Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

or LINES (—) (): How timely that is! I'm speaking today on the criticisms from the Morrison government against Western Australia's hard border, and we just heard Senator Hughes have a go at Western Australia. We've had the Prime Minister having a go at Western Australia and the Deputy Prime Minister having a go at Western Australia, and yet in this place not one Western Australian senator or MP from the Liberals or Nationals has stood up for Western Australia. You would think that they don't really care about Western Australia, and that's pretty evident—they call us cavepeople, liken us to the Croods, and declare—as Mr Joyce did—that Western Australia is similar to North Korea. How insulting is that! We've had an excellent state Labor government that has looked after Western Australia, and life in Western Australia is going pretty well, thank you very much. We've not had COVID cases, we've got an economy that is going gangbusters—in fact, the GST it's generating for the rest of the country should really be appreciated—yet all we've heard from those over there is denigration of Western Australians.

Where are the Liberal and National Western Australian representatives in this place? They are not sticking up for Western Australians. In fact, we've had Mr Porter, who we think is going to resign in the next sitting period, try to pretend to Western Australians that he wasn't backing in Clive Palmer's bid to challenge our closed borders. Then we had Senator Cash goad people, suggesting another challenge would be on the cards and would likely succeed. Again, this is a Western Australian senator who is not on the side of Western Australians. Vote them out, I say!