Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Our job in this place is to take the local values of our communities and turn them into national results. Every day that I've been in this place that's exactly what I have sought to do—taking my community's values of opportunity, fairness and democracy and turning them into national results that don't just lift up my community of Perth but lift up the nation. That's what we've done when it comes to education, opening the doors of opportunity by literally building new doors for a new university in the CBD in the heart of Perth, where we'll see, later this year, Yagan Square open up with a brand-new university, the Edith Cowan city campus. We've seen the commitment that we've got going through the parliament right now for our littlest learners, making sure we open the doors of opportunity to make sure that we have a fairer system of early childhood education.

We've opened the doors of the Rudloc Road urgent care clinic, making sure that the people of Perth can walk through the doors and get health care based on what they need, not how much they can afford. Equally, we've opened the doors, in this term of government, of headspace Osborne Park, making sure that young people in Perth can get the mental health support that they need and deserve. At train stations in my electorate, including in Bayswater and Morley, you can walk through the doors onto the train of the Perth Morley-Ellenbrook Line, which is connecting so many suburbs across the Perth metropolitan area and making sure that more people can get the benefits of a great public transport system—a public transport system that I want to commend Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti for, for making it cheaper for Western Australians, meaning that we don't have unfair zones that put all the costs onto those in the outer suburbs, making it cheaper and more affordable to catch one of the most sustainable forms of transport ever created: public transport.

We will see, soon, the doors open at the revitalisation of the WACA, turning it into a true community facility for all to use. Similarly, my community values our local parks. Making sure that we've used the power of democracy to deliver, I'm pleased with the upgrades we've delivered in lighting for Axford Park and the brand-new playground for Joondanna Reserve. It was an honour to be there last year with families who, some 40 years ago, had planted the first trees of that reserve and were there to see the upgrades we had made. Just a few days ago, I went and helped plant the first trees at the new Bayswater Urban Forest, making sure that what once was bushland and became a tip now returns to bushland in my community.

I'm pleased at the support that we've given when it comes to the announcement I joined the Prime Minister in making on the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia, for their education centre in Yokine, with some $2 million to ensure that that vision is fully realised. That is on top of the longstanding commitment I have had for what is now the very proud world-class facility known as the JHUB, the Jewish community hub in Yokine. I also commend them for their foresight in ensuring there was child care on that site.

We've made sure that we have serious support for local councils in the electorate of Perth to deliver when it comes to our community's determination to make sure there is housing for everyone who wants to live in the wonderful inner city of Perth. That includes the $1 million that we have delivered for housing studies in the City of Vincent to make sure we can do the planning work to get more housing into our inner city. It has been great to work with the City of Vincent mayor, Alison Xamon, in delivering that. It was similarly great to see the longstanding commitment of this government to the Ruah community centre turned into action. I was able to join the Premier at the end of last year for the opening of the new Ruah centre. What I know is that, when you take your local values and bring them here, determined to get results, you can therefore be confident that you are delivering for your community and that you're doing the right thing in our fundamental job of representing the people whom we are here to represent—those who send us here.

In my last few moments, I want to talk about when democracy goes really wrong. I want to talk about when democracy gets really sick and twisted. In 2017, I remember former Premier Colin Barnett and the WA Liberal Party—I think it was more those in the WA Liberal Party than Premier Barnett, to be fair—signing a comprehensive preference deal with One Nation. It shocked people at the time and, as a result, led to an absolutely catastrophic defeat of the Liberal Party in Western Australia. It was so bad that Scott Morrison, when he was Prime Minister in 2019, put One Nation below Labor on every ballot across the country. But what we learned today is that the Liberal Party of Western Australia is going down, digging into the One Nation rejects, and has chosen Sean Butler to be its state candidate in Perth. It is an absolute disgrace that the partnership between the Liberal Party and One Nation has rejoined— (Time expired)

Federation Chamber adjourned at 11:32

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