Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the challenges facing the economy, particularly for families in Western Australia and Canning? How will the government's economic plan boost jobs and growth?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question, and she well knows, from or own seat representing—most of Western Australia—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

that the wind down in the investment phase of the mining boom has had a real impact on many communities around Australia.

Opposition members interjecting—

I think honourable members should perhaps stop guffawing and listen for a moment. The fact is that the Western Australian economy has been driven by a massive investment boom in constructing mining projects. I was discussing this with a number of fly-in fly-out workers on the train back from Mandurah only the other day, and they—

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton is warned.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

are very very anxious about the consequences for them of this wind down in the mining boom and they were very interested in talking to me about the jobs that we are providing—for example, 900 new jobs for the construction of the National Broadband Network in Western Australia. They were very interested in the China free trade agreement, recognising that it is going to produce many opportunities for new jobs in other industries and new industries in Western Australia.

Western Australia, and the seat of Canning in particular, is not is one-trick pony. There is a lot more to Western Australia than mining, construction or indeed the resources sector. It is a state of enormous potential with an enormous range of industries, ranging from high-tech industries, agriculture to some of the finest wine in Australia. It is a hive of industry, but that industry needs markets and the China-Australia free trade agreement. Every audience I spoke to in Canning, whether it was in the pub in Byford, the bowling club in Pinjarra, meeting people in the street with Andrew Hastie, our outstanding candidate, or on the train, wanted to hear about our plan for jobs, our plan for a stronger Australian economy. They were excited to know that the coalition government, our government, had a vision for the future. We are optimists. We are not like the Leader of the Opposition, like his party, pinning ourselves to the scare campaigns of the CFMEU. We are not seeking to frighten the people of Canning; we are offering them a vision and a program that is going to give them jobs. Whether it was the FIFO workers on the train or the people in the pub at Byford, they recognise that Andrew Hastie and the coalition has the key to more jobs and a stronger economy in Canning and across that great state.