Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It really is a joke—and we have heard a bit of comedy here today—the Labor Party's MPI on failure, particularly a failure to deliver, considering their woeful record on delivering in the bush during their six years in office. It is also unfathomable that they have the audacity to discuss failures, given that they were widely known as a deeply chaotic government that rarely had Australia's interests at the forefront whilst they were in office and raking up debt that left our country with a whopping interest payment of $1 billion a month. The Labor leader failed yet again another test as opposition leader. Illustrating his complete failure to lead, he sat idly by and did not have the political fortitude to sack one of his factional lieutenants—well-known Senator 'Shanghai' Sam. There are many other colourful names, but that is my preference.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has delivered right across Australia. A number of projects and initiatives in Durack got off the ground on the Prime Minister's watch. I would like now to educate those opposite. In January I announced a women's resource centre in Fitzroy would be receiving $150,000 from the Turnbull government to address domestic and family violence in the community. This is part of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children announced by the government last November. It is a very important initiative. The funding was for the women's resource centre to offer workshops promoting and enhancing safety and wellbeing of women and children in the community—tackling one of our national shames.

In May two Durack organisations were awarded Australian Small Business Advisory Services grants. The Karratha Business Enterprise Centre and the Small Business Centre East Kimberley will receive $600,000 over the next three years to provide low-cost advice to tourism small businesses and start-ups, which will be of great assistance to them. Tourism small business is a vital economic driver of local economies throughout not just the Pilbara but Australia more broadly.

What about the Defence white paper that was released in February, again under Prime Minister Turnbull's watch? This white paper was not just about submarines and frigates; this paper included increasing Defence spending by two per cent and a number of upgrades to incredibly important Defence facilities in my electorate of Durack. RAAF bases Curtin and Learmonth will be upgraded to support the RAAF's new strike and air combat capabilities. The Harold E Holt communications facility in Exmouth, which the Minister for Defence, Marise Payne, and I visited in April, will be upgraded to support communications capabilities and enhanced space situational awareness.

The investments in my electorate of Durack and across Australia will boost the economy in Durack and further add to this country's recent excellent economic growth of 3.3 per cent, which we heard previously from the minister is better than any of the G7 members' economies. That does not sound like a failure to me. The boost in the economy will also lead to further job creation, which is a hallmark of this government, with almost 220,000 jobs created in the last year. I am very proud to say that 60 per cent of those jobs are being filled by women and many of those are in my electorate.

The Dob in a Dealer campaign was launched in two places in my electorate: in Broome and in Geraldton. This campaign, which is part of the Turnbull government's National Ice Action Strategy, will get real results in this government's efforts to tackle the ice scourge in Australia. The campaign raises awareness of methamphetamine use and encourages people to contact Crime Stoppers to help tackle the manufacturing and distribution of the drug in their area. As I have said numerous times in this chamber, ice is a massive problem throughout regional, rural and remote Australia, and every single measure like this strategy will play a role in decreasing ice use across the country and start to mend communities.

This is just the flavour of our commitments and what we have achieved in the last 12 months. The time allotted here today does not allow me to mention all of them. On closing I would like to say that, thankfully, we on this side are in control. We are the adults. We have achieved a lot. Thankfully it is us who are in control, not the rabble on the opposite side.

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