Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

It is my honour and privilege to be here this evening, having been elected for the third consecutive time to the electorate of Canning. I would like to thank everyone who assisted me in my 2007 Canning campaign. Many volunteers generously gave their valuable time to help me get re-elected as the member for Canning. Special thanks go to all those who helped on the 46 Canning polling booths on 24 November—which turned out to be a very hot day in Perth, I might add. Most of all I would like to thank the people of Canning, who continued to show me strong support. I would also like to take this opportunity to say with sadness that a number of my colleagues and friends are no longer joining me in this chamber. I congratulate them on their service to this parliament and for their time spent working for their constituents. I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

If I could indulge for just a moment, I would like to congratulate my Western Australian colleagues in particular for such a strong election result in the campaign in Western Australia. It is a true reflection of the prosperity of the state of Western Australia that voters clearly endorsed what the coalition government had done for them over the past 11 years. Eleven of the 15 federal seats in Western Australia are held by Liberal members. The swing against the coalition in WA was only 2.14 per cent, well below the average national swing of 5.44 per cent.

I make special mention of those new members who will be joining us in parliament and on the regular flights to Canberra: the member for Cowan, Luke Simpkins—‘Luke the local’, as they called him—and the member for Forrest, Nola Marino, who ran a special campaign. I also want to make particular mention of the member for Swan, Steve Irons. Many would have heard him here in the chamber tonight. His story is unbelievable, and it is a credit to him that he has become a member of this esteemed place. As some know, I have a strong affiliation with the seat of Swan, and I congratulate Steve for being the only Liberal MP in the country to have won a seat from a sitting Labor member during the 24 November election. That is a credit to his hard work and dedication and to the campaign that he ran.

I have continued to work hard for my electors, fighting for infrastructure, working with residents on local issues and representing those who may need help with government bodies, local government or other authorities. I thank the Canning electors for their vote of confidence in me as their representative. I hope my re-election is an acknowledgement by the local community that they are happy with my representation. With that comes my obligation to work just as hard on their behalf in the next three years as I have done for the last three years. I have no hesitation in saying that I intend to do so.

I would like to give a general wrap-up of the campaign. As many know, I first won my seat in 2001 by a very slender margin of just over 500 votes from a very good ALP candidate in Jane Gerick, who was a delightful person. In the 2004 election I had the largest swing in Australia—except for an Independent—of 9.2 per cent. Even though I have lost some ground, I now have a margin of 5.6 per cent, which I am very proud of in the current climate. I will do my best to make sure the people of Canning realise that we work hard for them. However, there will be a redistribution in Western Australia in the next term, and that will make for some interesting reading over the next three years, Mr Deputy Speaker. I see you are taking a lot of interest in that! The campaign was a strong campaign. I have always treated Canning as a marginal seat, and I always will because those who for one moment become arrogant and think that they are popular or that their election to the House is a foregone conclusion are headed for doom.

I need to talk about the union campaign. I have listened to many maiden speeches in this House, and we have heard a number today. It is no secret that the union movement was very active with its Your Rights at Work campaign. It was entitled to do that, but there are some more unseemly aspects of the union campaign which I will make clear. Even in their maiden speeches many of the new members have acknowledged that they would not be here without the campaign run by the local unions.

In August last year, for example, I reported to parliament that the campaign by the unions had reached a new low in my electorate. The TWU had been ringing its members in Canning and asking them how they were voting—basically standing over them and telling them how to vote. A local truck driver, who contacted me about this behaviour, said that the TWU representative had asked him if he would be voting the right way. When my constituent asked, ‘What do you mean by the right way?’ the TWU representative said, ‘Well, are you going to be voting for Kevin Rudd or not? We’ve got to win that seat.’ My constituent was quite offended by being told. He got on to the two-way system and talked to all his mates in the other trucks and told them how appalled he was. He was just as appalled as, I am sure, many other union members would have been to see that their union dues were not going into looking after their own particular situations but were going into a national Labor Party campaign—the unions’ campaign slush fund. I understand that my opponent was able to convince the Australian Labor Party that he should be the candidate because he would be getting funding from the Australian Workers Union. That would have been the tipping point that allowed him to gain preselection for Canning.

On that point, there is this letter from Tim Daly, the local AWU representative, soliciting votes on behalf of the union in Pinjarra and largely around Alcoa—and this letter is an interesting one. In it, the member for Maribyrnong, Bill Shorten, is telling people that they should vote for the Labor candidate in Canning because he is the right man for the job. It is interesting also that he was running on the campaign slogan ‘A fresh face for Canning’. But if you have a look at this photo, it is not a very fresh face. Mine might be weathered and quite worn, but certainly at 54 it is a bit fresher than the 58-year-old who said that he would be a fresh face for Canning. In this letter from Bill Shorten, he asked the electors of Canning and the AWU to give $5 a week to the campaign and to put it in the Halls Head community Bendigo Bank. It provided the account number and who the signatories were.

