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

If I may, I would like to start my adjournment speech by quickly wishing my sister, Rebecca Morris, a very happy birthday. Rebecca and I were born in the same hospital—the Kwinana Maternity Hospital in Calista. I was born some 14 years after Rebecca and she was always able to, and continues to, remind me that she carried me as an infant out of that same hospital. Happy birthday, Rebecca. I love you and cannot wait to see you at home in Shoalwater for Christmas, along with Robyn and Billy.

The result of a federal election can steer the nation in a new direction, and the outcome of a state election can be just as crucial. Western Australia is one state crying out for change and a new direction and, with a state poll due in about 100 days time on 11 March, the time has most certainly come. For Western Australia it has been a long time coming. The two terms of the Liberal-National government of Colin Barnett will have stretched out to 8½ years by the time the ballots are finally cast in March 2017, and what a long 8½ years it has been—far too long for the people of Brand, hit hard by a deeply flawed government.

Colin Barnett came to power insulated from the global financial crisis by the biggest mining and resources construction boom in Western Australian history. Multi-billion-dollar projects in the state's resource-rich north with lead times stretching back years were just peaking or coming to fruition, showering the state with well-paid jobs and sending an avalanche of revenue into state coffers. It was enough to make even a dysfunctional leader look almost capable, but now that is not enough to wallpaper over the ravine-like cracks in the WA Liberal state government wall of incompetence. We have had Troy Buswell, an heir apparent, who has come and gone not once but twice, and we all know why. The now member for Pearce and former Attorney-General and Treasurer of WA, and another heir apparent to the current Premier, saw the writing on this cracked wall years ago and took off to Canberra with what I would think was unseemly haste. We have seen the former WA leader of the Nationals, Brendon Grylls, duck off for a nap on the back bench after a couple of years. That great agrarian socialist, Grylls, is back—he has trimmed his beard, dusted off the office RM Williams and taken up the leadership again. He is here, ready to serve and prop up another Barnett Liberal government.

Western Australians will not be misled. The end of the boom inevitably exposed the truth. Colin Barnett and the WA Liberal-National government have been hopeless at managing this state's economy. WA now has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Money has been stripped from schools and hospitals; education assistants, doctors and nurses have lost their jobs. Factories are closing, and shops are up for lease. In Brand, in new suburbs like Baldivis and Wellard that sprang up during the boom, hundreds of young families are now feeling the pinch. Jobs are lost and hours are cut back, mortgage payments are missed and homes are being repossessed. 'For sale' signs are going up, and house prices, sadly, are going down. Despite enjoying the highest per capita revenue of any government in the land, Colin Barnett has somehow managed to turn WA into a financial basket case.

Eight-and-a-half years ago the WA Liberal-Nationals inherited debt of just $3.5 billion and a $2 billion budget surplus from the Labor state government. Today, state debt has spiralled towards $40 billion, and there is a $4 billion budget deficit. The Western Australian opposition leader, Mark McGowan, once observed that it was like Colin Barnett had won lotto but had still gone broke. In Brand, the pain is palpable. The people of Brand are paying the price for a government that blew the boom and has failed to plan for the future. There was no plan to diversify the economy or encourage new industries or jobs. But on 11 March the people of WA, and the people of Brand, have a choice to take Western Australia in a new direction.

And Brand is indeed fortunate—if there is a change of government, as I expect there will be, our electorate will be home to both the Premier and Deputy Premier of our great state. Mark McGowan, the opposition leader, has his state electorate in Rockingham and deputy leader, Roger Cook, will hold the seat of Kwinana. Brand is also home to the member for Warnbro, Paul Papalia, who will no doubt form part of a McGowan Labor cabinet. The election will also see a new electorate emerge in Brand, courtesy of the incredible growth of Baldivis. Labor's candidate for Baldivis is father-of-four Reece Whitby, who is well known in WA as a longtime respected television reporter. I look forward to campaigning with Reece over the summer.

Together, these Labor candidates and the very talented Labor team offer formidable energy, experience and determination to repair the damage of these wasted years. Most importantly, Mark McGowan and WA Labor have an extensive and substantial positive plan for the future prosperity of Western Australia. To change the hapless, hopeless, visionless Barnett government, Western Australians must vote Labor, and they must elect Mark McGowan as the next Labor Premier of Western Australia. (Time expired)