Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about Western Australia and the GST. It is obvious to people in this chamber that the McGowan Labor government was swept into power a couple of weeks ago in Western Australia—in fact, a tsunami of seats were won—because the McGowan Labor government offered a fresh approach. They are committed to reducing the disgraceful debt that was run up by the Barnett Liberals, and they are fighting for a fair share of the GST. The McGowan Labor government has promised to do that against a backdrop of complete inaction by Western Australian Liberal MPs and senators on speaking up for Western Australians on the issue of the GST.

What is needed is a fairer distribution of the GST. These Liberal MPs and senators have consistently let down Western Australians. They have failed to deliver for their state. It is not as if they are backbenchers. In fact, the only person I have ever heard talk about the GST is Senator Dean Smith, a Western Australian Liberal senator. He has spoken out, but he too has failed miserably in getting a fairer share of the GST for Western Australia. But at least Senator Smith has spoken out.

Let us talk about the senior Liberals who are not backbenchers: two are in the junior ministry, four are cabinet ministers and two members help comprise the four-person leadership group. They are very, very senior people within the Turnbull government, but, since 2013, they have sat on their hands and zipped their lips when it comes to WA's share of the GST. As I said, they have repeatedly left it to Senator Dean Smith, who also, along with them, has failed to deliver. But one could argue it is much harder for a backbencher and far easier when you are a senior player in the Turnbull government. But none of them have ever spoken about it, and they have left Western Australia to just flounder on its own.

This has been the topic of much discussion in the newspapers in Western Australia. In last week's edition of The Sunday Times, Peter van Onselen belled the cat when he said:

Barnett must have hoped for more when the Coalition seized power back in 2013.

Julie Bishop is deputy Liberal leader, what has she achieved on GST outcomes for WA? Without her support Malcolm Turnbull never would have ousted Abbott as PM. Why didn't Bishop demand GST reform as the price for her backing?

Mathias Cormann is Deputy Senate Leader, and will probably be Senate Leader before the year is over. As Finance Minister to boot what has he done to fix the GST inequity his home State suffers from?

Christian Porter moved to Canberra after a stint as WA treasurer, using his maiden speech to declare his passionate desire to fix WA's GST distribution. Since then he's gone from the backbench to a stint as parliamentary secretary to a PM (having the ear of the leader) to Cabinet and a place at the table of the powerful Expenditure Review Committee.

Has he lost his passion for this issue or simply been unable to achieve outcomes?

Michaelia Cash is touted as a rising star in Canberra, having been promoted to Cabinet by Turnbull, making her one of the most senior women in the Government. As a Senator her job first and foremost is to represent her home State. Well?

Why hasn’t she put the acid on Turnbull …

That was in the Sunday Times just last Sunday, and there have been pieces in the West Australian and the Sunday Times for weeks on end.

Less than 35c in the dollar is WA's GST allocation, and it is a problem. And it is not just a problem for WA but also for the national parliament. Of course the GST distribution is a difficult issue, there is no doubt about that, and one where each state and territory has a vested interest in getting the greatest share of the GST for their own state. We all get that, we certainly get that, but that does not mean the federal government just ignores it. The over-representation of WA MPs and senators in senior roles in the Turnbull government does not mean they can put their heads in the sand and fail to represent the interests of Western Australians on the GST.

The new McGowan state Labor government is hot to trot on this issue, make no mistake. It will not go away quietly on the issue of the GST. Western Australian Liberal MPs and senators, particularly those in senior positions within this government, can no longer ignore this issue. The recent wipe out, the tsunami, of the Barnett government came—one way it came about was because it was out of touch and arrogant. That should be a lesson for the federal Liberal government. All of those seats it now holds in the House of Representatives are under threat, and this issue is a hot topic for Western Australians. If they ignore the media, the editorials, the letters in the newspapers, then they will be going the same arrogant way that the Barnett government went. The issue of a fair distribution of the GST will remain an issue for Western Australians, but I doubt very much whether the out-of-touch current federal MPs and senators will see that. It is time the Turnbull government either put up or shut up on this issue.