I wonder if they are still collecting these union dues off the AWU workers who, in Western Australia, I might say, have never had such good wages and conditions in their lives. In my electorate, for example, of about 95,000 people, 23,000 people are on flexible workplace agreements. They actually want to stay on them because they give them more money and greater flexibility and they are able to tailor their job conditions to suit themselves and their families. So what is wrong with having a more flexible workplace where you actually earn more money and have greater choice in what you do?

Interestingly, on election day it got a bit ugly with the people manning the booths, but I will get to that in a moment. I want to talk a little more about Your Rights at Work campaign. We do know, for example, that the campaign did not have that much effect in Canning, but in the neighbouring seat of Hasluck, which was won by Sharryn Jackson—and I congratulate her because she worked hard to get back in—they ran a voracious campaign.

The weekend Financial Review reported on 9 February that the ACTU paid full-time organisers in 24 marginal seats to work for the whole 18 months. We know that they spent $8½ million in those seats. In the 24 targeted seats, there was an average swing of 2.5 per cent or higher to the Labor Party. Obviously their campaign worked in those targeted marginal seats. But these so-called disclosure laws about who donates to campaigns make you laugh. The Labor Party can give $8½ million to run a targeted campaign, putting ACTU workers into 24 seats, and nobody seems to take any notice. If somebody puts $10,000 into my campaign, it is insidious, horrible and wrong, and they are buying favour and votes. Shock, horror! It is absolutely wrong and all it is designed to do is try and demean anybody who wants to be involved in the political process. But this is what we can expect for some time. I have been a good fundraiser in campaigns and I am sure that the people who support me will continue to do so because I not only work on their behalf; I trust that they consider the money is well invested in the representation that they get.

The Australian reported on 14 February that the ACTU collected another $9 million this year, which will add to what it already has in its coffers from its 1.8 million members. It has been estimated that this year it may collect close to $1 billion in union dues around this country. Talk about slush funds for the next election campaign. You can see the sort of bank that is being built up by the union movement for and on behalf of the Labor Party. The same article said that ACTU union officials are ‘irritated’ that they are still being levied when:

... the Coalition has been ousted and Labor remains committed to abolishing Work Choices.

And why wouldn’t they be irritated? The deal has been done and there is no explanation as to where the money is being spent now that the election is over. In Adelaide, for example, it was found that members of the United Firefighters Union, who were on duty at the time, were handing out Your Rights at Work flyers at shopping centres and railway stations during the last campaign. Of course, the union bosses claim that they were not bullied or coerced to do so; nonetheless, these firefighters were on duty and they were entrusted to be out saving lives, not distributing union propaganda while being paid to do so. I am told that Teresa Gambaro, the former member for Petrie, said that public servants in Petrie were given the last two weeks of the campaign off on full pay to campaign full time against her. Those are the sorts of campaigns that we are up against, and we will expect them again but obviously we will be ready for them.

On election day in Canning, the union thuggery was out there to be seen. There were fisticuffs amongst union members themselves at various polling booths as they were setting up. The police were called, and that is on the record. It was reported in the media—and of course the media is always right, is it not? In Waroona, for example, in the south of my electorate, the people handing out ALP how-to-vote cards were abusing those people who went by and did not take a card. Poor old ladies who did not take a Labor how-to-vote card were given certain hand signals and were called very unsavoury names as they went in. One of the guys in the orange T-shirts was heard to say, ‘Look, I really don’t like doing this, but I know that if I don’t do it I will be in trouble when I go to work on Monday.’ That is the sort of thing that they were up against. We know that people had their signs stolen, for example. At one of the polling booths at Falcon, while setting up in the dark the union guys involved on behalf of the Labor Party grabbed all my T-shirts and took off with them. We know who the bloke is, but they are the sorts of tactics we expected. That intimidation was the ugly side that was manifested in an election campaign for the first time, as far as I am aware.

In the electorate of Canning, the then Rudd opposition promised a number of things to the people of Canning throughout the campaign. I will be making sure that these campaign promises are delivered: $5½ million was committed to the Mandurah business centre for a revitalisation project, with the aim of revamping the town precinct to grow tourism and business; $345,000 was dedicated to the completion of the final stages of the Waroona town square redevelopment, which will include street paving, picnic areas et cetera—the Howard government committed funding to the initial stages of this project and I am keen to see this project completed in such a vibrant part of my electorate. That is one Labor promise I will be keeping an eye on. Further, $200,000 was promised for the compilation of the water cycle management plan to address the impact of development on the Mundijong town site; and another $200,000 was promised for climate change adaptation strategies for both Serpentine Jarrahdale and Mandurah.

