Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Perth proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government's failure to protect the interests of local workers and consumers.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In relation to the government's failure to protect the interests of local workers and consumers, notwithstanding the fact that the government's track record on this issue is lamentable at best, it is fair to say that they have been somewhat distracted of late. It seems that the Prime Minister's summer of discontent continues.

We got off to the year on a flying start, but no sooner had the champagne corks stopped popping in Point Piper than hundreds of thousands of Australians had been faced with the distress of being singled out for Centrelink debts, which they were mistakenly accused of. It went from bad to worse, with a senior minister of the government being seen off for a travel scandal. And as of today, as we are well aware, the government now appears to be one senator down. As if that was not enough, you will note that the matter of public importance relates to local workers and local consumers.

The story does not get any better closer to home in my state of Perth. In Western Australia right now, as you will be aware, there is a campaign leading up to a state election on 11 March. And what do we see in relation to local workers and consumers in the state of Western Australia? We see them being horribly let down and abandoned at every step of the way, and they have been in that position since 2008. They suffer from a Premier in Mr Colin Barnett, who is arrogant and tired. He has already admitted that he will not hang around, if he is elected, until the end of his term—having handed over the baton to who knows who. And he is hopelessly out of touch.

As if parliamentarians of today did not have enough to battle with in the context of the hearts and minds of the voters, you look no further than the track record of the state Liberal government in relation to the wreckage of broken promises over the last eight years. In my own electorate, what should have been an infrastructure project which could have transformed the community, insofar as transport goes, the MAX light rail, has been cast aside by Colin Barnett—by his own admission, as a broken promise. The same goes for another mother-of-all-broken-promises in relation to infrastructure, and that is a supposed rail line to Ellenbrook, a suburb in the north that has been long forgotten and abandoned by the state Liberal Party.

In relation to my own portfolio of consumer affairs, one looks no further, in relation to the government's failure to protect the interests of consumers, than the consumer credit legal centres all around the country, suffering, at this stage, from a chronic lack of funding. In Western Australia alone, over $1.67 million has been taken out of Western Australian community legal centres and will not be restored. What does that look like to vulnerable consumers in my community? Well, it looks to me like a failure on the part of the state government but also this federal government.

At the moment, we see vulnerable consumers being preyed upon by companies loosely described as 'debt vulture' companies, offering false hope to consumers who find themselves in ever-increasing mountains of debt, mainly due to the increasing cost-of-living prices thrust and inflicted upon them by our local state Liberal government. The story in relation to vulnerable consumers as to consumer leases or rent-to-buy products is not getting any better. In that context, increasing numbers of consumers are being put into positions of hardship and bankruptcy, as a result of poor advice, entering into these contracts, for which there is no remedy or recourse as a result of the millions of dollars that has been ripped out of the consumer legal centres, including the Western Australian consumer law centre.

We need look no further, in relation to the tale of woe as to the failure to protect the interests of local workers and consumers in Western Australia, than a snapshot of the debt and deficit scenario as we head into a state election. The story over the course of 10 years could not be more stark. In 2008, the state debt in Western Australia, upon the Liberal Party coming to government, was $3.6 billion. In 2018, as a consequence of what can only be described as irresponsible and reckless spending, the state Liberal government will have accrued $40 billion of state debt—an increase of more than 10-fold in the course of 10 years.

The situation does not get any better in relation to unemployment figures. Right now, almost 100,000 Western Australians are out of work and looking for work. We have a record high unemployment level in our state: six per cent, and projected to stay at six per cent over the course of the next four years. That does not include the hundreds of thousands of Western Australians currently underemployed and desperately looking for more work.

You do not have to look any further than the resource sector for ways in which Western Australians and Australians are being let down by the coalition government. The flawed design of Brendon Grylls's so-called mining tax, seeking to levy $5 a tonne out of the big miners, is not only doomed to failure and fundamentally flawed but threatens to put thousands of jobs of Western Australians at risk. There are three main reasons as to why this proposal is hopelessly flawed and doomed to fail. First, the design of the tax is one which does not promote investment and does not promote employment. An arbitrary $5-a-tonne mining tax imposed upon the big miners, as a result of Brendon Grylls's desperate grab for attention, is an arbitrary tax, and is in no way linked to production or values. All it will seek to do is simply to disproportionately punish the community, in the context where we do not have sufficiently buoyant iron ore prices.

In relation to the precedent it sets, it does not give Western Australians any confidence at all; if one can unilaterally embark upon ripping up a state agreement in relation to iron ore, one must logically ask: what comes next? Even if those two reasons were not sufficient, what we would see in relation to this tax—if, God forbid, it were ever to be implemented—is that the GST effect would simply see most of the proceeds come to this side of the country, leaving Western Australians hopelessly let down.

In relation to infrastructure, one looks no further than the flawed projects already underway, as well as the state of affairs as to a couple of election promises put forward by the state Liberal government. On Elizabeth Quay, $450 million was spent over the course of 10 months from February to December in 2015, only for it to be shut down for a 10-month period as a result of chronic water problems causing potential risk and damage to kids playing in the water playground. On the Perth Children's Hospital, $1.2 billion was spent; construction commenced in January 2012; it is hopelessly riddled with asbestos, causing unnecessary and potentially lethal exposure to Western Australian workers; and not only that: there is also a chronic history of the presence of lead in the water at the Children's Hospital, which has led to huge blow-outs, huge delays, and no end in sight as to when this hopelessly-managed project will ever be open.

