19.3.14 MPI: Commission of Audit Report

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (16:10): It is a privilege to follow the member for Canberra, because I think she eloquently summed up everything that is wrong with the Labor Party in relation to Western Australia. The fact that in the last half an hour we have had about 25 minutes of discussion about the ABC tells me that they do not understand Western Australians and the reason why there are only three Labor members in this place and only one Labor member elected at the last Senate election. The member for Brand in particular made an eloquent case when he made fun of the Liberal-National coalition drawing box R—the box we have drawn for the ballot coming up at the next election. I can inform the House he did miss something which I think is important and relevant to this discussion. The Labor Party have also drawn a box on the ballot for this election and they have drawn box F. It does sum up a lot of things about the Labor Party's approach to Western Australia. Box F is quite appropriate. The only danger for Labor at this election will be if voters give them a score on their performance. That will be the only danger at this election.

The member for Brand talked about Rs, but we can talk about Fs. Let us talk about some of the failures of the previous government. The Labor Party committed $482 million to two road projects, but of course failed to provide the money from the mining tax. Fail. On GP superclinics, F for fail there. I think that is an F-plus. The GP superclinics policy from the last Labor government—

Mr Simpkins: F-minus.

Mr HAWKE: Yes, an F-minus—I have been corrected by my Western Australian colleagues. And there have been the border protection failures by those opposite which impacted so many of the communities in Western Australia in particular. This government has corrected that.

It is ironic, as the member for Swan eloquently pointed out, that the member for Brand can come into this place as a Western Australian member and tell us that his concern is with this government not keeping its promises. The member for Brand was right about one thing: we do have a program of cuts. That is very true. He said we have a program of cuts but that we cannot quantify them. We can quantify those cuts and we can identify what they mean. We are going to cut the carbon tax. We are going to cut the mining tax. We are going to cut red tape and regulation. These are quantifiable cuts and they will save Western Australia hundreds of millions of dollars in productivity, time spent working for the government, carbon tax payments and flawed mining tax payments. That will result in greater productivity and boost investment and growth in our key state.

It is funny that the Labor Party stump-up the member for Canberra to talk about public servant job losses in Canberra and somehow that is relevant to people in Western Australia. It is also funny that they stump-up a Tasmanian—a state that is basically subsidised by the hard work and productivity of Western Australia—to come in here and complain about Western Australia and our approach to Western Australia.

The coalition government have a plan for Western Australia—that is, to take the shackles off that Labor was so intent on putting on. In fact, it would not be unfair to characterise the last Labor administration as perhaps the most unfair to WA in the history of the Commonwealth. Most of the measures that it took, whether it be the carbon tax or the mining tax, triply impacted on Western Australia. They have impacted so much that voters were not fooled by the last government. That is why they only elected one Labor senator at the last election. If only the members opposite would get a signal from that. One senator is an awfully low proportion of the vote in Western Australia.

Mr Simpkins: That is an F-minus.

Mr HAWKE: Yes, that is an F-minus from the voters at the last election. There are reasons why people did not vote Labor at the last election. It was because of the Labor-Greens alliance, which resulted in the world's highest carbon tax, punishing Western Australians in particular. It was because of the unusual superprofits tax and then the mining resource rent tax that were personally negotiated by a Labor Prime Minister and a Labor Treasurer. That was a personal package from the Labor Party for Western Australia, designed by a Labor Prime Minister and a Labor Treasurer. It was personally negotiated by them for the state of Western Australia. No wonder Western Australians have emphatically rejected the Labor Party at the last few elections. No wonder we stand here today in this debate hearing from Western Australian members like the member for Moore, who is also about to explain why Western Australians do not want a return to Labor government.

There is a way that voters can help at this coming election, and that is to vote box R. Do not, as much as you want to, give the Labor Party an F. We all understand that instinct, but box R is the way to give the Labor Party an F.