Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to talk about the upcoming Senate election in WA. This is the fourth election in WA in 12 months, and who would have thought it after the coalition had such a resounding and decisive victory on 7 September last year? This is just another impost upon the Western Australian electors. This is an election we are having due to the incompetence of the AEC, and as much as they want to blame the courts for this rerun, the responsibility lies squarely at the feet of the AEC.

I thank the electors of WA for their vote of confidence in the Liberal Party in September last year, which strengthened the result from the 2010 and 2007 elections. The electors of WA have confirmed their confidence—not once, not twice, but for the last three elections—and the WA Liberal members of parliament have not failed them. This is the fourth opportunity for WA electors to confirm those three previous votes. To them I say: you have been correct the last three times, please place your trust in us again. We will be a strong voice for WA in the Senate.

The Leader of the Opposition would have WA voters believe that this is an election about anything but the ALP and their six years of misery and malfunction they visited upon the Australia economy and its good people. The Abbott coalition government is getting on with the job of building a stronger economy so that everyone can get ahead, abolishing the carbon tax, ending the waste, stopping the boats, and building the roads of the 21st century.

Labor's legacy to Australians is 200,000 more unemployed, gross debt projected to rise to $667 billion, $123 billion in cumulative deficits, more than 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat and the world's biggest carbon tax. The coalition is focusing on the economic fundamentals: lower taxes, less red tape, better infrastructure and more trade. That means more growth, higher productivity, more jobs and a fair go for everyone.

Labor voted to keep the carbon tax and is insulting West Australians. Labor betrayed the people of WA when they introduced the carbon tax—and they continue that betrayal by flouting the mandate from Western Australians to get rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax—and continue to join forces with the Greens to keep the carbon tax and the $550 per annum hit on families. Labor Senate candidates in WA are trying to claim that Labor is scrapping the carbon tax. We know that is false.

Labor is out to spoil Western Australians' benefits from the coalition implementing the people's mandate, and we know Labor will make it as hard as possible for the government to implement its mandate. The carbon and mining taxes are anti-WA taxes, and it is only Labor that is clinging to the past.

A Crikeyarticle last year with the heading of, 'Louise Pratt Shafted in WA Labor Senate Battle' clearly sets out the dysfunction of the Labor Party in WA. I quote from that article:

Louise Pratt is set to descend from one to two on WA Labor's Senate ticket as a factional fight for the soul of the party ratchets up. West Australian Shop Assistants czar Joe Bullock is set to assume the top spot on Labor’s WA senate ticket — consigning sitting Senator Louise Pratt to a potentially dicey number two position—when the party’s state executive meets on Monday to rule on her future.

It goes on to say:

Thanks to a 14-month-old deal hatched between United Voice and the WA Shop Assistants during the Fremantle preselection, state executive is almost certain to vote up Bullock at number one, Pratt at two and consign Mark Bishop to premature retirement.

Not before time. It also goes on to say:

The senior source attacked Pratt's social media intervention: 'Louise is right in saying that no deal has been done. She's absolutely right. Joe rejected them outright. The fact that they were shopping it around for a month appears to have slipped her notice in her Facebook post.

It also says—which is a clue for Western Australians of how the unions operate:

MUA state secretary Christy Cain has pledged to seize control of the state party.

I am sure having the MUA in charge of the WA Labor state party is an exciting outcome for all Western Australians.

The Labor Party, through their incompetence, created a demand for good government, which the coalition has filled. The only thing blocking the coalition from implementing our promises at the election is the Labor-Greens alliance in the Senate. I say to the people of WA: send that alliance a message and vote for the coalition like you did last September, and tell the Labor-Greens alliance that you do not trust them.

I noticed the Prime Minister reaffirmed the Queen's honours tonight, and at some time in the future I would love to hear the name Dame Bronwyn Bishop.

House adjourned at 21:30