Compare that to the Labor Party's platform going to the election under Mark McGowan and his team: innovative developments in Medihotels; innovative developments in urgent care clinics.

In relation to Roe 8,what we see is a hopelessly planned road to nowhere. Compare that to Mark McGowan's METRONET plan—a revolutionary plan to create tens of thousands of jobs as well as a future-proofed public transport system. We look no further than the abject failure of the rollout of the National Broadband Network in Western Australia, leaving millions of Western Australians let down. We look at the flawed idea of privatising Western Power. The choice could not be more clear. Mark McGowan and his team will retain Western Power. And we look at, again, the transformational infrastructure project of the outer harbour: future-proofing Western Australia for years to come. Contrast that with a tired, worn-out team, with no ideas, under Colin Barnett: hopelessly out of touch and willing to do a dance with One Nation and the far right of those in Western Australia. Compare that to Mark McGowan and his state Labor team: clearly offering a fresh start, fresh ideas and responsible management of the economy, which will properly protect workers and consumers in Western Australia.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I invite the member for Perth to look around him. We are in the federal parliament. We are not in the Western Australian parliament. That would have been a great stump speech if you were a candidate for the Western Australian election coming up on 11 March, but we are in the Commonwealth parliament, the Parliament of Australia. I did not hear many mentions of the federal government. All we heard was a speech condemning the Western Australian government. I cannot understand it. It was his big moment to lead the matter of public importance, and he failed. He failed because all he wanted to talk about was Western Australia. I appreciate it is his home state and I appreciate there is an election coming up, but we are on this side of the Nullarbor. We are not in Perth.

Go anywhere outside this building—outside this federal parliamentary building—and you will hear it. Go anywhere outside this building and you will see it. It is the heartbeat which drives the nation, the sound of ambition and drive. It is the sound of success. It is the hard work of Australia's 2.1 million small businesses.

Mr Conroy interjecting—

The member for Shortland gets it. He understands. From the inland to the coast, in the cities and the suburbs, it is a sector which strives every day to better the lives of Australians, to create more jobs and to provide the goods and services that Australians—whether they live regionally or in the capital cities—demand, expect and deserve. And we are a government—a federal government, Member for Perth—which understands how inextricable the bond between success and small business is.

Today we are here to talk about the interests of local workers and consumers. The member for Perth might have forgotten that. He wrote the line but forgot to prosecute the argument. Surprising from a barrister, but he forgot to prosecute the argument! We are here to reflect on the findings of soundings taken over summer, and that is why I am pleased to talk up exactly what this federal government has done, and will continue to do, to create jobs and opportunities for Australians and to see small business soar.

Mr Husic interjecting—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chifley will sit in silence.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia's small businesses number around 2.1 million. They provide an economic boost of $340 billion to our economy. They are as diverse a tapestry as the topography of our country itself. Some are run by families, some by friends and some by those who have found a purpose and a meaning in the jobs and services they are providing. But in each of them is the spirit of small business. In each of them—

An opposition member interjecting—

You can make out as if you have got a violin. You would not know. The only small businesses you like are those which you would like to run a picket line out the front of. That is the trouble with you.

Unlike the Labor Party's, ours is an economic plan which is costed. It is an economic plan which is considered. It is an economic plan which actually makes sense. It has got a vision further out than just the daily headlines that those opposite react to. It is a 10-year economic plan, the Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan. Its most central consideration is this: it is small business, and not government, which creates jobs. It is small business, and not government, which provides goods and services. It is small business, and not government, which will see higher wages—we all want that—and more opportunities for Australians.

To this government, jobs are not the stuff of glossy brochures. They are the stuff of families. They are the stuff of communities. They are a story which varies by location, and they need a champion who is committed to their creation—and that is what we are. This government—this federal government, Member for Perth—is a champion for small business and business right across this nation.

On the table today is our Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan: a vision for a decade, not just the fly-by-night things that you people bring into this House, that you people dream up after you read the daily headlines. It is a plan which will provide 90,000 more small businesses across this nation with the opportunity to get that lowering of the company tax rate. It is a plan which provides for 90,000 more small businesses to get access to the instant asset write-off. But there is a roadblock in the way of those great small businesses—those in the electorate of Cowper, those in the electorate of Capricornia. Right throughout Australia there is a roadblock, and that is the ALP, led by the member for Maribyrnong, who stands for higher energy costs to small businesses, who stands for and is beholden only to the unions.

More than anything, our Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan will mean that Australia's small businesses can grow more and can employ more—and, dare I say, if they are able to hire more people, some of them might even be union members. Some of them might even vote for the Labor Party! That is what we are doing: providing jobs, providing hope and providing rewards for those small businesses which want to get ahead. What small businesses do is invest back into their small business. They invest back into their company. They enhance their business. They deliver the most effective of economic injections, empowering their own livelihoods and their own needs to get ahead in life.

