Ben Morton (Tangney, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The WA state election in March next year will be one of the most important elections in WA for decades. This election will have serious consequences for the WA economy, for jobs and for our future, and every Western Australian will have a clear choice when they stand at the ballot box next year. Colin Barnett, Liza Harvey and the WA Liberals understand WA, and they have a plan to create more jobs, focus on families, continue to fight the scourge of meth, balance the books responsibly and continue to build an even better Western Australia.

In 2008 Colin Barnett and the Liberals were elected after Labor's absolute failure to invest in our economy and communities. Since then the WA Liberal government has created over 98,000 jobs by building critical infrastructure for our state. It has built and upgraded 61 hospitals and health facilities; provided nation-leading educational opportunities for our children through 56 new schools; and boosted police numbers by 1,050 to tackle the scourge of meth and to keep our streets safe. Think of projects like the Perth City Link, Elizabeth Quay, the new underground busport, the Gateway project to transform roads around the airport, the Perth Cultural Centre upgrades, the Perth Children's Hospital and the Butler rail extension. The Liberal government has created thousands of jobs and is providing critical infrastructure and services that plan for the future. It has made the right decisions and is getting on with the job of making people's lives better.

Contrast this eight years of achievement by the Liberals with Mark McGowan and WA Labor. No-one should forget that, when Labor were last in power, they were paralysed by inaction and scandal. Every Western Australian can remember what our state was like in 2008—dullsville. Labor talked but did not actually do anything. Western Australians are workers but, if Labor had their way, tens of thousands of Western Australians' jobs would not exist—36,821, to be exact. That is 36,821 jobs that were created by Liberal government infrastructure projects that Labor and Mark McGowan have been opposed to. Labor will not support agriculture, they will not support the resource sector and they will not support tourism projects—all of which will cost jobs. Mark McGowan can talk a lot, but he does not have the ability to make the tough decisions that create jobs and deliver the vital infrastructure and services that WA needs.

When Western Australians go to vote in the 2017 state election, they will be in no doubt about the things that the WA Liberal government has done, and is doing, to support economic growth and jobs. This is not an election where we can gamble our state's future on change for change's sake. Today, more than ever, we need a team that has a track record of decision-making and delivery. Only the WA Liberals will continue to take Western Australia forward.

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