Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me, unfortunately, not great pleasure to speak on this, but it has to be said. We cannot be silent. We have to let everyone in Australia know what the heck has been going on. There is something absolutely rotten going on between the Western Australian state government and this Commonwealth government, both from the Liberal family of politics. We heard very, very clearly in question time today the answer when Minister Brandis was asked very clearly about some comments made by the WA Treasurer, Mr Nahan, where he had said words to the effect of, 'We have a deal'—'we' being the state Liberal government—'with the feds to bring the Bell Group resources drama, the 'fair Bell plan', to a head, but we'll circumvent the opportunity for the ATO to collect the money.' These are the words that Mr Nahan said to none other than the Western Australian parliament. He said:

We had a deal with the commonwealth that it would not oppose the Bell act.

As a Western Australian, I think we need every single cent we can get because we, Western Australians, have been ripped off—I say that without any fear of retribution—by the government of GST take. But what makes it even worse than that is the total incompetence of the Barnett Liberal government that oversaw the greatest boom in Australia's history—the mining boom. It was only five years ago that we were standing here—every Western Australian in this place—bragging about Western Australia being the engine room of the economy.

I just want to say that two of the best reporters, I believe, in this nation are based here in this building, and they are Andrew Probyn and Shane Wright, who write for The West Australian. They have written some very, very telling articles about the nonsense going on between someone over here in the Commonwealth government and someone in the Western Australian government. We heard Senator Brandis's explanation yesterday—and I will put it in my words, not his—that, 'It's all former Treasurer Mr Joe Hockey's fault. He is the one who did the deal.' The reason those opposite say that is because back in April last year Mr Hockey wrote to his counterpart, Dr Nahan, in WA, with a nod and a wink or whatever the wording was, saying, 'It'll be all right; we won't oppose it.' I can understand why Dr Nahan is absolutely fuming, because he is the one that has to take all the pain on the jobless figures. He is the one who has to come out, do the budgets and try to defend the incompetence of the Barnett Liberal government.

I just want to share some figures that would explain Dr Nahan's anger after being, in my words, dudded by someone in the federal parliament. I would not for the life of me say it was Senator Cormann. I would not say that, even though Senator Cormann is the Geppetto of the WA Liberal Party. He is the puppetmaster, make no mistake. They might use the term 'powerbroker'. It is him and one of his mates over there, Minister Peter Collier. It is well known that, if you want to be a WA Liberal member of parliament, you go to the powerbroker.

This is why Dr Nahan and co over there are absolutely ropable, I would assume, after being dudded. It could be Mr Porter—I do not know who it is; I would not have a clue—in the other place. He has had some dealings. In fact, Mr Porter is now a senior minister in the Turnbull-Liberal government. Mr Porter was also Treasurer in the Western Australian government, so he knows all about the Bell Group deal, the Bell Group plan and the Bell Group problems. That had been going on for 20-odd years. Make no mistake: my colleagues on the other side, I am convinced—in fact, I will lay a bet. Are you allowed to lay a bet here? I will lay one with you, Mr Acting Deputy President—