Those opposite come in here and lecture about the fact that they supposedly care for consumers—I did not hear that word in the member for Perth's MPI—but, as for the support that they offer for small businesses, when push comes to shove: Labor does not trust small business to spend its own money. That is the bottom line. But we in the coalition do. We want to provide more money for those small businesses so that they can generate more jobs. We know that tax cuts for small businesses deliver more jobs, higher wages, better services and expanded opportunities, for a few simple reasons: because we have run our own—successful ones, too, I might add. We have taken risks. We have employed people. We know, from our own experience, that local workers will get a better opportunity from local businesses which are empowered to employ them. We know, from our own experience, that local consumers will be better catered for by local businesses empowered to take risks, to branch out and to pursue a new opportunity. We know this because we listen. We consult. We spend time in our local small business community, and we actually listen to what they have to say.

I have listened to businesses everywhere, including the electorate of Cowper—and I am looking forward to going to your electorate very soon, Deputy Speaker Coulton, to hear from the small businesses in your community, and I would love to go and talk to those in the member for Rankin's seat and to hear what they have to say: to hear the fact that they want to get behind a lowering of the company tax rate, to hear that more of them want to take advantage of the instant asset write-off.

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

I have been to every state and territory to talk to small businesses. It is more important, member for Rankin, to listen to those small businesses. I went there alongside the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive, James Pearson, and that organisation's president, Terry Wetherall. That is where I met people such as Rohan Jewellers in Western Australia, in the member for Perth's electorate. With a turnover between $2 million and $10 million, that jewellery shop has been in operation for nine years. It employs 12 people including casuals. Its owner, Rohan Milne, told me of his plan to grow and expand and of how a reduction in the company tax rate and access to the coalition's crucial instant asset write-off program would benefit him and help him to achieve his dream.

Like millions of small businesses right across the country and the five million Australians they employ—many of whom are union members—Rohan Milne knows a turnover of more than $2 million is not a big business. It is the engine room of our economy. And I have a little note to Labor: just because you might be generating anywhere between $2 million and $10 million in turnover does not mean to say that that is what you are putting in your pocket as take-home; it does not mean to say that that is profit. You people seem to think that a company with a turnover of $5 million is in clover, and all you want to do is whack them.

We know on this side that our 10-year enterprise tax plan will work. And do you know why? It is because it is backed by small business. It is backed by small businesses right across this wide brown land. Because protection for our workers in small business is central to our economic plan, we are getting out and we are listening to them. Ours is an economic plan which actually understands the economy. It is a plan that wants to see the economy grow and pay back some of Labor's debt and put more Australians into jobs with opportunities for their children and their children's children. It is a plan about confidence. Whether you are in a capital city like Perth or whether you are in a regional community like Dubbo or somewhere like Warialda, the area you represent, Mr Deputy Speaker, or wherever, it gives small business the confidence to grow, the confidence to employ more people and the confidence to take a risk with their own money—not with union money, but with your own money. It is a plan that is already working.

Opposition members interjecting—

Listen to them go! You mention the word 'unions' and you get them going. You get them almost jumping out of their seats, because they are beholden to unions. You are self-owned subsidiaries of the union movement, and that is the trouble. Get on board with small business! Do not worry too much about what the leftie unions are telling you. The leftie unions will just take you down a path of higher energy prices and of doing all those things like stop-work meetings. Get on board with small business! Back our 10-year enterprise tax plan. Back the instant asset write-off. Get on board with those companies that are employing Australians, creating employment, creating jobs, creating opportunity, and stop being a roadblock to this great economic plan.

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

The government has failed to protect the interests of local workers and consumers, especially in Western Australia, where the benefits of the mining and construction boom have been squandered by the Liberal government. The only thing that they have to show is record debt, record deficit and record unemployment. What the Liberal government fails to understand is that to have jobs and growth, to promote local jobs and foster local business, you need infrastructure—the kind of infrastructure that employers need to be able to carry out their business, the kind of infrastructure that local workers and consumers need to be able to live. It is infrastructure that delivers an effective and reliable internet. It delivers people to jobs and jobs to people, consumers to business and business to consumers.

You cannot trust the Liberals to deliver. The Liberals and the Nationals have broken too many promises. After announcing a $30 million 'fully funded plan' to upgrade Wanneroo Road and boasting about it on social media—they had videos and everything, let me tell you—the WA Liberal government then turned around and revealed at the mid-year review that only $10 million was actually allocated to the project. Wanneroo Road, which is in my electorate, has already been identified as one of Australia's top 10 most congested roads by 2030. On any given day and at any given time you can spend up to 30 minutes getting through traffic on Wanneroo Road. It takes precious time away from families and it affects productivity, and Labor knows this. We know that everyday West Australians in the outer suburbs need a government that will not waste money on vanity projects and budget blowouts. That is why we have committed to a fully funded plan to ease the congestion on Wanneroo Road, not some half-funded plan that the Liberals have put forward.

West Australians also know that you cannot trust the Liberals to deliver on their promises. In just 24 hours they broke their promise to fully fund the Wanneroo Road upgrade. Twenty-four hours—that must be a record. It is a pity that the Liberals cannot be as timely in delivering on their promises as they are on breaking them. The people of Cowan are still waiting on the promise of an effective and affordable internet. By recollection, I think they were told that by the end of 2016 they would have it. Well, the end of 2016 has come and gone, and within my electorate people are being told that they will have to wait another two years. Meanwhile, schoolkids cannot do their homework, businesses have had to close and young entrepreneurs, the very people we should be encouraging, cannot even start up a business. The situation is so dire that in some parts of my electorate you have to drive to the next suburb just to be able to access any form of internet.

