Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm a proud Western Australian. I've lived there most of my adult life. So I'd like to take this opportunity to remind this government that WA does not stand for 'wait awhile'. I know we're far away and it's easy to miss us on the map of Australia, considering we are only the largest state! But I do find it extraordinary that there are no fewer than six coalition cabinet ministers—six—from Western Australia, including the deputy leader of the Liberal Party. Yet, the Turnbull government has demonstrated a care factor for WA that amounts to a big fat zero—zero, nada, zilch, nothing.

In fact, they care so little for Western Australia that they aren't even running candidates in the Perth and Fremantle by-elections. 'It's too hard,' they say. 'It's too expensive,' they say. 'It's unwinnable,' they say. Well, Western Australians—not just in Perth and Freo—will not forget this. They will not forget that this government was too lazy, too scared and too dismissive of Western Australia that they didn't even think it was worth running candidates in Perth and Fremantle.

I have to say that I rarely get angry; it's hard to believe but it's true. I rarely get angry, and in this place I do try to retain what little calm and composure I have left in my age, but I am angry about this. Like many Western Australians, I am seriously angry about this. The Prime Minister has actually spent more time in the United States of America than he has in the western state of Australia. I’ll just say that word once again—Australia. That's where we are. I suppose he thinks that we Western Australians should be grateful that he didn't just wave hello to us from 14,000 feet in the air.

During the 2016 election campaign, he made just two visits to Western Australia, one of which lasted just 14 hours. He came to my electorate of Cowan just once during that election campaign, when he took the opportunity to stroll through the local shopping centre. He took some happy snaps and some selfies, and then he disappeared into the sunset as he waved, 'Bye bye,' never to be seen again. But that's okay. We won't hold that against him. I won't hold that against him, because Western Australians actually have an alternative. They have an alternative in Bill Shorten and the Labor Party, who actually care about WA.

Mr Falinski interjecting—

To prove that, because I hear these interjections, in the last nine months alone, Bill Shorten has visited Western Australia no fewer than six times, as recently as last month. He's been to Perth, Fremantle, Burt, Brand, Pearce, Swan, Stirling, Hasluck, Moore and Cowan. He's been talking to the people of WA in town halls, in the streets, in the shopping centres, at hospitals, at schools, in parks and in train stations—I'm tired just reading this! And he's been talking to them about how a Labor government would deliver for Western Australia—for them. These visits weren't just your fly-by-night drop-ins on his way to more-important business. They weren't. He's done two town hall meetings in Cowan, listening to the people and answering questions, because Bill Shorten cares enough to know that the people of Cowan deserve more than just a selfie and a smile.

At the last town hall meeting, we had over 350 people attend and raise their concerns about local issues, about national issues and concerns about our GST share. While the government is busy playing catch-up, Labor has already promised to introduce a Fair Share WA Fund that brings GST up to the equivalent of 70c in the dollar. Bill Shorten even took a selfie with a quokka in Western Australia. I believe that that qualifies him as an honorary Western Australian, because you all know that, if you come to WA and you take a selfie with a quokka, that's pretty much like a WA passport! We shall grant him that honorary WA status. More than just the selfie with the quokka, there is a true demonstration of caring for the Western Australian people. He is taking time out of a very busy schedule to come to Western Australia, not just once or twice, and not just for two hours or 14 hours here and there on your way through, because we know that to get to Europe from the eastern states you have to fly over Western Australia; he is actually taking the time to sit down, talk to the people of Western Australia, listen to their concerns, grievances and needs, and deliver on those concerns, grievances and needs.

It's just extraordinary that we have six frontbench cabinet ministers from Western Australia. I think that's pretty much a record. But what have they delivered for Western Australia? In parts of my electorate, like the suburb of Greenwood, they can't access the NBN. They're trying to study for school and university and run small businesses from home without any internet connection. What have those ministers done for Western Australia? What have they done in terms of delivering infrastructure for Western Australia? What have they done to ensure that those outer suburbs, like those in my electorate of Cowan, get the infrastructure they need to sustain them into the future as they grow at exponential rates—the roads, the rail, the public transport, the schools that they need to sustain the growth of those outer suburbs around Perth, particularly in the northern suburbs and particularly in my electorate of Cowan?

So Western Australians are left playing a game of Where's Wally? with this Prime Minister. He rarely shows up in Western Australia, and when he does he's simply passing through. He has a bit of afternoon tea, takes a few selfies, then he gets on a train and rides off into the sunset, back to the never-never. But with Bill Shorten—

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