TIM HAMMOND MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR RESOURCES FEDERAL MEMBER FOR PERTH
SENATOR SUE LINES
DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND TEMPORARY CHAIR OF COMMITTEES LABOR SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
SENATOR PAT DODSON
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS AND ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS LABOR SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
SENATOR LOUISE PRATT
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES LABOR SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
SENATOR GLENN STERLE
LABOR SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA
MATT KEOGH MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BURT
ANNE ALY MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR COWAN
MADELEINE KING MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BRAND
JOSH WILSON MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR FREMANTLE
The 2017 Budget has confirmed the Turnbull Government’s utter contempt for every Western Australian, with not a single new dollar for any of the state’s infrastructure projects.
In a budget that claims to offer $70 billion for roads, rail, ports and airports across the country, and when WA’s GST share is at an all-time low, the Turnbull Government has not been able to find a single extra dollar for Western Australian projects.
Worse, Scott Morrison and Matthias Cormann have tried to re-badge the existing $1.2 billion Perth Freight Link funding – now being reallocated to Metronet and other projects – as somehow representing a win for WA. No new money is a very strange definition of a ‘win’.
Meanwhile the Government has committed billions of dollars to rail, and airport infrastructure projects in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
At a time when WA is in the grip of a severe downturn, the Budget shows no reduction in unemployment in the next 12 months, and miniscule job growth after that. This only rubs salt into the wounds.
The only response from the Liberals is to task the Productivity Commission with examining the Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation system to push their WA GST rip off into the long grass.
With one hand the Liberals offer a measly one-off GST top up payment of $226 million, and with the other they cut over $500 million in Education and Health funding.
It highlights, yet again, how useless our state’s Federal Liberal MPs and Senators are, and how not one of them is ever prepared to stand up for Western Australia and put the needs of their state ahead of their Liberal mates in the eastern states.
This Budget adds insult to that injury, hitting Western Australians with higher taxes and cuts to schools, TAFE and universities, but offers them nothing in return.
As far as WA is concerned, this Budget is a con job. It is an insult to all Western Australians, and we will fight against it.