The member who was speaking before me asked whether or not we have gone out and spoken to businesses. I have. I have gone out and spoken to businesses in my electorate. I speak to them on a daily basis. Let me tell you what my local businesses want. They want this government to fulfil its promise of internet and of an NBN that is reliable and effective and timely and affordable. And they are not getting it. We know that you cannot trust the Liberals to deliver on their promises.

The people of Western Australia know that you cannot trust the Liberals to deliver on their promises, whether those promises are about building vital infrastructure to ensure that businesses can continue to do their business or whether those promises are about the NBN and the delivery of an internet that we have been promised for three years now, and there is still nothing—still nothing in Cowan!

The Liberals are divided and they are confused. But there is one thing that they can agree on—one thing that they are agreeing on—and that is the privatisation of Western Power. The one promise that they are going to be able to deliver on is the privatisation of Western Power. And why? To pay for their recklessness and their failure to plan for life beyond the mining boom. Thank you.

Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think we have had nine, maybe 10, weeks without parliament sitting, and here we have the first MPI—an opportunity for the opposition to put forward an important matter of national interest and debate it. Instead, we actually have a running commentary on the Western Australian election. At the end of the day, as important as WA is, it is indicative of the Labor Party's absolute disregard for the importance of this chamber. Admittedly, the last speaker, to her credit, mentioned infrastructure, businesses closing and the importance of entrepreneurship. And so, Mr Deputy Speaker, allow me just to address some of those in the context, if I may, of the federal government, since we are indeed here in a federal chamber.

On infrastructure, Mr Deputy Speaker, you will be delighted to know that we actually have record spending under this coalition government on infrastructure. Let me say that one more time: we have record spending on infrastructure by this coalition government. This is why we are creating jobs. This is why we are creating confidence in our businesses.

My second point is business closures: on this side of the House, the vast majority of people have started businesses and we have run businesses—it is in our DNA. We know the importance of ensuring (1) access to capital and (2) good, solid cash flow. One of the things this coalition government is driving towards is a greater ability for small businesses to raise capital. Indeed, over the coming weeks we will be furthering the debate on the crowdfunding bill, which will make it a lot easier for small businesses.

Our former speaker in this debate, the minister, talked about the asset write-offs that this government has enabled, which improve the cash flow for small businesses. What do we have from the other side? We actually have a willingness to keep taxes high. It is pretty simple: on this side of the House we believe that company taxes should go down. Company taxes go down, more money is left in the pockets of the businesses to reinvest and that reinvestment creates jobs. As we have reached out across the House, as any responsible government does, we have said to the Labor Party, 'In the interests of workers, in the interests of the communities that we all serve, will you support tax cuts?' The answer is no.

On this side of the House, we believe in energy security. We believe in reducing the cost of electricity, which is a major input for businesses. Once you reduce the input cost for business, it increases their margins—typically, it allows them to grow and to employ more people. Now, of course, as we have announced—as the Prime Minister has announced—that we will be proactively going after coal-fired power stations and ensuring that we have energy diversity across this country, does the opposition agree with that? No, they do not.

I am a Queenslander; I am not from WA. And so for my WA colleagues in this House, the Queensland government at the moment, the Labor government, has a renewable energy target of—wait for it—50 per cent! Do you know what it is today, Mr Deputy Speaker? It is four per cent. Think about that—the impact on prices of electricity for consumers and for businesses.

We have the opening of markets. Indeed, we have our foreign minister meeting with the foreign minister of China, Wang Yi, as we speak today. Here we have, a year after the China free trade agreement, an enormous amount—over $85 billion of goods and services—going to China. That deal nearly fell through because the opposition tried its best to block it.

Now, at the end of the day, we are for open markets—more markets, more trade and more jobs. We are after lower taxes: lower taxes, more profits and more jobs. We are after lower electricity prices and more jobs. Thank you.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The last time a Liberal Prime Minister came to Western Australia to announce funding for a new infrastructure project, he was knocked off by his own party the next week. I am of course referring to the Armadale Road duplication project in my electorate, the Labor commitment to which was partly matched by Tony Abbott in the Canning by-election, just days before he was replaced by the current Prime Minister. This may explain why the Prime Minister has been reluctant to visit WA this year, let alone announce new infrastructure funding for Western Australia.

Fortunately for WA, and for my electorate of Burt in particular, WA Labor has announced it will build the infrastructure projects our community of transport consumers desperately needs to deal with ever-growing frustration and to get local people back to work: projects that the Abbott government, the Turnbull government and the Barnett state Liberal government have all ignored and refused to support.

There is the new Armadale Road bridge, the logical second stage to the Armadale Road duplication project that I mentioned, which will stop the bottleneck at the Kwinana Freeway and which has the support of local councils, businesses and more than 80 per cent of the local residents. Then there is the Thornlie to Cockburn rail line, which will extend through Canning Vale, with two new train stations.

