Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being the last week of the current Senate as they sit this week, I will take the opportunity to report on the outcome of the WA Senate election on April 5. There has been a fair bit of budget and other stuff going on in this place, so I have not had a chance to report on it.

In this place, we had a great build-up to the Senate election. There were many speeches, MPIs and adjournments from both sides of the chamber, which were spoken with passion from both sides, as we approached the WA Senate election.

But the people saw through the spin and the result was emphatic; three liberal senators, one PUP, one Green and just one ALP Senator returned. I would like to congratulate Linda Reynolds, who has now won her spot twice, and Senator Johnston and Senator Cash for their re-election and the other senators who were elected.

Senator Johnston helped me hand out how-to-vote cards at the Carlisle Primary School in the electorate of Swan on the day and he certainly has a connection with the Belmont community. I would also like to thank the volunteers in my electorate of Swan who came out in force to support the Liberal Party in WA for the third time in just over 12 months—one state and two federal elections.

Their dedication is an undeniable factor in the electoral success of our party in WA. It was clear on April 5, as it was in March and September last year, that when it came to the number and the enthusiasm of volunteers, Labor and the Greens just could not keep up.

It was effectively a by-election and it was of course expected that a swing away from the government would be recorded. But I was pleased to see when the results came in that the swing away from the Liberal Party in my electorate of Swan was the third lowest in the state behind the safe seats of Curtin and Tangney at just 4.2 per cent.

You can expect a swing away from the government, but what you don't expect to see at a by-election is a bigger swing away from the opposition. So the real loser at the Senate election was undoubtedly the Labor party, who received just 21 per cent of the vote—their lowest on record.

As Labor man Martin Ferguson has said, WA Labor is considered a 'national disgrace' and this election was truly the shambles to end all shambles for them. Their candidates were barely on speaking terms. Mr Bullock was quoted as saying that Labor members were mad and the party could not be trusted after he had been preselected and elected as the Labor Party candidate in the September election. Despite this, Bill Shorten continued to stand by the No. 1 candidate.

The Labor voting material was intended to mislead. On election day at polling booths there were photos of state members of parliament on the booths and on their how-to-vote cards. There was no appearance of any of the Senate candidates. State opposition leader, Mark McGowan, was leading the robo-calling campaign and the public face of the campaign, but after the disastrous result he was nowhere to be found. Whenever things get tough Mr McGowan disappears. He was often on holiday in Bali when Julia Gillard came to town in the previous parliament.

I also want to mention that an MP from South Australia said they had been calling people in Western Australia and were surprised at the amount of times that they got hung up on when they said they were a Labor MP from South Australia. I guess that was indicative of the attitude at the last Senate election on 5 April.

What the Labor Party did not want to talk about were the federal issues. Where they did they were not telling the truth. Mr Bullock declared in The West Australian that Labor was repealing the mining tax the very week Labor was voting to keep the mining tax in Canberra.

Then in the aftermath WA Labor imploded. Almost immediately after the election the embarrassing condition of the WA Labor Party has been the source of rolling news. On 11 April United Voice Secretary Carolyn Smith denounced Joe Bullock's conservative views as betraying ordinary members of the Labor Party. Just this weekend The West Australian once again shone the spotlight on the internal disarray of the Labor Party. An article entitled 'Labor pains' by journalist Gareth Parker detailed the findings of an internal WA Labor report that recommended a significant weakening of the union stranglehold on power within Labor. The report stated that only 20 per cent of Labor's 80 WA branches are active, suggesting that ordinary Labor members believe factions have taken over most of the local branches.

I would like to pay tribute to Senator Eggleston, who has served the parliament for 18 years. He was my patron senator in 2007 when I was elected. As a patron senator he has never lost an election. His representation of WA and his staunch service to the Liberal Party for 18 years should be congratulated. I congratulate Senator Eggleston on his service to WA and this parliament.