Dennis Jensen (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday 9 March 2013 the blue tide of the Liberal landslide in the Western Australia state election sent out a clear message. The message is that ordinary people do not want Labor. In WA the federal Labor government is laboured government, with projects stalled and promises broken. The only person to deliver real progress has been Colin Barnett and his Liberal team. The Barnett government is one of uncommon unity and purpose. Last Saturday's election was won by delivering the strongest economic performance in the country over the last four years, by recognising that it is about equality of opportunity not equality of outcome.

In my federal electorate of Tangney there are five state electorates. In every one of those electorates Liberal members were returned with powerful new majorities. I wish to highlight three members whose campaigns epitomised the campaign in WA. There can be no tougher ground-out win than that enjoyed by Mike Nahan in Riverton. Mike won the seat by 64 votes in 2008 and was up against the darling of the Labor Party, Hannah Beazley. The combined union-Labor spend was 10 times that of the Liberals. Yet in spite of the national media hoping for the continuation of a political dynasty and in spite of the union money and paid volunteers, Mike overcame. Incredibly, he has taken the most marginal seat of 2008 and made it unthinkably safe by mere hard work and dedication. That is what the Riverton campaign and Liberal campaigns are all about, because that is what Liberals believe in in every fibre of our being. Peter Abetz, through hard work on the ground as a grassroots member, took his seat from being highly marginal to one where he is on over 63 per cent primary. This is testament to hard work and working for and with his community.

What is wrong with Labor? They do not have the people. They do not have them intellectually, spiritually or even physically, as we saw on Saturday. Their members were very few and far between. Unions today are indolent and irrelevant to WA and the Australian economy. I am afraid that in the final analysis of the WA state election, one can conclude that for Labor a very personal problem remains: the voters of Tangney and WA want fair dinkum politics. They want their representatives to play the game hard, but play the ball and not the man.

The campaign in my electorate that most displayed this was the Dean Nalder campaign in Alfred Cove. Dean, the grandson of a deputy premier of my state, knows the value of saying, 'Yes, we can'. He knows the challenge of a positive agenda for real change, and because of that he gave the people what they had been asking for. He received an epic mandate, a heroic 75 per cent two-party preferred vote—this was against the Independent incumbent and the Labor Party.

The lesson for federal colleagues is clear: Mike Nahan, Peter Abetz and Dean Nalder are champions of their communities, and they won through their hard and honest work. They offered a positive vision for real results; that is how the coalition will win in September. The things that federal Labor are not good at are now very clear: they are not very good at protecting our borders and they are not good at securing jobs or competitiveness. The one thing this government is good at, and I will concede this, is spending money—our money. When the Treasurer picks your pocket to pay Chinese bondholders, he is crushing our future with a mountain of iron-clad debt. Treasurer, rip up the credit card, get off the debt bench and start living within our means again.

Liberals know how to do it—we have done it before—and with Liberal leaders at every level, our team is talented and ready. Tried and trusted versus tired and troubled. Open opportunity versus despair and waiting. Vigour, vitality and big ideas; that is what is on offer from a coalition government. Let not the darkest hours behind us block our sight of the brightest days ahead. Working with Dean Nalder, Peter Abetz, Mike Nahan and Colin Barnett—and also working with Tony Abbott—we will return hope, reward and opportunity to all Australians.