Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are so many other things that, once seen, cannot be unseen. I'll go to the heart of the MPI—what was seen that cannot be unseen at the Western Australian state Liberal conference last weekend. For those who aren't aware, Ned Flanders of The Simpsons has a doppelganger in Western Australia. His name is Mike Nahan. He is the leader of the Liberal Party, and, in an amazing call to arms, he has tried to inspire visions of Howard's battlers and Tony's tradies. And what does he call them? 'Mike's mates'. He said, 'Do you know what we need, fellow Liberals? We need more of Mike's mates in Western Australia!'

The funny thing about 'Mike's mates' is that it's a bit like saying you're a strong Prime Minister. If you've got to say you need mates then everyone knows that you don't really have them. And why is it, I hear you ask, that Western Australian Liberals have so few mates? One only needs to see the course of financial mismanagement that's occurred under the hand of Colin Barnett and the Liberal Party in Western Australia over the last eight years. That has been compounded—make no mistake—by four years of financial mismanagement under this Liberal government.

Let's start at home. Let's start in Western Australia. Let's see what Colin Barnett actually did whilst he was handling the books, then not handling the books and then handling the books. Where do we start? In 2008 we started with a surplus in Western Australia—believe it or not—of $2 billion. Yes, we had some debt. That debt was $3.6 billion. After eight years of a Liberal government, what are we left with? We are left with a deficit of $3 billion. We are left with a debt of $33 billion, which will then go to $41 billion in the course of the forward estimates. How's that for financial mismanagement! One wonders why they don't have any mates!

During that period of time, what did the federal Western Australians do to try to prop up this ailing financial basket case under Colin Barnett?

Let's see what they did. They spent like drunken sailors. Let's see what happened to the GST distribution in the four years in which this federal Liberal government was in charge. In 2014 there was a return of 44c in the dollar under the GST, and they did nothing; in 2015, a 37c contribution under the GST redistribution, and they did nothing; and in 2016, 29c as a GST redistribution, and they did nothing. Are we seeing a pattern here? In 2017, 30c as a GST contribution, and they did nothing; and 2018 and going forward, 34c in the dollar, and they're doing nothing.

Coming back to the state Liberal conference, what did we see this Prime Minister do? Well, he did the same thing that he did at the last state Liberal conference. One could be forgiven for having some deja vu. He promised a floor. He promised some mythical floor to the GST. He promised a floor last time, but he didn't say when, didn't say where and didn't say how much. He promised a floor this time, and didn't say when, didn't say where and didn't say how much. I'll tell you what—I'm glad this Prime Minister isn't a tradie specialising in floors. I'm glad this Prime Minister doesn't say, 'Don't worry about things; floors are us.' There is no floor under this Prime Minister; there is a fundamental flaw, and that flaw is his failure to do anything meaningful to address the disparity faced by Western Australians under this federal government.

Meanwhile, what does Western Australia contribute to the federal government coffers? Well, they contribute more than we could possibly know, and certainly more than you'd be expecting under these federal Western Australian representatives in government: 10 per cent of the population, 15 per cent contribution to the economy and 35 per cent in exports. Let's look at commodities. Iron ore—$48 billion into the economy; petroleum products—$18.4 billion; and gold—$10 billion. And all of that comes to the Federation.

Mr Keenan interjecting—

I hear the member for Stirling ask how many seats they have in Western Australia. They've got 11 out of 16 seats—and what have those members done?

Opposition members: Nothing!

Nothing, I hear you say. So let's amp it up a bit. Let's look at their composition in the ministry. How many ministers do they have who are from Western Australia?

Mr Keenan interjecting—

And how much have those six ministers from Western Australia done? Even less; even less than nothing.

Mr Keenan interjecting—

The member for Stirling asks me: 'What have we ever done for you?' Straight out of the Life of Brian: 'What have the Romans ever done for us? Oh, that's right: highways and plumbing.' This just says so much. Only a fortnight ago, our leader, after—

Mr Keenan interjecting—

Let's call it for what it is. The Western Australian federal Labor MPs have been in this place for 12 months, not four years of government—and are certainly not of the calibre of the member for Stirling here! After 12 months of advocacy and after 12 months of listening to their community, what did the federal Labor leader do not one fortnight ago? He came to Perth and said, 'I've listened to my Western Australian colleagues and I am implementing an historical fix to address the GST disparity on a once-and-for-all basis.' We have a federal leader who is prepared to put his money where his mouth is: topping up our GST disparity to the equivalent of a 70c floor, $1.6 billion, to once and for all address the disparity. That's what we do. After 12 months, we did more than it took you mob four years in government. That's what we do.

So what's the response from this Liberal crew? Well, the response is this: 'We're going to sort of talk about a GST floor, but we don't know when, we don't know where and we don't know how. Instead, what we'll do is we'll put on the table a $100 million exploration development incentive.' Anyone who knows anything about the EDI will tell you that it was this mob who took it off the table in the first place four months ago in the budget on the basis that it didn't work. So what are they going to do? They said, 'We're going to reheat this musty old package that doesn't work and we're going to roll it up to Western Australia,' but they omitted to tell anyone at the conference that this package actually applies across the country—not just to Western Australia. That's not $100 million to WA.

In the absence of that, what else do they talk about? I thought they were actually talking about regeneration within the Liberal Party. I thought they were talking about succession in the party. Turns out I got it wrong. They'd all been in the Dominion League, which is a pub in my electorate—they'd clearly taken some inspiration from that—and wanted to talk about secession from the Federation instead. When the going gets tough, the tough just run away, do they? They run away and say, 'We don't want to be part of it anymore.' Where does that leave the most senior minister of the Western Australian mob, the Minister for Foreign Affairs? Will she be the world's only foreign minister with a policy that she should not be a citizen of the country that she represents on the world stage? How is that going to work, do you think? How do you reckon that's going to go? I'll tell you what: it's not going to go well.

On a serious note, if you want certainty in relation to a GST top-up to a real floor, vote Labor. If you want federal representatives to face up to a problem instead of running away from it, vote Labor. If you want a government that will listen, consider and act in Western Australia, you'll vote Labor.

Honourable members interjecting—

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