Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make some comments on the outcome of the Western Australian state election of 11 March in which the Labor Party convincingly won that election. I want to go back to 2008, when I was a candidate myself in the then state election 8½ years ago, and reflect on the reason why the Liberal Party, together with the National Party, ultimately won that election. The question asked by us was: 'What had Labor done in government in the last number of years?' The answer was: 'Nobody could answer the question.' And that is why we swept to victory. The corollary to that was the then Treasurer, Mr Ripper, very proudly said that he did not leave much of a deficit or debt. That was because he did not do anything. One of the highlights is the fact that the only active minister at that time, Minister Alannah MacTiernan, is now back in the Western Australian cabinet, so we can hopefully expect that at least one of the previously failed ministers might be able to achieve something, because then Ms MacTiernan from the other place, now Minister MacTiernan, was indeed a very effective minister.

What I also want to reflect on is that Mr Colin Barnett had made the decision in 2008, after a stellar career in politics in Western Australia, to retire. History records that he delayed that decision, and for the next 8½ years he led a very, very successful government in the state of Western Australia. What is not understood is that in those 8½ years more than the population equivalent of Tasmania, more than 500,000 people, came into Western Australia. Barnett was an outstanding premier. He was a decision maker. Yes, it is the case that debt was run up during that time. As you would know, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle, you were on polling booths as I was, the interesting point in that election was that everyone came to associate debt with toxic debt—the Gillard memorial halls, the $900 cheques of Mr Rudd and, regrettably, the pink batts. Everyone was associating debt with bad debt. What did Barnett do in his time as premier? He created assets for the state of Western Australia. When somebody said to me, 'There's too much debt,' I said: 'Which of the hospitals didn't you want built or refurbished in the country and in the city? Which of the road systems didn't you want built? Which of the schools didn't you want built? Which of the other infrastructure projects for which that state has now been set up so well didn't you want?' There is the underground railway. It has taken 100 years for someone to do it. There is the Elizabeth Quay development. I said to somebody the other day that in terms of assets versus liabilities Barnett spent $400 million to bring the river back up to the city, but he has already made $390 million of the $400 million back in land sales. That is what debt is when it is creates assets. Regrettably, of course, the people of Western Australia saw the fact that debt had been built up. They failed to acknowledge that it was debt on the construction of assets.

Barnett was my minister when I was running a government trading enterprise in the early 1990s. He did not tolerate fools, which is probably the reason why he and I got on so well. I wish him well in whatever role he now takes. If it is back in Toodyay, with his sheep, I will once again be wanting to know the names of the sheep, as I have asked him so often.

I also now want to draw attention to what I believe was the other factor related to the Liberal Party losing the election, and that is Western Australia's share of GST. It is a factor. When I came into this parliament in 2009, we were getting 88c back in every dollar that Western Australia contributed. The 88c went down to 78c, 68c, 55c, 45c and 38c in the dollar, and eventually it got to 30c in the dollar. What did that cost the people of Western Australia? We lost $4.2 billion in GST this year that should have come to WA. Our deficit was $3.9 billion. Remember: $4.2 billion should have come back in and $3.9 billion was the deficit. Put one against the other and there should be a $300 million surplus. What does that relate to? As Judith Sloan eloquently said the other day—and you and I know this, Mr Acting Deputy President Sterle, as indeed would the Deputy President, who is in the chamber—for every dollar that Western Australia contributes at the moment we get 30c back. That means every man, woman and child in WA hands over $1,736 to the other states and territories. Let's turn that around, Senator Farrell, through you, Mr Acting Deputy President. Every South Australian—man, woman and child—gets $1,052 bonus. Every Tasmanian, to Senator Urquhart, gets $1,950. Remember: Western Australians are paying $1,700. Every Northern Territorian gets $10,734. And not to be left out, Senator Seselja, here in the Australian Capital Territory, with the highest incomes and the lowest unemployment in the nation, every ACT resident gets $400 from the largesse of the Western Australian economy and community.

