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

Next week will mark two years since my election as the federal member for Burt. I have the huge honour of not just representing my community but being the first ever member for that area of Perth's south-eastern suburbs in that electorate. Being able to bring the concerns and the priorities of my community to this parliament on the national stage is terribly important and it's something that I take very seriously. It is why, in those two years, I've spent so much time working with my Labor colleagues on developing policy for a future Labor government; working with my colleagues across the aisle in committees, developing policy that even this Liberal government has seen fit to adopt; and speaking in these chambers about the issues that are important to my community.

When I stood for election for the people of Burt I brought to them 10 positive policies for them to consider. Protecting Medicare: we've been able to stop the government from outsourcing Medicare, though they continue with their freezes. We said we would invest more money in our local schools, and Labor will invest by reversing the $17 billion of cuts to school funding by this government. We said we would build the Thornlie railway line and secure funding for extending that railway line through to Canning Vale, the Armadale Road duplication and a new bridge for Armadale Road at the freeway, and investing in replacing the Denny Avenue level crossing. In respect of all of those three things, I can say that through the pressure of the WA federal team, the Labor Party working with the new WA Labor McGowan government, we've been able to secure the funding for those projects as well.

We said we would stop the $100,000 university degrees that were being proposed by the Malcolm Turnbull government, and we have been able to do that. We said we would support a new state government making sure we had a 24-hour police station in Armadale, and that has been delivered as well. Critically, we said we would make sure there was a royal commission into the banks, and that has happened. It only happened because of the pressure that was applied by the Labor Party here in opposition in Canberra. I also said Labor would build a better NBN. Unfortunately from opposition there are only so many things that we can do, and building a better NBN and protecting people's penalty rates has not been able to occur because of the intransigence of this government not having the right priorities.

It's important to look to the future. What else is going to be able to be delivered? Labor will deliver bigger, better, fairer tax cuts for the people of Burt. Under this plan from Labor, 74 per cent of the people of Burt will be better off. We'll scrap up-front TAFE fees. Since 2013 we have 1,000 fewer people per year undertaking TAFE courses to get the skills they need. We will make sure it's easier for people to get to TAFE to get the skills and the jobs. We will protect people's penalty rates so they're not losing money by working on weekends. The 12,000 people working in the retail and hospitality sectors will have their penalty rates protected.

The people of Burt need a change of government now. They need to get rid of this Turnbull government and to see a Labor government to change the story for their benefit. (Time expired)