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

For those who are playing this at home, let's try a little quiz. What do the members for Curtin, Stirling, Pearce and Hasluck and senators Cormann and Cash have in common? I will give you a hint: not only are they all allegedly Western Australians, but they all form part of this so-called government's ministry. I tell you what—we have heard of the Dirty Dozen, but I cannot help but think, what do we call this half dozen? What do we call them? The flaccid, wet-lettuce half dozen, who could not go in to bat for Western Australia if their lives depended on it. The foreign minister stood up here in question time only a few days ago and could not even get the narrative right about where the gas is delivered from the Browse Basin—not to Western Australia but to Darwin. What do we see when we look at the budget in relation to any so-called compensation for our paltry share of GST? We get next to nothing—a top-up from 30c to 34c. When you factor in the losses in education and health, we go backwards to the tune of $200 million. Is that the sort of advocacy you want from this bunch of wet lettuces? You talk about education. What do I give this half dozen? An F for fail.