Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like my colleague the member for Hotham and many others, I am concerned that the Turnbull government have failed to keep their promises to the people of Brand. During the 2016 federal election campaign, the government committed $225,000 to the City of Rockingham for five mobile CCTV cameras, through Minister Keenan's Safer Communities Fund. But, with the election over, the government have backflipped and are asking the City of Rockingham to jump through hoops to get the funding they were promised. The council have already paid for the cameras and are now left in the lurch, waiting for the government to follow through.

It is important that the people of Rockingham and Kwinana feel safe in their community, and this initiative increases better behaviour. What we have seen in Western Australia is that crime has steadily increased the Barnett Liberal government. The Turnbull government were happy to stand with Rockingham during the election campaign, but now that they are elected, they no longer care.

The people of WA are sick of being used as a political football to further the interests of the Liberal Party. The latest farce involves dirty deals between the attorneys-general of Australia and Western Australia, to cheat Australian taxpayers of Bell Group litigation funds purely because the Turnbull-Joyce Liberal-National government will not put real expenditure into Western Australia. This is a shameful example of the depths these Liberals will sink to to save themselves. These dirty deals between Liberal governments are nothing short of a national disgrace.

Western Australians deserve safety, they deserve respect and, like all Australians, they deserve at least a competent government. But, sadly, Liberal governments at federal and state levels are incompetent at best and morally bankrupt at worst. (Time expired)