Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Rockingham by-election held in my home state of WA on the weekend. In particular, I want to thank and congratulate the local Liberal candidate, Peter Hudson. Peter's an outstanding young man. He was born and raised in the area; in fact, he lives in the suburb of Waikiki, which is just a few minutes from the heart of Rockingham. Peter ran an exceptional campaign and secured a 22½ per cent swing away from Labor in its safest seat in the state. The state Labor government has tried to spin this as, somehow, a good result, given that the opinion polls about a week before the by-election showed a 24 per cent swing. They managed improved that to a 22½ per cent swing against them.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) | Link to this | Hansard source

What was your primary vote?

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

To give some context, Minister Watt, to the outcome: this is the first time that seat has gone to a preference flow in many years.

Since 1996, my good friend Senator O'Sullivan has just told me. It is the first time this seat has gone to preferences since 1996. Labor opposite can be smug—

Senator Pratt, who is interjecting, can be smug over there about a 22½ per cent swing against the state Labor government, but I think it's something that Peter Hudson, the local Liberal members in that area and the Liberal Party of Western Australia can be proud of.

On the booth on Saturday morning, where I was handing out how-to-vote cards, a few issues came up. Law and order came up—the fact there is no 24/7 police station in that area, and problems of increasing youth crime in particular. Failures in the healthcare system came up more than once. Problems with the local hospital, with violence against nurses and doctors, came up. In particular, one nurse who worked at the local hospital talked to me about the assault she had suffered in the hospital from a 'patient'. Those issues came up, but, without doubt, the single biggest issue that was raised with me on polling day was the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. Never in my time in politics have I seen a more inept, a poorer drafted, a poorer explained or a poorer prepared piece of legislation than the state Labor government's Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. It has caused confusion and uncertainty across the community—I was about to say 'the business community', but it's not just the business community; it's across the community in Western Australia.

A few days before the state by-election day, I was down in Katanning. There were 500-plus farmers concerned about the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act and its implications. At a community meeting in Dawesville, 250 members of the community there were concerned about the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act and its implementation. On that polling booth in Rockingham, time after time, for the people who were taking our how-to-vote cards or those of the strong independent candidate in the area, the issue raised was the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.

The federal government, federal Labor, has its own cultural heritage act coming up. We don't know what it looks like. We don't know what's in it. We're told it's not going to override the state act—even though I don't see how you can rule that out under the Constitution. This is something all Western Australians care about, and they'll be watching this federal Labor government very closely indeed.