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

I know this is a grievance debate. I appreciate the member for Goldstein swapping places with me, enabling me to get my grievance up earlier. I'd like to take the opportunity this morning to talk about the result achieved on Saturday in the Darling Range by-election in the great state of Western Australia by the Liberal Party over the consistency of Labor lies. When I was looking for subjects to speak about in this grievance debate, it was a target-rich environment, so I've got a few issues to talk about today. I'd like to extend my congratulations to member-elect Alyssa Hayden on her win on Saturday night against the anti-WA McGowan government, with a 9.1 per cent swing away from WA Labor.

This by-election was a referendum on the McGowan government, and the McGowan government failed. The McGowan government promised before the 2017 election not to raise fees and charges, and once they were elected they increased the bills for hardworking Western Australians by $700 in just 18 months. The first thing they did—part of that $700 increase—was put up retail power prices by 11 per cent, after they'd fought on the basis of not selling Western Power because it would raise power prices. Within two months, they put up power prices by 11 per cent.

There have been claims by the Premier that this wasn't a judgement of his government; it was a judgement of Barry Urban, the MLA who'd been found not to be truthful about his declarations. To respond to that claim by the Premier, an article in yesterday's West Australian by Paul Murray—a different Paul Murray to the one on Sky—stated:

If Mark McGowan really believes that the Darling Range by-election result was simply a reflection of the Barry Urban affair, then Labor is in way more trouble than people imagine.

It goes on to say:

… the Premier’s attempt to spin Labor’s primary figure so quickly crashing to around 32 per cent is not supported by the media reporting over the past month.

The article further states:

"Mrs Hayden and Ms Lawrence have said Mr Urban has not been a dominant feature of the campaign—there are more pressing local issues, such as cost of living, council rates and population growth."

This supports the media reporting over the last month. Further, it says:

"Despite the scandal, half the locals seemed oblivious to the by-election, with many uninterested in politics. Some dismissed the lies of Mr Urban as being typical for politicians, while others believed the former MP had resigned because he was a dual citizen."

But now we are asked to believe that Urban tipped the scales against Labor.

Paul Murray has laid it bare in his article in The West Australian and takes away the myth that Mark McGowan has claimed this was nothing to do with him; it was all to do with Barry Urban.

Getting back to the increases Labor have put in place since they came into government, on top of the $700 increase from last year, they now want WA families to pay another $500 in fees and charges. All the while, Labor rip money out of the WA police budget. Also, those in the Darling Range know all too well about the Labor lies they heard for over 12 months. An MLA who was hand-picked by the Premier lied his way into parliament. At one point he claimed he was the construction manager of a dam—I am sure the member for Mackellar will be interested in this—quite a few years before the dam was even announced. This is the quality of Labor's elected MLA. It doesn't end there, however. During the by-election campaign, WA Labor just couldn't keep their word. The first Labor candidate McGowan hand-picked again was caught lying about her education. I wonder if her degrees had the same fate as the former member's, with the response: 'My mum threw out my degree.' It was just another Labor lie.

I've spoken about this before in this place: for 3½ years, as the head of the Labor front the Belmont Community Group, the now member for Belmont had campaigned heavily for a 24/7 police station. I quote from one of her many comments on the issue:

All citizens have the fundamental right to safety and security in their own home and we believe that a 24-hour police station is essential to crime reduction in Belmont.

The now member for Belmont spent three years campaigning for this, and stated it was vital to crime reduction in Belmont, but couldn't even secure the station being opened on the weekend. Stations in Cockburn, Armadale and Ellenbrook are now open for 24 hours, yet there is not a word from the member for Belmont on a 24-hour police station for her own community, which she campaigned for through her community group, which was just a Labor front.

WA electors know, when Labor promises one thing, to expect exactly the opposite. Sadly the Labor lies are not exclusive to WA Labor but seem to be endemic in Labor at a national level too. It seems that Labor has an addiction to lying about cuts to education, cuts to health and cuts to social services. Under the coalition government, education, health and social services have been supported and fully funded in a real budget—more than those opposite ever have managed.

From this government, due to the hard work done by the member for Cook in balancing the books, we now have more funding going into the WA health system and more funding going into WA schools, making them some of the most resourced in the nation. As much as the Leader of the Opposition might want to forget, as education minister he cut $1.2 billion from schools, as states wised up to Labor's secret deals in their flawed education funding model. The coalition government has just got on with fixing up the cuts the Leader of the Opposition made, and we have now introduced real needs based funding, not something that just benefits the member's union backers.

The Labor lies continue, and continue into the policy realm of tax. Those opposite have a misled belief that you can tax more, and spend more, into prosperity. They talk about caring for Middle Australia yet time and time again push against tax relief for Middle Australia and their businesses. Just yesterday those opposite chose to rip billions out of businesses—

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

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

I hear the member opposite. He obviously doesn't like businesses, the way his interjections are going.

Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I remind all members in the chamber that the speaker who has the call is entitled to be heard in silence. Please observe the rules of the chamber and show your colleagues due professional respect and courtesy. Member for Swan, please continue.

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

Just yesterday those opposite chose to rip billions out of businesses that have a turnover between $10 million and $50 million, but then had the audacity to claim that they are not antibusiness. Labor think these companies that are in the $10 million to $50 million range are 'the top end of town'. Considering many of the Labor members probably have never had to worry about paying payrolls, they are unlikely to understand turnovers between industries will mean vastly different sizes. And, just because you have a high turnover, it doesn't mean you have a high profit. This is what the Labor people don't understand. When they talk about $50 million companies, they think that is $50 million profit. That is the wisdom of the Labor people who have never run businesses. This will hit 20,000 businesses, employing 1.5 million Australians, with a tax sledgehammer. The fact the Labor Party cannot even bring themselves to guarantee the tax relief already legislated for small businesses with turnovers of up to $10 million tells Australians everything they need to know.

There are over 100,000 small and medium, often family owned, businesses with turnovers between $2 million and $50 million. Together these businesses employ over three million Australians. The member for Mackellar is here. I've got about 19,000 businesses in my electorate of Swan. I'm sure he has plenty in his electorate, and I'm sure the member for Solomon has plenty of businesses in his electorate. I'm going to enjoy going to enlighten these businesses about the dangers they're going to face and the money they're going to lose because the member for Maribyrnong is going to rip the tax cuts away from them and make them realise that they cannot keep more of the money that they have actually earned. They earned it. It's their money. It doesn't belong to the government.

This is yet another job-destroying, economy-wrecking higher tax from Labor and confirms yet again the one certainty about Labor—when they run out of money, they will come after yours. The most galling part of Labor's stubborn antibusiness and anti-economy stance is that they used to believe in this stuff. We've heard the Prime Minister relaying all those quotes. They used to believe in it when it was convenient for them, but now all they want to do, as we know, is to harm businesses in Australia, which will harm jobs and harm the economy.

Sitting suspended from 11:59 to 16:00