Lachlan Hunter

Shadow Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Exploration Lachlan Hunter MP has demanded the Cook Labor Government immediately clarify its position on uranium mining, after the Minister refused to deny in Parliament that Labor was reconsidering its ban.

During Question Time yesterday, the Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Exploration Daniel Pastorelli confirmed he had recently met with Cauldron Energy, which is exploring for uranium south of Onslow. Cauldron Energy has received up to $167,750 in taxpayer funding towards uranium exploration programs worth $335,500.

Mr Hunter said the Minister had failed to explain why the Government was subsidising uranium exploration while maintaining a policy that prevented new uranium discoveries from being developed.

“Commercial exploration companies are not drilling out of some altruistic desire to tell the Cook Government what lies beneath Western Australia,” Mr Hunter said.

“They invest in exploration to discover commercially viable resources that can ultimately be mined and developed to deliver returns to shareholders. The Cook Government is now using taxpayers’ money to help a commercial company find and define uranium resources, while simultaneously telling that company it cannot develop what it discovers.

“That is an incoherent position, and the Minister’s refusal to rule out a policy change is farcical.”

When asked directly whether the Government was reconsidering its uranium ban, the Minister refused to answer, instead defending Labor’s funding of mineral exploration.

“If the ban remains Labor’s policy, the Minister should have been able to say so clearly and unequivocally,” Mr Hunter said.

“He was given a direct opportunity to rule out a change and refused to do it. Western Australians are entitled to know whether this was deliberate ambiguity, a policy shift under consideration or, more likely, a Minister who does not understand his own Government’s position.”

Mr Hunter said The Opposition supported lifting Labor’s outdated ban and allowing uranium proposals to be considered on their individual merits through Western Australia’s stringent environmental, safety and regulatory approval processes.

“The Opposition’s position is clear: uranium mining should be permitted where a project can meet the same rigorous environmental, safety and regulatory standards expected of other mining developments,” he said.

“The Cook Government’s position is now the one nobody can explain—not even its own Mines Minister.”

Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Lachlan Hunter MP has accused the Cook Labor Government of being asleep at the wheel over drastic new phosphine exposure limits, warning the changes could have major consequences for Western Australia’s grain industry just months before harvest.

“The Cook Labor Government must urgently explain how Western Australia’s grain industry is expected to comply with the new limits, amid serious warnings from industry that implementing compliant systems before the 1 December deadline may be impractical and economically unviable,” Mr Hunter said.

From 1 December, the workplace exposure limit for phosphine will be slashed by more than 80 per cent, from 0.3 parts per million to just 0.05ppm.

“Last harvest, WA growers delivered more than 24 million tonnes into the CBH network, including a record 16.3 million tonnes stored under tarps in open bulkheads,” Mr Hunter said.

“CBH itself says 20 million tonne harvests are becoming the norm. Yet we are now less than three months from a dramatic regulatory change and, according to the Minister, the Government’s response is an education campaign. For an industry handling more than 20 million tonnes of grain a year, that simply isn’t good enough.

“The Minister says industry has had more than two years’ notice. The question is: what has her Government done with those two years to ensure these changes can be implemented safely and practically?

“Who has the Minister actually consulted, and what practical assessment has been done to determine whether these limits are achievable across WA’s grain supply chain? What modelling has been undertaken, what will compliance cost growers, and what happens during a record harvest if grain cannot be fumigated, cleared and moved quickly enough?”

Mr Hunter said that Grain Trade Australia has already warned that developing compliant systems at scale before the December deadline is impractical and economically unviable.

“This isn’t farmers complaining about change. These are serious warnings from the people responsible for storing, handling and exporting Australian grain. Phosphine is one of the most important tools our industry has to control insects in stored grain. Get pest management wrong and the consequences can flow through grain quality, quarantine, market access and exports.

“One grain weevil in the wrong parcel of grain can create a major problem. When WA is handling harvests north of 20 million tonnes, the Government cannot afford to get this wrong.

“Nobody is arguing against worker safety. Our growers and grain handlers want their workers to go home safely every day.

“But worker safety and a functioning grain industry are not mutually exclusive. Regulation has to be based on sound science and capable of actually working in a grain shed, silo or bulkhead, not just on a bureaucrat’s spreadsheet.

“Victoria has already recognised the practical concerns and provided additional time. The question is whether the Cook Labor Government has even properly examined what these changes mean for Western Australia.

“WA farmers have just delivered the biggest crop in our history. They should not have their success jeopardised because the Cook Labor Government failed to understand the practical realities of the industry it is regulating.

“The Minister needs to get around the table with WA’s grain industry immediately and, if these limits cannot be safely and practically implemented by 1 December, seek a deferral.”

The Nationals WA have called on the Albanese Government to urgently fix Australia’s Working Holiday Maker visa program, warning processing delays and application pauses risk leaving Western Australian farmers and regional businesses without the workers they need.

Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Lachlan Hunter MP said the Federal Government’s decision to slow the processing of working holiday visas, alongside pauses affecting applications from numerous countries, could not have come at a worse time for regional WA.

“Harvest is approaching, and farmers across the Wheatbelt and regional WA need certainty about where their workforce is going to come from,” Mr Hunter said.

“Backpackers and working holiday makers have been part of the regional workforce for decades. They fill key seasonal jobs when farms and businesses need extra hands, often for relatively short periods.

“You cannot simply turn that workforce tap off, or slow it to a trickle, and expect regional Australia to absorb the impact.”

Mr Hunter said the consequences would extend well beyond the farm gate.

“When a backpacker comes to a Wheatbelt town for harvest, they’re not just working on a farm.

“They’re filling up at the local service station, buying dinner at the pub, shopping at the supermarket, staying in accommodation and spending their wages in local businesses. That money circulates through regional communities and supports jobs well beyond agriculture.”

Working holiday makers contributed an estimated $3.2 billion to the Australian economy in 2019, including at least $726 million spent in regional Australia.

Mr Hunter said WA farmers were already facing rising input costs, labour shortages, biosecurity pressures, seasonal uncertainty and increasing red tape.

“If a farmer cannot get enough workers when a crop is ready to come off, you cannot simply tell the crop to wait.”

Mr Hunter said the Albanese Government must immediately clarify the future of the program and guarantee that regional workforce requirements would be considered in any migration changes.

“Migration policy needs to recognise that the workforce requirements of regional Australia are fundamentally different from those of our capital cities,” Mr Hunter said.

“If Canberra wants to change migration numbers, regional farmers and small businesses should not become collateral damage.”