I congratulate Mr Ben Wyatt, who is the new Treasurer. I know that I am going to step on a few toes here, but at least it is a view that I have, and I share it, and that is that Mr Wyatt is not beholden to the union movement. I make the point—quite fairly, I believe—that so many of the ministers in the new government are themselves from the union movement. You know as well as I do, Mr Acting Deputy President, those have come calling since Mr McGowan has been made the Premier. It is interesting that in my first speech, on St Patrick's Day in 2009, I made comment of Mr Ben Wyatt because he was the shadow Treasurer and a fellow Old Aquinian. At that time, all of the other treasurers of Australia had gotten together around COAG and had excluded the Western Australian Treasurer. It was then that shadow Treasurer Ben Wyatt shared the state Treasurer's disappointment, ' particularly in light of the fact that many of the other states have been enjoying the benefits of Western Australia's largesse'. The now-Treasurer Ben Wyatt went on to say:

The States can't successfully come to a common position in negotiations with the Commonwealth when they ignore the State with the fastest economic growth …

So I do congratulate Ben Wyatt. He and his relation Ken Wyatt are making a great contribution to state and federal politics in this country.

I make the observation about the sham bid by Mr Stephen Smith at about this time last year, on 14 March 2016. We were asked to believe the elder statesmen John Halden, a friend of mine; Chris Evans, a previous leader of the government here in this place; and Stephen Smith, a past foreign minister apparently decided to confect an opposition to leader McGowan. Anybody who believed that must have believed in the Easter bunny that came along the next Friday. As if three elder statesmen of the Labor Party in WA would stand up and genuinely want to oppose the leader. We all know why they did it: Mark McGowan at the time was seen as being weak and ineffectual, and the only way to make him into a leader was to seem to oppose him. And they did—I will say that—and it was a successful exercise. Stephen Smith, despite every hard effort, was thrust to one side by the Labor caucus, leaving Mr McGowan unopposed as the leader of the future.

It is absolutely critically important in my view to reflect on the continuing importance of the Western Australian economy to the national economy. Yes, it is the case that the construction phases of the major projects have come to a close or are winding down. That is the case. Gorgon is two-thirds complete. Wheatstone will soon go to their first production of LNG. Roy Hill, the big iron ore mine of the Rinehart Group, is now complete. We know of the excellence of the big construction projects.

It is the case that royalty income to the state of Western Australia did decline and because we have this lag in the grants commission process we found a circumstance in which Western Australia's share of GST declined. When it was established by Costello, Howard and the premiers and chief ministers of the time, nobody believed that one state would get back 30 cents out of every dollar, and that matter has got to be addressed. Whether it is through resources sharing or whether it is through a formula that says the states and territories should be held to account for the capacity to earn revenue and to contain expenditure and to be rewarded or penalised against that, something has got to happen to the grants commission process.

Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I cannot let those comments by Senator Back go unchallenged. I just want to reflect on what happened in Western Australia two weeks ago at the state elections. We saw the Liberal Party and its coalition partner, the National Party, completely wiped out. Why? Because the Liberal Party there, like the Liberal Party here, had become completely arrogant and out of touch with the aspirations and the wishes of ordinary Western Australian voters.

I can absolutely say that the Liberal Party and the National Party were wiped out because in the 59-seat Western Australian parliament the Labor Party now holds 41 seats. I was quite gobsmacked to hear Senator Back stand there and go on and on about how wonderful Colin Barnett was and what a great leader he was. If he was the leader Senator Back has just outlined, surely he would still be in government because he would be popular. Again, it shows the Liberal Party had an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and to listen to voters or to carry on with complete arrogance in the way they did in Western Australia and in the way we see the Turnbull government doing here in this parliament. Labor did not win 41 seats out of a 59-seat parliament because the previous government was so popular and had done such a terrific job.

I was pleased to finally hear a Western Australian senator—indeed, a Western Australian Liberal member—concede that Mr Barnett ran up the debt. Western Australia has a very shameful debt—a massive debt into the billions of dollars. That is because Mr Barnett simply could not manage the expenditure, despite him getting carriage of a public hospital Labor had planned when we were in government, the Fiona Stanley Hospital. It was paid for with public funds and it was a plan to produce a first-class hospital. What did we see with Fiona Stanley Hospital? We saw mistake after mistake and budget overrun after budget overrun to the tune of millions of dollars. That hospital's opening was delayed by more than a year—almost two years—because of the mismanagement by the Barnett government.

