Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The last six years of the Labor government saw some interesting decisions made. The whole issue around native title and the commitment that had been struck saw the then Prime Minister withdraw that support and that commitment which meant that the Western Australian government paid their way. The $300 million commitment to Broome was met by the Western Australian government and not honoured by the Commonwealth government. The $1.2 billion that was taken out of education under the Gonski arrangements impacted, and therefore the state, without the Commonwealth resourcing, had to make some decisions.

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting—

Member for Adelaide, you may skulk, but you were part of this process. Western Australia has not had a friend in the Labor governments. Infrastructure that should have been built was not committed to or delivered on the ground to Western Australians.

It is interesting that you raise this issue at the time of the Senate election, as the member for Brand talked about. I had a discussion with the member for Brand about some of the infrastructure needs of Western Australia. We had a very frank discussion. He indicated that there would not be a commitment to some of the infrastructure required. The Leader of the Opposition at the time, Tony Abbott, committed to some of the major infrastructure that was needed in Western Australia and he has honoured that commitment. The minister for transport has been to the state and has outlined those commitments.

Our road infrastructure in Western Australia is important to the economic growth of our economy—not only at the state level but also at the national level. If we are serious about developing the resources, the previous six years of a Labor government should have meant greater commitment, because it certainly took its share of the taxes that the major companies paid. The imposition of the carbon tax saw companies like Woodside Energy paying $172 million as a carbon tax bill; BHP Worsley Alumina, $56 million; BHP Burrup, $55 million; and Yara Pilbara, $35 million. If we want to develop the economy, let the carbon tax repeal bill through the Senate. Allow the change to occur so that you do not get in the way of the economic prosperity of both this nation and Western Australia.

There is much still to be done. The games that Labor have played over the last six years and, more recently, in this term of parliament are seeing a diminution of our capacity to grow our economy and for all families to share and prosper in that. There are small businesses that rely on the growth of the resources and mining sector. Their opportunity to be part of that is diminished when you get companies slowing. So I would say to Labor, and certainly to the member for Perth, that you had your opportunity. You could have made a difference but you did not. In fact, you were part of a government that hamstrung some of the initiatives. Light rail in Perth could have been done under the Gallop and Carpenter governments. There were sufficient resources that the state was drawing down from mining royalties. I certainly did not see the commitment from the Commonwealth government to come equally to the table, but the Labor government of that time was quite happy to put its hand out and rip resources out of the Western Australian economy.

Colin Barnett, to his credit, has held a strong economic approach to the development of infrastructure and the things required to provide government services to Western Australians. It is a pity that Labor lives in a dreamer's paradise of the things that they say they delivered because, as a Western Australian, I have not seen that translate into reality on the ground.

See this speech in context