On behalf of the WA Liberal Party and fellow Liberals across my great state of Western Australia, thank-you for the opportunity to be here today at the 80th Federal Council of the Liberal Party of Australia.
It’s no secret that in 2021, the Western Australian State Liberal Party suffered one of its worst election results in history.
As a team, we expected the popularity politics around the handling of COVID would impact the result.
However, the final outcome was undeniably a shock for both the party faithful and Western Australians across the political landscape.
Reduced to just two lower house seats in the election landslide, many commentators believed this would mark the end of the Liberal Party in the west … with a seemingly impossible road back.
However, three years on, I’m incredibly proud to say that it hasn’t been the end for the WA Liberal Party.
Far from it.
For what the doomsayers did not take in to account with their dire predictions, was the strength and belief in the values that underpin the foundation of the Liberal Party and its members.
As Liberals, it is in our DNA to strive to be better and do better – for our families and our communities.
We believe in the great human freedoms; to think, to speak, to choose… to be ambitious.
We believe that there is no task which Australia cannot perform and no difficulty which cannot be overcome.
So while the last three years have been challenging, it has not been our final chapter.
Instead, it’s been a pivotal turning point.
We’ve used this time as an opportunity for reinvigoration and renewal.
We have not been afraid to take an honest look at itself, make the hard decisions and undertake the necessary reforms to ensure we are listening to the people of WA…
To ensure we are representative and are true to our core Liberal values.
We have come a long way since 2021 and I am excited and humbled by the motivation and commitment of the high-quality candidates that have put their hand up to represent our party in next year’s election.
While our path to government will not be easy, we are absolutely united in our drive to offer Western Australians a better government than what they are stuck with now.
Indeed, it is the hardships and challenges that Western Australians face every day under a Labor government that fuels my determination to ensure the Liberal Party is once again behind the steering wheel driving our state.
A State that, despite its prosperity and enormous opportunities, is still failing to get the basics right in health, law and order and housing.
Labor has its priorities wrong and the people of Western Australia are paying the price.
Nowhere is this more evident than the state of our health system.
It is unconscionable that in a State that has been gifted such wealth as a result of a mining boom, that our hospitals have the worst performing emergency departments in the country…
..That ambulance ramping is at record levels … and our health workers have gone from being the highest paid in the country to the lowest.
The neglect is having tragic consequences.
One case that shone a spotlight on how far the health system had deteriorated under Labor was the death of a Perth girl called Aishwarya in 2021.
The seven year old died in the Perth Children’s Hospital emergency department after waiting two hours to be seen…her parent’s pleas for help were ignored until it was too late.
The death of a child is heartbreaking for any parent but compounding their trauma, has been the response from the Labor Government.
They didn’t want to know.
Aishwarya’s parents resorted to a hunger strike outside the hospital just to get the government to investigate, to take their pleas for answers seriously.
The media interest sparked a number of investigations, reports and recommendations ..followed by promises of doing better and implementing change.
Incredulously, three years on, some of those key recommendations around better staffing emergency departments have still not been implemented.
The health system is still sick and last month, another Western Australian family lost their child to a health system that is under resourced and under pressure.
Again, the parents took their sick toddler to the hospital urgently asking for help and again their pleas were ignored until it was too late.
After 7-years of WA Labor, and 3-years since the tragic death of Aishwarya, it seems no lessons have been learnt.
Our hospitals are no better…the health system is still in crisis.
Under WA Labor, the elective surgery waitlist has blown out..
Ambulances remain ramped at record rates…last month alone they spent 5000 hours outside WA hospitals – nine times longer than when this government took office.
Increasingly, patients are being treated in hospital corridors because we don’t have enough beds.
Labor has also decided NOT to build the new Women and Babies Hospital at a site next to Perth Children’s Hospital and an adult tertiary hospital, ignoring international best practice.
Instead, they plan to build it 20 kilometres away – putting babies lives at risk for decades to come – and making us the only State in the nation NOT to have a tri-located world-class system.
It’s lunacy.
I have already committed to ripping up any contract for this ill-fated plan and ensuring the hospital will be tri-located to enable the best health outcomes for women and their babies.
We are also committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of WA’s children is at the forefront of our approach to health.
A WA Liberal Government will ban the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments and surgical intervention for children under the age of 16 for the purpose of gender transition.
Many countries around the world have already implemented such bans in the face of growing evidence they cause long-term irreversible harm. Our children’s safety should not be compromised.
Frustratingly, these issues of underfunding, mismanagement and incompetence in WA are not limited to our health system.
In every area - crime, housing, state development, family and domestic violence - the Cook Labor Government is failing at the basics.
They’ve comprehensively dropped the ball on law and order – with WA now the worst state in the nation for violent crime with record number of police officers leaving the force.
It’s inexcusable and I have made no secret of my plan to be unashamedly tough on crime.
Starting with repeat offenders…under a government I lead, bail and parole laws will be tightened to ensure repeat violent criminals see out the entirety of their prison sentence.
Last year, I also announced a plan to increase the number of GPS tracking devices on repeat family and domestic violence offenders…something Labor has now replicated.
In State Development, we will do what Liberal governments do best…
Encourage, support and enable investment to unlock jobs and long-term growth.
In Western Australia alone, there are $318 billion worth of projects being held up by overly complicated and burdensome green tape.
Labor is paralysed by an ideology fundamentally at odds with supporting our resources industry.
Its delays are killing jobs and killing investment.
Our recent policy announcement highlighted how we will streamline our environmental approvals processes and end duplication with our federal counterparts.
We will also stop funding the Environmental Defenders Office – whose main aim seems to be tearing down the projects fueling our nation’s economy - the most ludicrous waste of taxpayers’ money.
Further to this, we will lift the ban on uranium mining in Western Australia.
Embracing uranium mining in Western Australia not only aligns with our commitment to a sustainable and low-carbon future but helps other countries meet their global emissions target.
It will also compliment the Federal Liberal Party’s goal of including nuclear power in Australia’s energy mix.
WA is undoubtedly a lucky state.
But it’s also one that has made its own luck on the back of former Liberal leaders who had the foresight, vision and courage to unlock and develop our key economic opportunities.
It was Sir David Brand that lobbied the Federal Government to lift the ban on iron ore exports.
It was Sir Charles Court who built the foundations for WA’s LNG industry and Richard Court who opened LNG exports to China.
Every Western Australian should be enjoying the benefits of our great wealth and prosperity delivered by former Liberal leaders.
But the reality is they are not.
Labor is failing the basics.
A Liberal government I lead, will focus on the right priorities.
A Liberal government I lead will ensure Western Australians have access to the best healthcare system in the country again… will no longer be afraid to go out on the streets at night and can take advantage of the abundance of opportunities our State offers.
That is what the Liberal party has always stood for and is the very least Western Australians deserve.
It’s what a government I lead will deliver.
Thank you.
