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

As a federal Labor MP from Western Australia, it was pleasing to see our great state turn red once again at last Saturday's state election on 11 March. Western Australia has for a number of years now been considered a fortress for the Liberal Party, a dependable state on which to rely when the going gets tough, and a refuge and a safe haven for what we call the blue team.

Beginning at the federal election last July and continuing until last Saturday at a state level, WA is starting to show the rest of the country that this is now assuredly not the case. Western Australians overwhelmingly rejected the Barnett Liberal government in a pointed 41-seat reminder that the Liberal party does not have a monopoly on Western Australian politics. Nor does it have a monopoly on vision or ideas for the future of Western Australia. Since 2008 up until its demise last week, the state Liberal government had enjoyed what could politely be described as a fractious relationship with their federal counterparts in Canberra. With the change of federal government in 2013, Western Australians could have been forgiven for thinking that, with the coalition in power at both levels, they could enjoy more successful outcomes for the state of WA, particularly when many of the senior cabinet ministers in the Abbott and Turnbull governments reside on that side of the Nullarbor. But that was not to be, and we have all seen what has happened. The construction boom has ended, unemployment has risen, funding has been cut, and wealth- and job-generating infrastructure projects have gone out the window in favour of vanity monuments, and a road to nowhere, and a hospital with asbestos in the roof and lead in the water. The Liberals hounded each other across the great divide, each blaming their opposite number for WA's woes. While that went on, our share of the GST revenue continued to decline, along with voter patience for the Barnett government.

In the last weeks of the recent campaign in Western Australia we saw some extraordinary scenes as the state Liberals frantically tried to distance themselves from the Prime Minister in the face of an incoming backlash against his comments on the GST floor, on penalty rates and his lack of commitment to public transport—a fact you would not believe if you looked at all the selfies on the trams and trains over the years from our Prime Minister.

On 11 March, Western Australians went to the polls and voted for change. They voted for a grown-up government, not tantrums and the blame games. They voted for a sensible and measured approach, not fear and division. They voted for responsible financial management, not a bandaid fix. On 11 March, Western Australians voted for a Labor state government that they believe will do a better job representing their interests to the rest of the country. I am a Western Australian and I am a committed federalist. I believe in the Federation of Australia, and I believe it is time for a new approach to Commonwealth-state relations for Western Australia.

The principle of fiscal equalisation of the Commonwealth grants process and GST distribution is important for the ongoing prosperity of all Australians. The fiscal equalisation policy exists because each state has a different capacity to raise revenue at different times in their economic development. This is due to population and demographic issues, and the ability to exploit natural resources, among many other things. It is important for all Australians to recognise that the purpose of the equalisation process is to ensure that each state is able to provide comparable infrastructure and services to people in Australia, regardless of where they live. For instance, if you live in Warnbro in Western Australia and have an accident while on holiday visiting family, say, in Darwin, you would quite rightly expect the same level of health care in the Darwin hospital as you would receive in the Rockingham hospital or the Fiona Stanley Hospital. This is the type of thing that fiscal equalisation seeks to achieve. This is a simple example of the objectives of the highly complex and complicated Commonwealth grants processes that distribute the goods and services tax. There is no doubt that this process needs modernising to reflect modern Australia for the benefit of all Australians today.

Screaming from the rooftops about WA's GST share has got Western Australia nowhere with this government. A new approach to Commonwealth-state relations for Western Australia means having a constructive discussion on a modern and sensible model of GST distribution, with both the federal government and our interstate colleagues and friends, to ensure that future GST revenue distribution does not unduly disadvantage individual states when going through periods of difficult transition. This also means presenting the best case from Western Australia to the federal government to provide us with the funds necessary to address areas of greatest need and to create large, sustainable areas of employment—areas such as public transport to help ease the population growing pains that WA has experienced over the past decade.

As is now clear to planners and analysts state-wide, we have grown rapidly with insufficient planning and core infrastructure to meet the challenges Western Australia now faces. WA Labor's transport plan, METRONET, still represents the best opportunity for WA to make real inroads into the way we approach the critical issue of transport in WA.

The $1.2 billion in federal funding earmarked for the failed Perth Freight Link should now be redirected into job-creating, congestion-busting projects such as METRONET, whereby we increase the scope of rail infrastructure in WA and make public transport more interconnected and more attractive to the public as a whole. We must change the way Australians approach transport infrastructure in this country, and I am confident the McGowan Labor government will become a great example of exactly that.

Projects like METRONET are not just good steps in changing transport culture and fixing congestion; they are also significant investments in job creation. At this critical time in the history of my state, we must diversify from an economy reliant on the resources industry. Since the end of the construction boom and the mining industry, unemployment has steadily risen as the investment phase has ended and the production phase continues. In my own electorate of Brand, an area that has traditionally been reliant on the economic sectors of manufacturing, production and defence, we are seeing unemployment rise to unacceptable levels as many struggle to meet the changing needs of the state. In the south of my electorate, the suburb of Port Kennedy has experienced a rise in unemployment from 6.4 per cent in the December quarter of 2015 to 7.5 per cent in the December quarter of 2016. In the west of my electorate, the suburb of Rockingham experienced a rise in unemployment from 10.8 per cent in December 2015 to 12.9 per cent in the recent December quarter, according to 2016 figures. That is nearly double the state average. In the north of Brand the suburb of Parmelia, in Kwinana, where I was born, has experienced a rise in unemployment from an already unacceptable and shocking level of 15.2 per cent in the December quarter of 2015 to 17.7 per cent in the December quarter of 2016—a massive increase of 2.5 per cent in a single year from an already high level of unemployment.

