Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On his most recent trip to Western Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese kept highlighting how many times he's been to WA, my home state. He said: 'You need to be here in Western Australia. People who are living in the Sydney-Melbourne-Canberra triangle don't get WA.' If there's one thing I do agree with the Prime Minister on, it is that point.

Could it be true? Could the Prime Minister finally be taking Western Australia seriously and not just using us for our votes? On the one hand, the Prime Minister emphasises the importance of being on the ground and hearing the concerns of Western Australian locals, yet on the other hand he has turned his back on WA farmers by ending live sheep exports. And now the Prime Minister has announced he will be returning to Western Australia with his cabinet 'to really listen'. He is returning with a cabinet that only has one minister from Western Australia—WA's lowest representation in 50 years. The Prime Minister wants to bring over his east-coast-heavy cabinet to do more listening. It seems the only thing this government does is listen and then do the exact opposite of what Western Australians are actually asking for.

Under the previous Liberal government, not only did we listen but we actually did something. Western Australia got a fair cut of the GST and we had the highest WA cabinet representation since 1908. The coalition gets Western Australia and we have a strong record of that. Western Australians will push back on this government with their vote at the next election, have no doubt about it.