Sadly, the worst of the American-style of the politics of division is being ushered into WA by the Cook Labor Government.

I say sadly, not just because I believe politics in Australia holds itself to a much higher standard of truth and debate than the US, but because the theatre of the absurd and nasty being performed by the Cook Labor Government reduces time spent doing the real job of Parliament — improving the lives of West Australians.

Both the style and substance of the Cook Labor Government’s performance in Parliament has become coloured with a brash moral superiority that champions misguided priorities and fails to address the day-to-day concerns of West Australians.

In its worst guise this week, Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson sought to degrade as “grubby” politicking my genuine attempts to use Question Time to uncover the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of toddler Aliyah Yugovich at Perth Children’s Hospital.

On Tuesday, I asked Minister Sanderson about resourcing at PCH at the time of Aliyah’s death. At the time I had not had any contact with Aliyah’s parents. Their grief is raw, I did not want to intrude.

However, after the minister’s outburst I received an unsolicited communication from Alyiah’s mother expressing her disgust and outrage at Minister Sanderson’s response to my question.

Despite knowing of the parents’ extreme distress and upset, Minister Sanderson doubled down her attack on my questioning on Wednesday, saying I had not made it clear I “was asking questions on behalf of the family”.

My question was not on behalf of the Yugovich family but on behalf of all West Australian families in my capacity as shadow minister for health.

That is how government is supposed to work in Australia — the Opposition asks questions and holds the Government to account.

And there is much to account for in the health portfolio.

There has been a 55 per cent increase in elective surgery wait times; 10,000 children are waiting to see a paediatrician, ambulance ramping hours have blown out to more than 5000 hours a month, we have the nation’s worst-performing emergency departments, the lowest government spend per person on health and the lowest numbers of hospital beds per head of population.

But the show goes on. Next on stage for the Government was Treasurer and Minister for Transport Rita Saffioti, trying to sell her $7 billion Westport plan by calling the Opposition “so simple and so pathetic”.

What is “so simple”, is that a second container port, whose capacity will not be required for several decades, is just another in the long line of Cook Government misguided priorities that will not address the critical issues facing West Australians right now.

What is also “so simple” to understand is the minister’s frightening record on infrastructure spending.

After blowing the Metronet budget from $3b to $13b, she is asking us to trust her to build a new port in Kwinana for $7b — already a $2.5b blowout on the Government’s original costing.

If its performance with Metronet is repeated, the true cost of Westport will be more than $30b, not $7b.

Minister for Domestic Violence Sabine Winton then stood to perform. Her script did not cover the 44 per cent increase in domestic violence in WA under Labor or the highest rate of domestic violence deaths of any State in the nation or why she shelved new “game changing” evidence laws to help convict domestic violence perpetrators.

Instead, she used parliamentary time to call me “absolutely gutless” for wanting to ensure the State’s new gun laws are properly reviewed and will be the best they can be with no serious flaws.

Again, that’s how government in Australia has always worked — MPs of all stripes working together to ensure the laws we introduce are the best they can be.

This Government’s determination to use whatever issue and language it can to drive division within the community has squandered money, time and opportunity.

This paper reported this week that satisfaction with life and the sense of wellbeing in Australia is at an all-time low.

That the sense of wellbeing West Australians feel is at an all-time low when the Cook Labor Government is reaping the benefits of the biggest mining boom in the State’s history is a catastrophic failure of government policy.

West Australians need policies to improve their wellbeing, instead, the Cook Government has prioritised the agendas of the Labor Party’s far-left fringe.

The Government has prioritised laws to allow adults — and children — to simply change the sex on their birth certificate, to staunchly defend the use of puberty blockers on children, to ensure the Labor brand is protected in an election and to pass and then repeal flawed Aboriginal cultural heritage laws.

Liberals were only party that opposed the birth certificate laws, and we are committed to restoring integrity to birth certificates and banning the use of puberty blockers on children.

After eight years in office, four with total control of both houses, the Labor Government has lost touch with what matters to WA families.

We now have a Government with a moral superiority complex that recklessly believes West Australians will believe everything it says, no matter what the reality is.

They say money doesn’t buy happiness but a for a wise government it does buy hospitals, health professionals, police officers, police stations, forensic resources, affordable housing, classrooms and relief for struggling households.

The Cook Labor Government is taking West Australians for fools, and for granted.