Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My electorate has a very simple question for this government: where is the Perth City Deal? It was promised by this government in 2017, it was promised in 2018, it was promised in 2019 and it was promised in 2020. Prime Minister Turnbull first promised it in July 2017, 35 months ago. They built the Eiffel Tower in just 26 months. The Empire State Building was built in 11 months. It's mistake after mistake with this government.

The Perth City Deal was due to be finalised in April 2019. Then, last year, in August, the minister promised he would revitalise the Perth City Deal, ignoring the fact it was four months late. On 28 October Minister Tudge said he was 'at the beginning of the process'—for something that was supposed to have been finished six months earlier. In March this year, WA Liberal senator Dean Smith said, in The West Australian, that he was optimistic the Perth City Deal would soon be finalised. What was the truth? We found out on 13 May. The government announced it was putting on hold the Perth City Deal. You can't just put Western Australia on hold. No wonder people question this government's commitment to JobKeeper, when the Perth City Deal is more than a year late. I ask again: where is the Perth City Deal—or, to put it in language the Prime Minister might understand, where the bloody hell are you?

This government's approach to Western Australia costs jobs. If the city deal had been finalised on time, there would be projects happening right now, creating Western Australian jobs. Instead, this government chose to take the slow, lazy option. There's a pattern of underinvestment in Western Australia. Not one project of the National Faster Rail Agency is focused on Western Australia. There is huge underinvestment when it comes to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and Western Australia. But, of course, the government have shown us where their priorities do lie. Queensland has a city deal in Townsville; Victoria has one in Geelong; Tasmania has two, in Hobart and Launceston; South Australia has one in Adelaide; the Northern Territory has one in Darwin; and New South Wales has one in Western Sydney. What's missing from that list? Perth, Western Australia.

Maybe the government have just run out of ideas, maybe they've run out of energy, or—it hurts me to say it—maybe they just don't care about investing in Western Australian jobs. This government has broken its promise on the Perth City Deal. Broken promises are the only reliable thing that Western Australians can be assured of from this government. It promised that JobKeeper would run until September. But of course that's not if you're an early childhood educator. No, you get cut off in July. Now—same deal—the government have no support for social housing in their building industry stimulus plan. They never deliver, and it's always average Australians, and Western Australians, who suffer the consequences.