Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to make a contribution today while I have time before question time. We are well aware of some of the political stench coming out of New South Wales. I have been on the record more than once saying that, if politicians have been found guilty of any corrupt behaviour, the so-and-sos should be chucked in jail and the key should be thrown away. I make no mistake about that. I do not care if they are from my side of politics, being Labor, or from the other side, being Liberal. If the Liberals were playing cricket, once you had 10 out you would change batting. The Liberals have got 10 so far, not to mention a Premier as well. We are also missing an Assistant Treasurer at this stage, but we will see where that takes us.

I want to talk about the great state of Western Australia because there is a bit of a political pong coming from that side of the continent. Under the leadership of the Premier Colin Barnett, a few of his Liberal-National ministers have got themselves in a little bit of a pickle and, quite rightfully, the public should know what has led to this pickle.

I will talk about not only the Premier and the Liberal-National government in Western Australia losing our AAA credit rating but also a number of high-profile classic stuff-ups, if I can use that terminology. The $300 million wasted on a failed recommission of the Muja Power Station is just one of them, but there have been numerous broken promises from the last election that led to cuts in education and health and, sadly, cuts to infrastructure. At the time of the March 2013 state election, the Premier was gallivanting around the state of Western Australia, bragging about all these wonderful infrastructure projects he would build if he was elected, but he failed to point out the small print—that they would only happen as long as a Liberal government would fund them federally. Of course, we know what happened there: it did not. Some of these projects include the airport light rail being delayed by two years, and, of course, the MAX light rail is unfunded, unstarted and unlikely to be completed anywhere near 2018.

I want to talk about a certain building development in the north-west town of Karratha. This is no surprise to the West Aussies because it has been reported through the Western Australian media. It has escaped the attention so far of the federal media, to the best of my knowledge. Thirty million dollars of taxpayers' funds has been poured into a commercial property development that has become no less than a white elephant in Karratha. I actually feel sorry for the current minister, Minister Redman, because he has taken over the portfolio of Regional Development, which he inherited from the previous, National minister, Mr Brendan Grylls. There was $30 million of taxpayers' money poured into this building and part of the deal was to provide housing, but it has been such a white elephant that a heap of these units are left over. It was reported in yesterday's West Australian that Minister Redman, to save some face, is desperately trying to push Chevron into purchasing some of these units. Chevron have turned around and said, 'No, thank you'—I do not know the exact words, but I assume that they have woken up to the fact that they do not want to be caught up in any of this overpriced housing that the government thought was a good idea to buy at the time.

It is only my opinion—it is not the opinion of my party—but I believe this white elephant was funded by taxpayers' money so that Mr Grylls and Mr Barnett could shore up Mr Grylls's transfer from the electorate of Central Wheatbelt, I think, out near Merredin. I am not sure of the name of the seat, sorry, but he wanted to move to the seat of—what is that seat?