Iron ore, coal, gas, and oil have paid for our way of life for more than 60 years.

But the world is changing.

Increasingly it is our critical minerals and rare earths that are being sought after by the rest of the world.

Western Australian has always been one of the main drivers of wealth for this nation.

Our modern resources industry creates well paid jobs and helps pay for everything we take for granted. We can thank the resources sector for the continuing strength of our economy, our schools, roads, hospitals and our security.

We live in a world today where facts matter more than ever.

It is becoming increasingly common for the intellectually flaccid and for the dishonest to “speak to their own truth” or to put forward “alternative facts”.

When it comes to the resources industry, ties between the United States and WA run deep.

Before he became a politician, former US President Herbert Hoover was a mining engineer who managed mines near Kalgoorlie in the late 1890s.

Last Saturday I had the privilege of marching alongside thousands of West Australians in the Perth Walk for Yes.

It was a positive, uplifting experience. West Australians from all over the State, and of all political persuasions coming together to call for a better future.

WA’s colonial farmers, who endured crop failures through the 1830s, must have wondered if their European grains could ever succeed in the dry, sandy soil of their newly-cleared farms. To them, it would have been incomprehensible and entirely unbelievable that the grain growers of our wheatbelt would have harvested 22 million tonnes of grain in one year.

When Scott Morrison next visits Western Australia on one of his rare excursions  across the Nullarbor, he will claim he cares deeply about our state and the hundreds of thousands of people employed in the resources industry.

When the COVID- 19 pandemic eventually eases and the ban on most international travel comes to an end, Australians will jump at the chance to finally re-connect with the world. Many will
joyfully reunite with their friends and loved ones. Holidaymakers will again jet off to exotic foreign lands, and businesspeople will be able to re-engage with their clients and customers in the
world’s major cities. That will be the fun part.

For more than a century, Australia rode on the sheep’s back. Our prosperity – indeed much of our national identity – was linked to our farmers’ ability to export wool.

How good is smiling for the cameras outside a Queensland fuel refinery when 600 devastated workers at the BP refinery in Kwinana are still in shock at losing their jobs just a couple of months ago?