Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It's pretty close. It's about jobs in Western Australia and the GST—jobs at risk. The Prime Minister now decides it's time to fix the GST with legislation. The Liberals have been ignoring the cries from my state for many years, including the cries of Western Australia Liberal colleagues, and in that I include in the member for Tangney. I know that when he was state secretary of the Liberal Party he had a good old crack, as did Premier Barnett, but we know that the five Liberal cabinet ministers from Western Australia in the government benches had been utterly unable to get the Abbott or Turnbull governments to do anything about fixing or introducing reforms to the GST distribution that would benefit our state, and, for that matter, benefit the other states.

But when five Liberal seats are on the line in Western Australia the Prime Minister comes running. When the Prime Minister gets scared he'll lose his job, and that his colleagues might too, he starts to at least pretend to care for Western Australia. Even then, when the Prime Minister didn't it right, he tried to push this legislation through without including a guarantee that no state or territory would be worse off as a result of the new model. Labor wouldn't let this fly, and quite rightly. All state and territory Treasurers, including the state Treasurer of Western Australia, Ben Wyatt, called for a guarantee of funding.

The government tried to make it look like Labor was not on Western Australia's side, but we have always been ready to legislate GST changes and we have been ready for over a year. We just weren't willing to accept lazily drafted legislation that wasn't in the interests of all Australians. Now, we are finally here and I'm relieved reform in this sector is finally happening. This bill will go a long way to removing the politics of GST distribution, so the state and territory governments can get on with governing and be assured of a reliable GST source for at least some time into the future. The legislation ensures there is a review of this new system. I think that's very wise. It will be a good thing to revisit at the appropriate time, as set out in the legislation.

Horizontal fiscal equalisation has been important for our Federation for a long time. It ensures that if your family moves from a place in my electorate, say, Baldivis in Western Australia, to Cairns in Queensland, you know your children will have access to similar standards of education. At different times people will go on holiday—for instance, this week my mother, who lives in Rockingham, is with my sister from Queensland and they're in Tasmania right now. I know that because of horizontal fiscal equalisation they will be able to access the same level of care as they do in their respective homes. Should an accident befall them or if my mum gets a bit crook, she'll receive the same level of health care she would get at home in Rockingham. I think that's a very important part of what horizontal fiscal equalisation seeks to do for our country as a whole. I'd like to thank the member for McMahon, the shadow Treasurer of the Labor Party, and also the Leader of the Opposition, who consulted widely in bringing about this reform. They consulted with Western Australian colleagues, and I thank them also for their very hard work on this over many years, including the former member for Brand. I used to work for Gary Gray on this very issue.

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