Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Those of us on this side of the chamber were sitting, listening and waiting for the killer punch from the Labor Party. Perhaps we were a little misled because, as is traditionally the case with the Australian Labor Party, there was no knockout blow. All we got was wet lettuce, a bit of whiffle and a bit of waffle on how the coalition government should be held to task by the electors of Western Australia. The fact is that the people of Western Australia have spoken once and they will speak again. The Australian Labor Party may need reminding of what the message was at the last federal election from the people Western Australia. I have got every confidence, knowing the quality of Western Australian representation on this side of the chamber, that the people will deliver a clear and consistent message once again to the Australian Labor Party. The Australian Labor Party simply is not listening. The message they delivered at the last election, and the message that I am very confident Western Australians will deliver again on 5 April, is that they want anti-Western Australian taxes like the carbon tax and the mining tax to go. They clearly said to the Australian Labor Party 'We do not want your mining tax and we do not want your carbon tax.' Those two taxes, more than any other crazy notion that the Australian Labor Party put forward over their six years of government taxes, have been positively working against the Western Australian economy.

When I see the shadow minister stand up at the dispatch box and when I hear the shadow minister from Western Australia say, 'Well, do you know what, Western Australians do not like a government that says one thing before the election and then does something completely different afterwards', I scratch my head. I remind the Labor Party, I do not think that it was too long ago that this was exactly what Western Australians got from the Australian Labor Party. Who can forget Julia Gillard who, down the barrel of the camera, said 'There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead.' Then the Australian Labor Party was elected and it introduced a carbon tax. Who could forget the Australian Labor Party wanting to burden one of the pinnacle industries of Western Australia, the mining industry, with its so-called resource super profits tax. They sent off more money through the minerals resource rent tax. We know that the Australian Labor Party liked to do all kinds of modelling saying that this mining tax was going to generate some $15 billion or $16 billion worth of revenue, only to find that in reality it delivered a miserly $300 million or $400 million and at the expense of imposing huge amounts of red tape, driving down investment, increasing sovereign risk and, ultimately, increasing unemployment. All of this was as a consequence of Labor's mining tax.

The other interesting thing that I heard the Western Australian shadow minister say was, 'Western Australians should be concerned because they don’t know what the impact is going to be for tourism, they don’t know what the Commission of Audit's impact will be on education and they don’t know what the Commission of Audit's impact will be on the resources industry.' I say to the Australian Labor Party that I guarantee that the impact will be less than that of the six-year debacle we saw under the Australian Labor Party, because we have to start the fiscal repair job. We have started that walk, but it is going to be a long journey. Western Australians know that it takes a coalition government to make the tough decisions that will put this nation back on the right path to restore fiscal credibility—something that the Australian Labor Party was willing to sacrifice on the altar of a quick political fix.

The reality is that when I sit in this chamber and hear a Western Australian say to me, 'We're very concerned about tourism,' I think, 'Why don't you walk the talk?' When the Labor Party were in government, why did they materially disadvantage, for example, the tourism industry by imposing $2 billion of new tourism taxes? Why did the Australian Labor Party increase—by something like 30 per cent or 40 per cent—the passenger movement charge, so the Australian tourism industry and in particular tourism operators in Western Australia were materially disadvantaged? Why did the Australian Labor Party, when they were in power for six years, introduce policies which saw the domestic tourism industry materially disadvantaged because of the carbon tax, where if travellers chose to go overseas they did not have to pay a carbon tax? So, do not lecture the coalition about policies in relation to the tourism industry.

What about education? It takes an incredible amount of hide—you would have to have the thickest hide in the industry—to stand up, earnestly rub your hands together and say: 'I am very concerned about education in Western Australia. What are the secret cuts in relation to education?' You know what? Western Australians remember it was your government that ripped $1.2 billion out of the education budget and that it materially affected Western Australia and Queensland.

Mr Gray interjecting—

So do not come here with your faux concern, because everyone on this side of the chamber can see straight through you, mate.

I know that the voters of Western Australia will see straight through the Australian Labor Party as well, because they know that, when it comes to delivery of good policy, it is the coalition that will deliver, not the Australian Labor Party. What is more, they know that faux concern from shadow ministers about cuts to education means nothing when that minister was part of a government that ripped—with only weeks to go to the election—$1.2 billion out of education. So, do not have the audacity to stand up in this chamber and try to pretend to Western Australians that they have something to fear, because the only real fear that they had was a continuation of the former Labor government. Thank goodness they saw the light. We have seen an addition to this parliament of quality people that will make a material difference to the representation of Western Australia. I only wish that there had been another vote for the House of Representatives, because frankly I think it would have been good for us to pick up that seat as well. It certainly would have been in the best interest of Western Australians, instead of the ridiculous MPI discussions that we have seen.

I also found it incredible that the shadow minister railed against the fact that there were 'wrong spending priorities and imprudent budget decisions'. They were his actual words. He said that Western Australians were concerned about 'wrong spending priorities and imprudent budget decisions'. What kind of wrong spending priorities would you be referring to? Would it be grandiose promises of six GP superclinics and only delivering one? Would it be the kinds of decisions that said, 'We are going to attach some $16 billion worth of expenditure to a mining tax that only raised $400 million'? Are they the kinds of wrong decisions that you are referring to, Shadow Minister?

I think Western Australians know that Labor's record in WA is a dismal record. That is why we are very confident that Western Australians will understand our key message. Our key message is this: if they want to see the back of the mining tax and if they want to see the back of the carbon tax, then they have to make sure they support the coalition, and they have to make sure that we remove the log jam that is in the chamber just over there. That is the only way we can do it. With their support, we will be able to make sure that we have senators that are not going to continue to stand in the way of removing the carbon tax and the mining tax—anti-Western Australian taxes. That is the reason why I am supremely confident that they will come on board and support us.

Labor's carbon tax cost Western Australia's economy $626 million in 2012-13. We know what the carbon tax cost some of the biggest industries in WA: Woodside, $172 million; BHP Billiton Worsley Alumina, $56 million; BHP Burrup, $55 million; Yara Pilbara, $35 million. These are the consequences of bad policy that was introduced by the former Labor government. We stand steadfastly opposed to those kinds of ridiculous policies. The reason why we were joined by so many coalition representatives from Western Australia in this House is that the Western Australians sent a clear message to the Australian Labor Party, but you are just not listening. It is time to clear your ears, and it is time to start to hear the message.

The final matter I raise that demonstrates the reason Labor cannot be trusted with the West is that the Labor Party committed some $482 million to two very important road projects in WA: the upgrades of the Great Northern Highway and the North West Coastal Highway, but Labor did not provide any funding. They promise big but deliver nothing at all in relation to the funding. Why? Because the funding was contingent upon the mining tax raising the revenue. So, on every level, Labor has been a failure. That is the reason that the people of Western Australia sent a clear message with excellent coalition representation off the back of the last election. That is why they will reject you once again. (Time expired)

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