The state Liberal MP, Peter Abetz, likes to pretend that he has been advocating for this project for eight years, but it has only been since WA Labor put pressure on through the fantastic local candidate, Terry Healy, that the Liberals matched Labor's commitment for this new rail line. After the broken promises of Ellenbrook and MAX light rail, which we heard of earlier, who could honestly believe that the Liberals will follow through on this promise? And just this week, WA Labor announced that it will remove the Denny Avenue level crossing in Kelmscott, replacing it with a bridge or underpass by 2020. I was proud to secure funding commitments to these projects from the federal Labor team during last year's election, and it was a shame that the Turnbull government did not match those commitments.

WA Labor will take the responsible step for our state of not pushing ahead with Roe 8, redirecting that funding to projects like those I have just mentioned and many others. Yet the only response so far from the federal Liberals has been to try to hold WA to ransom—to threaten to withdraw funding rather than let an elected WA Labor government spend that $1.2 billion in allocated funding on infrastructure projects that WA desperately needs and wants. Here's the rub: going off the Turnbull government's MYEFO figures, WA will receive about 12 per cent of the federal infrastructure budget. WA has just under 11 per cent of the national population, so that might seem fair until you recall that WA takes up a third of the landmass of our continent and is one of the biggest economic contributors to our nation. If the funding for the Perth Freight Link were stripped from WA, our share would drop to just seven per cent. That is right: not only would we score only 30c in the dollar on the GST; we would receive a tiny proportion of Commonwealth infrastructure funding. Of course, given that the Liberal government has not funded any new infrastructure projects in WA, are we surprised?

Even if we finally do have a state government and a federal government that support these kinds of congestion-busting infrastructure projects, we will need to ensure that the jobs created during construction actually go to Western Australians. The economy has changed but the Liberal-Nationals have done nothing to change the outdated list of occupations which are available to be filled in Western Australia by overseas workers. Occupations currently on the list include fitters, bricklayers, wall and floor tilers, electricians, air-conditioning and refrigeration mechanics, welfare workers, ambulance offices, firefighters, accountants, surveyors, child-care centre managers, and primary and secondary school teachers. At the same time that it has become easier for overseas workers to be employed in skilled jobs, cuts to TAFE by the Liberal-National government have meant it is harder for local people to get the training to access skilled jobs. By making changes, WA Labor will ensure that we make the most of the job opportunities that will flow from the construction of projects like the new Armadale Road bridge, fixing up Denny Avenue, and a new railway line from Thornlie, through Canning Vale, to Cockburn.

There are currently more than 92,000 people unemployed in Western Australia, and Labor's priority will be to ensure that they are first in line for WA jobs. A McGowan Labor government will, on day one, tear up the list of occupations that fast-tracks overseas workers to WA and replace it with a new list that reflects WA's changed economic circumstances. That is the best way to ensure that jobs in local projects go to Western Australians to get our unemployment rates back down to where they were before the Barnett and Abbott-Turnbull Liberal governments took a sledgehammer to Western Australia. The simple truth is that, on local jobs, on transport infrastructure and more, Colin Barnett is exactly like his federal counterparts: out of touch with a state and people struggling after eight years of Liberal neglect. WA Labor will bring a fresh approach to WA and a comprehensive plan for jobs—something we desperately need and will not get from the Liberals. (Time expired)

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am grateful to the member for Perth for raising this issue. We have a proud record to defend here, and I am very happy to speak to it.

As the representative of the fastest growing economy of any metropolitan electorate on the eastern seaboard of Australia, I know that we are making huge strides. An SGS Economics and Planning report released in the past six months ranked Bennelong as having the fastest growing economy in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania. Bennelong's economic performance was topped only by four mining based regions in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This result is an indicator of the great success of our region, as people travel from around Sydney to access employment opportunities and high-quality services in our local community.

The beating heart of the Bennelong economy is our local small businesses, who have been greatly assisted in the last two federal budgets. Over 7,400 local small and medium-sized businesses have had their taxes cut and received tax breaks on purchases up to $20,000. This facilitates growth, more jobs for local workers, opportunities for local consumers and a stronger community for all local residents. As home to Macquarie Park, the innovation capital of Australia, not only are we creating jobs; we are also creating them in the industries of the future. This is a very exciting place, and I will be talking more about this over the coming weeks.

Beyond the confines of Bennelong, New South Wales is famously leading the way and showing other states how it is done. Unemployment continues to fall and is the lowest of all the states. We are also investing in the critical infrastructure needed to create jobs, help consumers and refit our ageing city. WestConnex will generate more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction, including hundreds of apprenticeships. The Commonwealth government has contributed $1.5 billion in addition to a concessional loan of $2 billion to Sydney's WestConnex project. Western Sydney Airport is expected to create over 11,000 jobs throughout construction. The Australian government is investing, over 10 years, $2.9 billion of the $3.6 billion Western Sydney Infrastructure Plan. Pacific Highway duplication is expected to create 4,500 jobs at the peak of construction this year, with an additional 13,500 jobs to be supported indirectly. Over the five years to 2018-19, the government is contributing $5.6 billion to finally complete the upgrade of the Pacific Highway to dual carriageway by the end of the decade.

