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

I see my job in this place as being taking my community's local values, coming here and delivering national results for them. That's why over recent months I've been hosting 'Parliament in the Park' events in Joondanna, Yokine, Tuart Hill, Mount Hawthorn, Bedford, Embleton and Menora, getting out, listening to the community and hearing what they want from me. In addition, I've been doing community doorknocks with some wonderful volunteers across Bayswater, Osborne Park, East Perth, Morley, Highgate, Coolbinia, Dianella, North Perth, Maylands and Inglewood. That is why I'm so confident that Labor's budget and the big package that we delivered for the electorate of Perth on 1 July was the right plan not just for Perth but for Australia.

In Perth some 96,000 taxpayers got a tax cut of, on average, $1,791 each. To put that in WA terms, that's 16.5 tonnes worth of iron ore for taxpayers in Western Australia. And 76,000 taxpayers in Perth are getting a bigger tax cut because of decisions that we made this year. That's enough people to fill HBF Park in Highgate three times.

I'm really pleased that we're working with the Cook Labor government to provide $700 in energy bill relief to help every household in Perth and also help a range of small businesses. We have also done our job of freezing PBS prescription costs, making sure that people have certainty in how much their medication is going to cost them. Western Australians across WA saved $36 million as a result. That is enough to get you into Bayswater Waves four million times, or once every day for 12,000 years.

I'm going to move now from the budget works to some other important books. The Perth electorate is home to a wonderful bookstore, a great small business: Beaufort Street Books. Beaufort Street Books has been serving the community for years and years. It is a beloved business of Jane Seaton, an excellent member of the Perth community. Beaufort Street Books is moving 50 metres up the road, along Beaufort Street. They will still be Beaufort Street Books, but they're going to a new home. As a result, the community is coming together on 20 July to help with that move. I'm calling on my community in Perth to help with the community conveyor belt. The community conveyor belt has to move 12,000 books, handing them one at a time down the road to make sure that this beloved small business can get to its new home. I will be there passing some books along and I also encourage anyone in the Perth electorate to come along and help this business that's helped people of all ages, especially children, find a love of reading. There'll be a community sausage sizzle afterwards. I look forward to seeing people there.