Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

'Hear, hear,' indeed! The genesis of the Liberal Party success on 9 March lay in the strong performance in government by Colin Barnett and his team over the previous 4½ years. It is worth remembering that, until the election in March, Western Australia also had a hung parliament as a result of the 2008 state election. Colin Barnett was able to form a minority government with the support of the WA Nationals and Independents. However, unlike the disastrous and incompetent minority government that Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd presided over, Colin Barnett and his team were a stable, competent government that focused on things that actually mattered to Western Australians.

The Liberal Party's campaign centred on the theme of 'Making decisions, getting things done and securing Western Australia's future.' This theme was successful on polling day because the people of Western Australia understood, correctly, that it was only the Liberals who would be able to stand up for their state. It is worth reflecting on what the West Australian newspaper said on the Friday before election day:

Mr Barnett has demonstrated a capacity to make decisions and follow them through. Not all those decisions have been universally popular … Mr Barnett and his Government took positions they believed to be in the best interests of the State and stuck with them.

He has also been a formidable advocate for WA at a Federal level. This has led to frosty relations with the Federal Labor Government, especially in Julia Gillard's time as Prime Minister. But Mr Barnett has been vociferous in putting the interest of WA first and that is what West Australians expect of their premier.

The Liberal campaign launch was attended by our now Prime Minister Tony Abbott. In contrast, Labor leader Mark McGowan ordered Julia Gillard to stay away from Western Australia until after 9 March, which tells you something about the way the former Labor government's carbon tax—a tax Labor still supports—is viewed in my home state of Western Australia.

Indeed, 2013 has been something of an annus horribilis for the Labor Party in Western Australia. Not that there is any need to feel sorry for them; they have brought it on themselves with a stubborn adherence to policies that not only are not in Western Australia's best interests but actively inflict economic damage on my home state. On 7 September, Labor achieved a historic result in Western Australia. However, it was not the kind of history they generally like to make let alone talk about. Labor's primary vote across Western Australia on 7 September was a paltry 28.7 per cent. Not even three in every 10 Western Australians voted Labor at the last federal election. You might think there is a message in that. You might think that, after such a result and being reduced to a parliamentary rump, one which may yet get smaller depending on the eventual WA Senate outcome—if you believe there will be another Senate election, and I am not so sure there will be, but that is a discussion for another time—Labor might take stock. After such a thumping, any sentient human being would pause and ask themselves why the defeat was so bad. But not, it seems, the Australian Labor Party.

After suffering two such heavy defeats, largely based on their support of the carbon tax and the mining tax, what have we found as the 44th Parliament has resumed and the coalition has introduced legislation to abolish both these taxes? We have found that the Australian Labor Party are leading the charge to keep both these job-destroying taxes which impede economic growth and have increased prices for consumers. It is a very rare form of militant stupidity that seems to have infected the members of the Australian Labor Party in this place. Let us hope their stubborn attitude does not last too long, because, as hard as the change-of-government deniers opposite try to ignore the facts, they are too overwhelming to ignore.

I would just like to share with my Senate colleagues, particularly my Labor Senate colleagues on the other side, what the West Australian had to say the day before the federal election. On 6 September the West Australian newspaper said:

Mr Rudd has waged a relentless scare campaign about Tony Abbott's suitability to be prime minister … But the Tony Abbott we have seen in this campaign reflects little of the Labor caricature of an ill-disciplined moral crusader. He has run a controlled campaign and presented as a measured, mature politician heading a stable frontbench with proved experience in government.

Senator Carol Brown interjecting—

Only history will tell us. The West Australian went on:

A clear mandate for an Abbott government is the best outcome as a circuit-breaker for the political cynicism of the past three years. Mr Abbott deserves a chance to govern and get the country back on track.

As we have just heard from the interjections, that cynicism is alive and well.