Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I am very proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with such an extraordinarily talented, able and decent human being. Our parliament would be very lucky and privileged to have such an individual to represent the people of Canning. Not only do we have an absolutely outstanding candidate for Canning; we have a very strong record of supporting the people of Western Australia: the anti-Western Australian carbon tax, gone; the anti-Western Australian mining tax, gone. We have done the things that members opposite could not do when they were in government. We have got taxes down. We are getting the deficit under control. We have stopped the boats that Labor started.

We are doing what members opposite just could not do. They had six years to negotiate a free trade agreement with China. What did they do? Nothing, and now, having done nothing for six years, they are trying to sabotage this agreement which is absolutely vital for the people of this country, and in particular the people of Western Australia, who so utterly depend upon exports. I know the people of Western Australia very, very well. They are 10 per cent of our population. They are 16 per cent of our GDP, but they are 50 per cent of our exports. That is why they want the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement and they cannot understand why the only people whom the Leader of the Opposition seems to be listening to on this are the discredited thugs of the CFMEU. He should start listening to the honest workers of Western Australia and stop listening to the CFMEU, and let the China-Australia free trade agreement go through this parliament as soon as possible.

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