Perth MP Patrick Gorman ready discuss environmental protection laws with Federal colleages in WA
Perth MP Patrick Gorman said he looked forward to welcoming his Federal colleagues to WA on Tuesday for the second official Cabinet meeting of the re-elected Albanese government.
Speaking to Sky News on Monday, Mr Gorman said the PM’s 35th visit west showed the Labor government valued the State and its strong resource-backed economy.
“It’ll be great to have the Prime Minister and his senior ministers here, talking not just about what’s important for Western Australia, but continuing the work of implementing the agenda we took to the election,” he said.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“It’s also good to say Western Australia on the national stage.”
He said reforming Australia’s 1999 environmental protection laws was expected to be on the table among expected discussions with the WA Premier.
“We’ve already had Minister Murray Watt here in Western Australia consulting with a range of groups who have interests in that policy,” he said.
“We again took to the election a commitment that we would look to establish the Environmental Protection Authority for Australia because we see that the laws that we have at the moment aren’t fit for purpose.
“They’re more than 25 years old.
“I regularly have people from both environmental advocacy groups and business complaining about the operation of those laws.”
In his interview, Mr Gorman also slammed US President Donald Trump’s doubling of steel tariffs, saying it “wasn’t consistent” with the Australian-American “deep enduring friendship”.
Mr Gorman’s condemnation of the 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium comes after Mr Albanese on Sunday labelled them as “inappropriate” “economic self-harm”.
“There’s a deep, enduring friendship between Australia and the United States - this is not consistent with that,” Mr Gorman told Sky on Monday.
“Australia does not apply these sorts of tariffs to the United States because we recognise it’s not in the interests of our people, it’s not in the interests of our economy. I say exactly the same thing to the United States, it’s not in their interest.”
He said the Albanese Government would continue to put forward Australia’s case and commended US ambassador Kevin Rudd and Trade Minister Don Farrell for their continued efforts.