Beyond my state, the Australian government are getting more people into work. Since the coalition came to office in September 2013, over half a million jobs have been created, with employment standing at a record high of just under 12 million in December 2016. Under this government, employment has continued to grow, rising by 0.8 per cent over the past year. We have a plan to grow the economy and create new jobs. We have made tax cuts and incentives for small businesses to employ more Australians. We have invested $1.1 billion in the National Innovation and Science Agenda, which is part of the government's commitment to establishing Australia as a leading innovation system. We are also investing $853 million into youth employment packages to help up to 120,000 young people take advantage of job opportunities as the economy diversifies and transitions to broader based growth. We have a 20-year plan to transform defence, building submarines, frigates, offshore patrol vessels and Pacific patrol boats in Australia, which will directly secure over 3,600 jobs as well as thousands more jobs through the supply chain.

We have signed historic free trade agreements with three of our largest trading partners. These are creating jobs and dropping prices for Australian consumers. A few hours ago I spoke here of my good fortune to represent a community with a large, vibrant, engaged diaspora of Chinese-Australians. At many local events we discuss the importance of building bridges between our two countries to allow even stronger linkages as partners in trade business and culture. The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement cements that bridge and will create many businesses and employment opportunities for Bennelong residents.

Finally, we have made record investments in infrastructure for roads, rail, airports and dams. This includes $220 million into the Regional Jobs and Investment Package to help regions in Australia diversify their economies, stimulate long-term economic growth and deliver sustainable employment. (Time expired)

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

It is not only the Turnbull-Joyce government that has failed local workers. The Abbott Liberal government started the rot, and it had a committed partner in neglect—the WA state Liberal government, led by Colin Barnett. The voters of Western Australia will soon have the opportunity to turn their state around and get the WA economy moving again, and have the chance to vote to ensure more jobs are created for Western Australian workers and to ensure that there are more opportunities for Western Australian families. Where Liberal governments have failed local workers and Western Australians, WA Labor will not. WA Labor will bring a fresh approach for the state. WA Labor has set out a comprehensive plan for jobs, a plan that will put more Western Australians back into work.

Mark McGowan is the member for Rockingham and he understands everyday Western Australians. He lives with his young family in my electorate in Brand, in the beautiful beachside suburb of Rockingham, where I grew up in small business. I have contest with the Minister for Urban Infrastructure, who believes that Labor members of parliament have no experience of small businesses. I am a daughter of a draper and I worked long in small business as I grew up. Mark McGowan lives in the beautiful suburb of Rockingham, as I was saying, it is our own beachside paradise. There is no need for a Premier of Western Australia to seek to annex the Cocos and Christmas islands when we have the wonderful beachside paradises of Shoalwater and Rockingham.

I pay tribute to Mark McGowan and his colleagues in my electorate: Roger Cook, the member for Kwinana; Paul Papalia, the member for Warnbro; and Reece Whitby, the Labor candidate for Baldivis. All are working on the frontline of those communities in outer metropolitan Perth that have borne the brunt of the failure of Barnett's Liberal government and the failure of this federal Liberal government to invest in infrastructure projects that will support local workers and create local jobs that will provide a future for WA families.

In my electorate it is frankly mind-boggling to witness how this government and its WA state Liberal counterparts have turned their backs on the Kwinana industrial strip. This industrial area has powered both the WA and the national economy since the 1950s. Thanks to the hardworking women and men who work at the many industrial plants, and the commitment by industry itself, this strip is vital to Western Australia and the national economy. It is home to the largest oil refinery in the country, the largest grain-handling facility in the southern hemisphere and it is home to the largest Royal Australian Navy base. It is estimated that the Kwinana industrial area produces an output of $15.7 billion annually into the WA economy. Further investment is needed to ensure the continued productivity of this centre for infrastructure. Investment is needed to ensure local jobs are created in WA for local workers.

Since the sixties, there have been plans for an outer harbour in Kwinana, to be ready for the day when port infrastructure at Fremantle inner harbour reaches its full capacity. Since the sixties, successive state governments, both Labor and Liberal, have supported the need for the outer harbour, to ensure WA's further economic development. More plans were considered in the eighties, and in 1996 the Liberal state government gave cabinet endorsement for a new outer harbour to be built in Kwinana. It is a long-term nation-building project that will create much-needed jobs and economic opportunities for the people living in local communities across the electorate of Brand, but moreover for the state generally. Yet this government and Barnett's WA Liberal government failed to support this critical project, and in so doing they both failed WA workers.

It is a project that ticks all the boxes. It grows the economy, it creates an estimated 25,000 new direct jobs and will encourage innovation through the application of modern technology to port operations. Despite all of this the federal government does not seem to understand that this is actually necessary infrastructure—unlike an expensive piece of road, known as Roe 8, that has started off smashing through the Beeliar wetlands and will finish as a vanishing road to nowhere some kilometres short of the port. It is an extraordinary failure, not only in infrastructure but in planning.

