Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

a road without a plan, a road that does not reach the port, the most expensive road in WA's history, the first toll road in WA that will be commercially operated, a road that will not create jobs in the medium to long term, a road that locks us into ever-increasing truck freight and congestion, a road that cuts communities in half and a project that begins by doing unacceptable harm to the Beeliar Wetlands. The fact that 100 hectares of fragile bushland is being smashed down in the shadow of an election that could make the entire project redundant is a scandal.

The federal coalition has led the Barnett government by the nose on this project. The Minister for Urban Infrastructure, who has been interrupting me all the way, and the finance minister have taken now to threatening to withhold infrastructure funds from a future Western Australian Labor government, if elected. They are essentially saying that Western Australia will receive less than nothing. That is what you are saying, Minister Fletcher. Western Australia will receive less than nothing. So I hope, Minister, that you and your Western Australian colleagues campaign on that. I hope you campaign on that three-word slogan—for Western Australia, from you and your government: less than nothing. Come to Western Australia and campaign on that.

But the people of Western Australia are waking up to Mr Barnett. They know what he has delivered—$40 billion in debt, the highest per capita state debt, the second highest unemployment, the highest inequality and the largest gender pay gap. That is what Mr Barnett has delivered. That is some achievement! It is complacency and mismanagement on a grand scale, aided and abetted by the Abbott-Turnbull government.

Well, the people of Western Australia are waking up to Mr Barnett. They are going to get the opportunity shortly to hold the government to account. You have to take responsibility for your actions, and Mr Barnett will get his chance to take responsibility very shortly. The people of Western Australia are going to have the opportunity to choose a premier with a plan for jobs, a plan for productive infrastructure and transport, and a commitment to energetic and long-term leadership—a McGowan WA Labor government.

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