Importantly, the member for Batman, Minister for Resources and Energy and Minister for Tourism, assured $65 million funding towards the construction of the Mandurah Entrance Road. At the outset I must say that this is an important state government road, but it is just that: a state government road. The state government originally pulled the Mandurah Entrance Road off the Perth-Bunbury Highway project as a way of reducing costs. Now the state government has the federal government picking up the tab for its responsibility. I recognise the benefits of the entrance road and I will work closely with the City of Mandurah to see it happens, because I want to see that Peel motorists get access to this. But, realistically, the government are just bailing out their Labor state mates, who are flush with funds in any case.

As the parliament would be aware, the Perth-Bunbury Highway has been a landmark project since the time I was elected as the member for Canning. I fought hard to get this project on the road and secure $170 million in coalition government funding. This is a 70-kilometre dual carriageway extending from the end of the Kwinana Freeway to Lake Clifton, taking haulage vehicles out of Mandurah’s town centre and cutting at least 30 minutes off the trip to Bunbury. In order to see the Perth-Bunbury Highway get on the road, the Howard government made the original AusLink funding agreement conditional on construction beginning in 2006 and being completed by 2009. If we had not surrounded the state transport minister Alannah MacTiernan with this, the road would not even be started now.

The original cost of the Perth-Bunbury Highway was $340 million. The member for Batman admitted during the election campaign that the cost has blown out to $660 million, of which the federal government will now provide an extra $160 million. All this is doing is rewarding the mismanagement on the part of the state government, who stalled this project, mismanaged it and allowed the blow-outs. The minister, as I have said on many occasions, has not delivered one project on time or on budget. However, the state government are being rewarded now by being propped up by $160 million from federal Labor, as they are in government. But it is good that we are going to get the road.

As I said, I am proud of my achievements in Canning through the last couple of terms. I remain committed to bringing essential infrastructure to the region, fixing dangerous roads and community facilities. The constituents of Canning can be assured that I have not forgotten them as I represent them here. I will urge the new government to honour the coalition’s $10 million promise for the Pinjarra bypass, with a total cost of $22 million. The expansion of mining activity around Alcoa and Boddington has really pushed this. Other promises include funding of $650,000 for the Pinjarra sporting complex and $125,000 for lighting for Falcon Reserve. I will be calling on the new parliamentary secretary and member for Brand to look at these proposals, because it is in his region of Peel. I am sure he will take an interest in this.

One of the biggest issues concerning my constituents is crime—graffiti, hooning and antisocial behaviour. I will be working with all authorities to see that this is addressed. It is the biggest cancer in our society at the moment—the disgraceful antisocial behaviour to the rest of the community. I compliment the attack on binge drinking and support my colleague from Swan and his comments. We need to take a firm stand on all sorts of antisocial behaviour that wreck the fabric of our society.

Improving broadband access is obviously something that is high on my list. Because of the diverse nature of the Canning electorate, there are many black spots. I will continue to fight for better coverage and a better deal. I will ask Telstra to turn on their enabled exchanges. Many of them have been enabled for ages; Telstra have just refused to turn them on. However, they are not on their own. They need support from a wide area.

Canning schools did well under the Howard government through the Investing in Our Schools Program. It is very sad that they are going to be missing out on this sort of funding. Bob Hawke said no child would live in poverty after whenever it was; no child will live without a computer now. The strange thing is most schools have got computers for every child in the school. At any rate, they are going to get new ones now. The computer companies are very happy about that, because they are going to turn them over pretty quickly.

During the last parliament I worked very hard to get a fairer deal for franchisees. I was involved in a dispute assisting former Lenard’s franchisees in my area. It is a very sad case in which many of these franchisees have lost their houses—their homes—and their livelihoods and have gone broke as a result of being done over by what I consider to be a rogue franchise organisation. I will be talking more about this later. I am going to be asking ASIC to do their job—particularly the small business manager, Mr Martin—and toughen up the compliance regime in this area. I will also continue to work with my colleagues in this place—the member for Hasluck and I have already talked about this—in relation to 410 visa holders.

Finally, I remain an outspoken critic of the current situation at Perth airport. There are long delays in queues for check-in. I have written to Prime Minister Rudd about this. It is a disgrace that Perth airport, in a booming state like Western Australia, is little better than the Lagos airport in terms of confusion, congestion and unsafe transit through the airport. It really needs the federal government to take a strong hand to modernise the master plan for that airport and make sure that Western Australia benefits from the boom that we are going through. This is another project I will continue to work on on behalf of Western Australia and my constituents. (Time expired)

Debate (on motion by Mr Forrest) adjourned.

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