The changes that come with such dramatic increases in unemployment do not limit themselves solely to putting strain on the labour market—Centrelink queues become longer; waiting times on the phone increase; community agencies and departments that assist with mental health and welfare and community legal services push back against an exponential increase in downward pressure. Both the Kwinana and Rockingham suburbs within my electorate of Brand are now in the top six local government areas ranked by increase in welfare recipients, with a 34 per cent increase in jobseekers on welfare being recorded in Kwinana and a 39.5 per cent increase in Rockingham.

This challenge that we are facing in Western Australia, while daunting, is not insurmountable. It will require careful and considered placement of public funds to help stimulate the economy and a patience and resolve that resides inside every Western Australian, especially in my electorate, to see out this critical challenge. I am extremely pleased, of course, to see that many senior members of the new McGowan Labor government have their state electorates inside the federal electorate of Brand and will be able to share their expertise, experience and ideas as we begin to rebuild WA over the next four years.

I look forward to working with Reece Whitby, MLA for Baldivis, in his role as parliamentary secretary for support in areas such as disability services, the environment and finance. I look forward to continuing to work with Paul Papalia, MLA for Warnbro and our new minister for tourism, small business and defence—industries that desperately need an injection of optimism in my electorate. I am confident that under Paul's leadership we are in for a period of expansion and growth in these areas as we diversify the WA economy.

I look forward to continuing to work with Roger Cook, MLA for Kwinana, Deputy Premier and Minister for Health and Mental Health. In times like these it is of the utmost importance that we continue to maintain the integrity of our health system and make improvements to reduce waiting times and ensure crucial infrastructure is built to meet the growing needs of an ageing population. It is my belief that health in WA is in safe hands under the Deputy Premier, my friend, Roger Cook. And, of course, I am certainly looking forward to working with the new Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, MLA for Rockingham. Throughout the last four years in opposition Mark has presented a clear vision for WA, an approach to governance that is both consultative in its actions with the community and the stakeholders and refreshing and bold in its ideas to make WA flourish once again.

WA Labor certainly has a task on their great collective hands; that much is true. However, I am confident in the vision of the future that Premier McGowan and WA Labor presents. I wish the Premier and the rest of his team all the best for the parliamentary term ahead. I also especially want to add my congratulations and best wishes to the new Treasurer of Western Australia, Mr Ben Wyatt. Ben Wyatt and I studied together at the University of Western Australia in the nineties, and I wish him all the best on this amazing journey he is about to undertake as the first Indigenous Treasurer in an Australian government system.

However, success for Western Australia is not possible if we cannot have an environment that is conducive to job creation and the standards of practice that encourage employers and employees alike to work and be paid fairly. The controversy surrounding penalty rates continues to play havoc with people around the country, including those constituents in my electorate. Almost 10,000 people in Brand stand to take a substantial pay cut from the industries in retail and accommodation. It is important that this government protects and does not penalise those who take time out of their weekends to provide the services and amenities the rest of us take for granted. Failure to do so will only increase unemployment and pile more pressure on those who already struggle to make ends meet. I call on the federal government of Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister, to work together with the McGowan Labor government to commit existing federal funding to infrastructure projects put forward by the McGowan Labor government, such as METRONET, and to defend the working rights of my constituents in Brand, who deserve a fair wage for working on the weekend.

I would also like to take this opportunity to reflect for a moment on the Turnbull government's determination to weaken the provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act—those provisions that protect the people in this country from serious incidents that offend and insult them because of their race. The arguments peddled by the government and The Australian newspaper at all times ignore the thousands of victims of racism in this country. Absolutely no consideration is given to the victims that suffer real and long-lasting harm from racism. Not a word has been said about the thousands of victims of racism who suffer on a daily basis. I think this is unacceptable and should not continue.

There are thousands of incidents everyday in this country that could constitute a legitimate complaint of racial discrimination under the existing act, and I would also say under any changes the government is proposing. But these incidents are not reported, because victims of racism are usually voiceless, marginalised and without power, forgotten utterly in this senseless crusade of this Turnbull Liberal government to change the definitions in 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. These are the people who we should be talking about and protecting. Their right to live free from racial discrimination is of equal importance to the freedom of speech, yet their experiences—the many sad experiences of racial discrimination—are being utterly ignored.

I call on the government to stop this harmful action and its utter disregard for the victims of racism in this country, and I hope in its continued prosecution of its case that it sometime might choose to reflect on the people in this country that it is now ignoring. There are people in this country who do suffer from racism. It is not something that we can continue to ignore. It is certainly not something my Labor colleagues and I ignore. My colleagues and I sat on the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into the freedom of speech and we spent many days and hours listening to victims of racial discrimination and racial harm. These people have been forgotten by the current government, and I do hope the government might reflect on this—perhaps even read some of their statements and submissions—and get a grip on the reality of racism in this country. Thank you.

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