in Kalgoorlie earlier this year surrounded by junior resource companies, Mr Dutton left open the idea that he could back the policy.

Sadly, led by east coast Liberals and Nationals, the Opposition is now firmly opposed to these supports for our resources sector.

Senator Cash is obviously sensitive about this. And she has been throwing out all kinds of distractions ever since to avoid fronting up to the fact she and her party are opposing a policy which will create jobs and wealth in resource States such as WA and Queensland.

Senator Cash’s latest effort is to claim that in order to gain a production tax incentive, companies will need to strike a union agreement with their workforce.

This is completely untrue.

It is made up. It is a complete fiction.

I challenge Senator Cash to point to the production tax incentive bill introduced last month where there is any mention of needing a union agreement. Or indeed any mention of unions at all.

Unions have an important role in workplaces. Unions have worked with resources companies to ensure worker conditions and worker safety are the best in the world. This is a productive relationship.

But this bill is a tax measure. And nothing else.

To claim it is anything but is deeply deceitful and an insult to all West Australians.

Michaelia Cash and others will attempt to whip up a lot of scare campaigns like this as we get closer to an election but the proof will be in the Christmas pudding.

Look to what the Coalition do, not what they say.

Because what all five Liberal MPs from WA did is vote against the production tax credits in Parliament last month.

In an unforgivable betrayal of our State, they turned their back on WA’s resources sector and our national security but didn’t even bother speaking up to explain themselves.

WA Liberal senators like Michaelia Cash will have an opportunity when Parliament returns to stand up against their Opposition Leader and vote the Bill through.

But at this stage it looks like West Australians will need a Christmas miracle for the WA Liberals to support WA’s resources sector.

Madeleine King is the Resources Minister and Member for Brand