Most Australia's have to wait a little while longer to vote out an incompetent, divided, clueless and failing Liberal government. Western Australians, however, can vote out the incompetent Barnett Liberal government on 11 March. Western Australians can vote out a tired and incompetent Barnet Liberal government and make way for Mark McGowan and WA Labor's fresh and strong approach for Western Australia. Mark McGowan and his Labor government and his excellent team of hardworking women and men will work to build the Metronet, they will stop this road to nowhere and they will invest in planning for the future infrastructure needs of Western Australia. They will build game-changing projects that will support local workers and Western Australians. It is time for Western Australia to move on from the incompetent and clueless Western Australian Liberal government led by Colin Barnett.

Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also am a proud member of the draper family, and the member for Brand and I caught up on that, as we were doing our work interstate last week. I am a very proud small business person as well, and the heritage that I and the member for Brand bring to this place is an honourable heritage. I am also an unabashed friend of the worker—an unabashed friend of the workers in Gippsland especially. I refer to Ed Gannon's article, 'Saving the environment comes at the cost of jobs', where the Labor Party in Victoria is walking away from 230 workers at the timber mill in Heyfield. Two hundred and thirty workers in Heyfield—a town of 2,000 people—is equivalent to 460,000 jobs in Melbourne. That is what they are threatening.

I have been very close to the CFMEU forestry division workers and have worked closely with them over a long period of time, not only on the timber mill issues in the timber industry but more importantly in the paper industry, which is vital to thousands of jobs in Victoria.

An opposition member: Thousands!

Thousands, and you cannot mock what I am saying because you are not one of the workers under threat here. Until such time as your livelihood is under threat, do not mock me as I stand here on their behalf. Thousands! Not only is this mill important to Heyfield but it affects 7,000 more jobs across my region and into outer Melbourne. Why 7,000 jobs? Because the seconds taken out of that forest supply the paper mill, which some of the departments in this place use. This is a serious issue about families' livelihoods and it is not to be discounted.

At a time when Hazelwood is closing down, with a loss of 1,000 workers and all that goes with that, Theo Theophanous, a former energy minister in the Bracks government, argues that renewing or rebuilding Hazelwood could mean a greener and a cheaper future. In fact, I have had people in my office saying that this closure puts our national electricity grid under threat. On our worst day we could be under threat nationally, not just in South Australia. I do not know whether that argument is correct. I do not know whether it can be tested. The only day it will be tested is the day we run out of power.

We have taken 25 per cent of Victoria's power needs off the grid when Theo says that we could have done it a different way. We could have supported Alcoa in a different way. It was put forward to them, but what happened? The Greens stopped this happening in the Labor government. I have spoken to this House about the Labor Party's need to be beholden to the Greens. You are affecting the livelihoods and jobs of ordinary people, people who are basically and truly your base, your voters, your blue-collar workers. Why do they vote for people like me and Gary Blackwood? Because we put their interests first: we argue their interests in our party room, we argue their interests on the floor of this House and we argue for their livelihoods. It means their school. It means their primary school. It means the Heyfield Primary School. It means the Heyfield secondary college. It is all of the issues around the whole town. It is about the drapery store in Heyfield that will not exist if you take 200 workers out.

Where is Michael O'Connor? Michael, where are you? You and the CFMEU should be right behind these workers getting this issue fixed with Dan's government. It is time. We have not got any more time to fluff around. We are losing jobs left, right and centre in Gippsland. If you want to really do damage to families, schools, kids and opportunities of the future keep doing what the Labor government is doing in Victoria—pandering to the Greens at every occasion. Some time in this House somebody is going to start to put the national interest first; they are going to put Australia first.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am glad to have this opportunity to speak about the government's failure to protect workers and the social and economic consequences of that failure. I am not glad to speak about the circumstances that prevail currently in Western Australia, because the reality is Western Australia is in a recession. We have the second highest unemployment rate in the country. We have a sequence of falling full-time employment rates that have been unmatched since the deep recession in 1990s. Underemployment is at its highest level since the ABS began keeping those statistics in 1978. As the member for Perth said, there are 100,000 people out of work in my home state.

What is most disappointing though is that this was foreseeable. Western Australia does have a resources economy. That resources economy has peaks and troughs. A responsible government prepares for those, yet nothing has been done. The Barnett government has perpetrated a long con on the people of Western Australia, quietly building up a mountain of debt and passively watching as jobs began to disappear.

It is entirely appropriate that the federal House of Representatives members from Western Australia speak on this topic because the Barnett government have been aided and abetted by the Turnbull government. The Barnett government should have been prepared for change. They should have ensured there was greater emphasis on local content participation when the resources economy was running strongly. As the economy cooled there should have been a focus on productive infrastructure investment. There has been complete inadequacy when it comes to that investment. WA has been badly let down by the Abbott-Turnbull government in all of those departments.

During the last election there were 78 road and rail projects announced or promised by the coalition. How many in WA? Three—three out of 78. Of $860 million worth of road and rail projects, barely $40 million, or 4.6 per cent, was delivered in Western Australia. That was in July last year. Last week the federal government announced projects being funded under the Regional Jobs and Investment Package—$220 million for 10 projects. The goal of the program is 'to help regions in Australia diversify their economies, stimulate long-term economic growth and deliver sustainable employment'. How many of the 10 projects are in Western Australia? None, zero, even though some of the relevant Western Australian regions have unemployment rates three times higher than those selected for funding. It is a bitter irony, as my colleagues have pointed out, that the only sniff of infrastructure funding we have is in relation to the Perth Freight Link—

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's simply not true. There's $490 million for Forrestfield rail. It's absolutely wrong. What about NorthLink? It's simply untrue. There's millions—hundreds of millions.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

a road without a plan, a road that does not reach the port, the most expensive road in WA's history, the first toll road in WA that will be commercially operated, a road that will not create jobs in the medium to long term, a road that locks us into ever-increasing truck freight and congestion, a road that cuts communities in half and a project that begins by doing unacceptable harm to the Beeliar Wetlands. The fact that 100 hectares of fragile bushland is being smashed down in the shadow of an election that could make the entire project redundant is a scandal.