Then we saw the children's hospital. The Australian Medical Association is hardly a friend of Labor governments, but it turned on the Barnett government like no other because instead of building a state-of-the-art children's hospital the government has built a hospital that is already too small before it has even opened. That hospital has not opened and we have had scandal after scandal about the Barnett government and indeed the health minister. What did we see? Let's not forget: six of the Barnett ministers lost their seats. When ministers lose their seats I think that tells very clearly that voters in Western Australia had had enough.

Minister Day, the health minister—again, incredibly arrogant and out of touch with what Western Australians were saying—was responsible for what could only be described as the debacle of the children's hospital, which is still not opened and is plagued with problems. The major contractor was in an open fight with the Barnett government and that is a mess that the Labor government, through the Premier, Mr McGowan, have now inherited. We had cheap asbestos, imported from China, brought onto that site. And guess what? The union actually identified the problem—the union that Senator Back and others on the government side like to malign so much. Only the union stood up when asbestos was found on that site—and it now needs to be rectified by the major contractor to make that hospital safe.

The Australian Medical Association is saying that the brand new children's hospital—which is yet to be opened, is way behind schedule and has a massive cost overrun—is too small. The current children's hospital, which the Barnett government has not spent any money on, continues to be used because of the cost overruns, the poor work that has been carried out on the new children's hospital and the asbestos that has been found on the site—which has to be rectified. In the latest scandal, lead has been found in the water at that hospital—and it also has substandard glass. Minister Day, who lost his seat at the election, is trying to wash his hands of the matter and say it had nothing to do with him. Of course the buck stops with the minister!

The failed projects do not stop there. We have this flash new football stadium just down the road from where I live. Not only was the Premier in an open war with the Eagles about the negotiations for them to use the oval—we are going from bad to worse—but the same faulty glass that was found at the children's hospital was also found at the stadium. Once again, there will be cost overruns. We have a fancy pedestrian bridge across the Swan River—which goes to nowhere—to try and reduce the traffic that will be created by the stadium. With Western Australia now having the highest rate of unemployment in Australia—and that is the legacy of the Barnett Liberal government—you would think they would have manufactured the steel for the footbridge in Western Australia. But they did not. They imported it from Malaysia. And we have just found out that that steel is now delayed. No doubt, when it arrives it will not measure up—like the asbestos we found in the children's hospital, the lead we found in the water in the children's hospital, the faulty glass we found in the children's hospital and the faulty glass we found in the stadium. The steel that is being manufactured in Malaysia—and not giving unemployed Western Australians the opportunity to work on that footbridge—has been delayed.

The Liberals could learn a lesson, look a little bit humble and actually try and work out what went wrong for them in Western Australia. But no. Judging by the comments that we have heard in here today from Senator Back, we are going to continue to praise Colin Barnett and say what a wonderful leader he was. If he was so wonderful, he would not have had the tsunami of an election result that we saw in Western Australia.

We now have a new Premier, a fresh approach and plans to create employment in Western Australia with a great new team. We won more than 20 seats. We now have 41 of the 59 seats in the parliament. And I am pleased to say WA Labor has set yet another record—for the number of women. Those on the other side could start to look at how we do that as well. Many of the new MPs are women and we have now set a new record for the number of women in the Western Australian parliament. The Labor women outrank the Liberal women two to one. Shame on them! And we hear all the excuses in the world. 'We want to pick women on merit.' And I have heard Liberals say young women are not attracted to politics.

Well, let me tell you some stories. Amber Jade Sanderson, the new member for Morley is a young woman with young children. She has a son who is about 14 months old. That has not stopped her. Jessica Stojkovski, the new member for Kingsley, has children the same age as Amber's. Having young children has not stopped her. Lisa O'Malley, the new member for Bicton, is another young mum with primary school aged children. I think her youngest is about seven. Having young children did not stop her. Emily Hamilton, the new member for Joondalup is another young woman with young children. Cassie Rowe, the new member for Belmont has two young children under the age of four. Obviously that did not stop her. Rita Saffioti, a re-elected member, has three young children. So it is high time the Liberals started to look at putting women forward. We have 15 MLAs and seven MLCs. (Time expired)