Published in The West Australian, Wednesday 24 February 2021
Give me strength.
When I read the headline on an opinion piece by Labor MP Patrick Gorman in last Wednesday’s edition of The West Australian claiming “ALP stands for stronger WA”, I nearly fell off my chair.
And I am not going to let it slide.
Like Patrick Gorman, the West Australian MPs in the Morrison Government know that WA is the engine room of the Australian economy.
But what Mr Gorman blatantly fails to acknowledge is that it has been the Federal Government’s assistance to WA that has ensured the State’s economy has been able to continue firing on all cylinders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tourism and hospitality businesses, particularly in my Durack electorate in the State’s north-west, were brought to their knees by border closures and other restrictions on travel, and many remain on their knees.
Few sectors in the economy were hit harder, yet it was our Government’s JobKeeper that kept them afloat.
That story is repeated across the State. No program has ever provided this level of support – indeed, at $90 billion it is the most expensive support program in Australia’s history – and about 250,000 West Australians have now graduated off JobKeeper since September.
That is a fall in the number of West Australians requiring JobKeeper payments of about 70 per cent – an extraordinary result and clear sign of our economic recovery.
It is strong evidence of how successful we have been in providing those WA workers and about 520,000 businesses that have graduated off JobKeeper across the country with a level of support that has enabled them to ride out the COVID-19 storm.
Overall, the Morrison Government has injected more than $13.4 billion in direct economic support to thousands of households and businesses in WA, with more to come. This includes $7 billion in JobKeeper and $3.4 billion in cash flow boost payments.
This is on top of the significant indirect support provided through tax cuts, business investment incentives and JobMaker Hiring Credit.
Make no mistake – the Morrison Government has the backs of West Australians more than ever, and no one can deny that we have done all of the heavy lifting to aid the State’s economic recovery.
We were the ones who fixed the GST distribution to make sure WA got its fair share. Because of us the State will not receive less than 70c for every $1 it raises in GST revenue.
That GST revenue has helped Mark McGowan achieve his $3.1 billion Budget surplus.
It would be wonderful if more of that surplus could be spent in our north-west, where people I speak to feel they have been deserted by the McGowan Government and are an irrelevance to Federal Labor.
In my Defence Industry portfolio, Austal has the contract to build 21 Pacific Patrol Boats, BAE is conducting a major upgrade of our eight Anzac-class frigates, and Luerssen is already building the first two of 10 Offshore Patrol Vessels to be built in WA in Civmec’s giant new shed.
This is all happening here at Henderson, south of Perth. Not surprisingly, this shipbuilding hub is a hive of activity given these projects form such a critical part of our $183 billion Naval Shipbuilding Plan.
I was at Henderson late last month to get a first-hand look at progress on the OPVs and spoke to some of the many hundreds of workers who will work on this project over the journey.
It is our Government’s multi-billion dollar investments that have created these opportunities for those workers to participate in our growing defence industry.
Then there are roads and infrastructure, towards which we continue to deliver billions of dollars and in turn, sustain thousands of jobs.
Since coming to office in 2013, we have committed about $900 million per year for infrastructure projects in WA.
Contrast that with the previous Labor government, which had an average investment of less than $500 million per year during its time in power.
Our significant outlay is a crucial part of the Government’s strategy to bust congestion, better connect our regions, improve safety on our roads and meet our national freight challenge.
Among the many billions of dollars going towards road projects, we’ve committed $929 million towards Tonkin Highway upgrades, which started in last November and are expected to be completed in mid-2024.
In the south-west, in the electorate of my close friend and colleague, Nola Marino, about $681.6 million is securing the Bunbury Outer Ring Road (stages 2 and 3), a project that started construction last month and is expected to be finished in early 2024.
And in my electorate, close to $304 million is ensuring an upgrade to the Karratha to Tom Price Corridor (Manuwarra Red Dog Highway), which started in October 2019 and is expected to be completed in mid-2023.
Then there is METRONET, the game-changing project for Perth’s public transport network for which we have provided the lion’s share of funding – a whopping $2.33 billion.
Make no mistake – Prime Minister Scott Morrison could not be more alert to the fact that WA is critical to our nation’s prosperity.
He knows, like all of the WA Liberal MPs and Senators, that the most important thing we can do right now is deliver the COVID-19 vaccine and continue to work harder than ever to cement our economic recovery by creating jobs – and more jobs.