The federal coalition has led the Barnett government by the nose on this project. The Minister for Urban Infrastructure, who has been interrupting me all the way, and the finance minister have taken now to threatening to withhold infrastructure funds from a future Western Australian Labor government, if elected. They are essentially saying that Western Australia will receive less than nothing. That is what you are saying, Minister Fletcher. Western Australia will receive less than nothing. So I hope, Minister, that you and your Western Australian colleagues campaign on that. I hope you campaign on that three-word slogan—for Western Australia, from you and your government: less than nothing. Come to Western Australia and campaign on that.

But the people of Western Australia are waking up to Mr Barnett. They know what he has delivered—$40 billion in debt, the highest per capita state debt, the second highest unemployment, the highest inequality and the largest gender pay gap. That is what Mr Barnett has delivered. That is some achievement! It is complacency and mismanagement on a grand scale, aided and abetted by the Abbott-Turnbull government.

Well, the people of Western Australia are waking up to Mr Barnett. They are going to get the opportunity shortly to hold the government to account. You have to take responsibility for your actions, and Mr Barnett will get his chance to take responsibility very shortly. The people of Western Australia are going to have the opportunity to choose a premier with a plan for jobs, a plan for productive infrastructure and transport, and a commitment to energetic and long-term leadership—a McGowan WA Labor government.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How the mighty have fallen! Once we used to see a proud Labor Party stand on the other side of this chamber and debate the issues that affected the nation. What we have seen the Labor Party revert to is a small band of merry men and women who are now focused on Western Australia and Western Australia only.

On this MPI, 'the government's failure to protect the interests of local workers and consumers', I inform the House that I have local consumers and local workers in Queensland. I have local workers in New South Wales. We heard nothing of that from those on the other side. What we did hear from the other side was some quite eloquent political commentary from the first speaker, the member for Perth, about the Western Australian government and debt and deficit. The member for Cowan spoke about how she wanted to talk about trust, and I am looking forward to having a chat about Labor's track record on trust, given the Medicare scare campaign. The member for Burt kindly informed the House about the MYEFO 12 per cent infrastructure funding, yet Western Australia is 11 per cent of the population. The member for Brand gave us a very comprehensive resume on some state members. The member for Fremantle probably made the most sense out of all of you—so congratulations to the member for Fremantle.

I tell you what we did not hear during this debate. We did not hear members from the other side of the House talk about the real effects of Labor on small business. We did not hear them talk about the effect of Labor Party policy on the free-trade agreements when they opposed them. We did not hear those on the other side of this place talk about the effects of Labor Party policy on small businesses in and around the ban on live cattle exports. Northern Western Australia was drastically affected by that. The Northern Territory was affected by that. Northern Queensland was affected by that, and my local operators through those areas. We did not hear them speak about the effect of Labor Party policy on those local communities, those businesses and those farms who may in some circumstances only get one cheque per year. We did not hear about the transport operators that were adversely affected and we did not hear about the maritime operators that were affected.

We did not hear those on the other side talk about their leader and how he represented the removal of shift penalties for cleaning staff. We did not hear any of that, yet they want to prosecute a debate about how they supposedly support local workers. We saw more recidivist behaviour by the Leader of the Opposition when we saw him in action in the Chiquita situation. We did not see those on the other side of the House come in and talk about the 35,000 owner-operators that would be forced off the road as a result of Labor's road remuneration tribunal.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will stand here and defend those operators in my electorate every day of the week. I am a small business operator. I have trucks on the road. What you guys on the other side of this House did was nothing short of shameful, and you should be condemned for it. It was appalling the way that you handled that piece of policy.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Saving lives?

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take that interjection. The member for Burt claimed that the remuneration tribunal was about saving lives. I assure you that it was from a union perspective. It was nothing more than getting owner-operators off the road so that they could have union drivers in company trucks, pushing small businesses out. And then Labor have the audacity to come in here and debate 'the government's failure to protect the interests of local workers and consumers'. It is a joke, an absolute joke, in and around that policy section.

We did not see them come in here and talk about the environment and how Labor policies of the future want to shut down the coalmines because they no longer have an appetite for it, and they scoff at us as a government when we say that coal-fired power stations will be part of the energy mix into the future. That is our policy position. We will make sure that our coal-fired power stations are clean into the future.

Those opposite did not come in here and talk about Labor's track record on 457 visas. It is appalling. Under the coalition, since we came to office, we have created over half a million jobs, with employment standing at a record high of nearly 12 million since December 2006.

We are the only government, a government that is a broad church primarily made up of small business, that can represent small business, consumers and growth in this country.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The discussion has concluded.