EDITORIAL: Local voters need to back policies that work best for the West

Now that the State election is out of the way, we need to turn our minds to the Federal election and decide what party and policies are best for WA.

The reality is Anthony Albanese is on the nose all over Australia as cost-of-living misery continues to batter families.

While Victoria and New South Wales have been hit hardest, here in WA we have been somewhat buffered thanks to our profitable resources sector which puts us in an enviable position as the country’s economic powerhouse.

But we know how bad policies can turn our economy sour very quickly. We are getting a taste of it already with Federal Labor messing with major projects fundamental to this State’s future.

The State Government has approved the North West Shelf gas project, so why is the Federal Government delaying it?

And why has Tanya Plibersek, whose disastrous Nature Positive plan was sunk by WA Labor ahead of the State election, sneaking into Perth to help Patrick Gorman win over inner city Greens in his city electorate? There is a sense that we are having the wool pulled over our eyes.

We were promised before the 2022 election that unions would not be allowed back in the Pilbara. They then stormed back. We were told Labor backs the resources sector, yet the Government has continued to pursue extreme green policies that will devastate our economy threaten jobs and bring widespread uncertainty.

It’s bad enough that Trump is causing trade turmoil — putting barriers on our industry — we don’t need our own Government following suit through excessive and unnecessary green blocks on sensible projects.

Delays, indecision and uncertainty get us nowhere. And we know that while these green policies are being stalled for now, they will rocket back should we end up with an Albanese-Greens-Teals minority Government.

It is not hard to predict where we will end up if you factor in the interplay with the Greens and teals like our own Curtin Independent Kate Chaney.

There are already whispers that bureaucrats in Canberra have set up stealth background infrastructure for these radical laws to come into play when the political landscape turns more green.

Speaking in Perth yesterday, Peter Dutton vowed to speed up federal approvals for WA mining projects and to rule on the North West Shelf extension within 30 days of coming into office.

“I don’t want to see our country go backwards under a Labor-Greens government and with Tanya Plibersek as the minister there would be no mining and that would be a disaster,” Mr Dutton said.

He added that the Cook Government approved the North West Shelf extension because there were no “credible environmental concerns”.

“Don’t fall for this con job that’s coming out of Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek,” Mr Dutton said. “It’s all about them trying to hold seats from the Greens in Sydney and Melbourne.”

We are lucky — through hard work and good fortune — to be in the position we are in WA, often untroubled by the drama going on over east.

But voters need to think hard about what comes after this Federal election. A minority Labor-Greens-Teals government would take us years to recover from.