Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to congratulate Premier Mark McGowan and the whole Western Australian Labor team on their remarkable electoral victory last Saturday, 11 March. It was a remarkable result that followed a campaign committed to talking to the people of Western Australia about their greatest concerns: jobs, health care, infrastructure and public transport. On election day I visited polling booths across Brand from Wandi, North Parmelia Primary School, Calista Primary School, my own schools—Safety Bay Primary School and Safety Bay Senior High—to Warnbro. Across the electorate voters were talking with the volunteers we had there or they had already made up their mind to boot out the old Colin Barnett Liberal government.

I want to thank the volunteers for their huge efforts. I also want to acknowledge the work of the WA Labor State Secretary, Patrick Gorman, and the Assistant State Secretary, Lenda Oshalem. Their hard work and commitment were unrelenting, and I thank them for it. I want to thank particularly the candidates who ran and did not win. It is a hard job but a very important one. I congratulate all the new Labor members of the WA parliament and note that there are more women in the Western Australian parliament than ever before.

With this election WA has taken a new turn. The victory is very significant but there are significant challenges facing the Western Australian community—a high unemployment rate, a particularly high youth unemployment rate and a massive budget deficit—but, if the hard work and commitment of the WA Labor campaign is anything to go by, I am sure Mark McGowan and his team will do a magnificent job.

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