Continuing to work for WA in 2024
Travelling at 143km/h, GM1 was the first interstate diesel locomotive in Australia. It connected Perth to Sydney and now sits proudly in the Railway Museum in Bassendean.
It was hard to describe to the kids during our summer visit just how big an impact this “Federation train” had on the economy of Western Australia.
In decades past these trains took parliamentarians to Canberra, taking the voice of the west to the east coast-based halls of power.
Today, my job is to take WA's values and turn them into national results.
My memory doesn't fade so quickly as to forget how the Morrison-Dutton government treated us. Peter Dutton has never shown any real love for the west.
Later in this column I will tell you something about his history on the GST that will make every West Australian question his leadership credentials.
I know the Australian Government is stronger when we work with and for WA.
I will never forget where I am from or the people I serve.
You can see it in the work we have done in protecting the GST deal through to 2030. You see it in WA's values in the National Reconstruction Fund, investing in the new industries that will boost our economy; and in sensible changes that started on January 1 to allow pensioners to work more hours without losing their pensions.
Anthony Albanese knows WA. As Prime Minister, he visits practically every month, he holidays here, and in February we will be bringing the entire Cabinet to Perth for the second year in a row.
Together we are turning local values into national results: strengthening Medicare with seven new urgent-care clinics in WA (seeing more than 20,000 patients in 2023); supporting 111,800 WA families with cheaper child care; and delivering new opportunities, with 19,700 West Australians benefiting from fee-free TAFE. And, it looks like, better pay and more secure jobs - including the 40,000 West Australians who work in the grain sector - especially since the resumption of barley trade to China.
Our priority for 2024 will be to continue to take pressure off WA families without adding to inflation. There will be more fee-free TAFE places and we will take big steps towards universal child care.
This year will bring further investments in climate action that deliver good-quality WA jobs.
You will see more investments in Medicare and we will ensure our kids get a healthy start in life by cracking down on vapes.
We will follow WA's home ownership program, Keystart, though our national Help to Buy legislation.
In 2024, West Australians will rightly have a closer look at Peter Dutton's version of the Liberal Party. In 2023 Mr Dutton rejected all our cost-of-living measures, and proposed none of his own.
And the more you look, the clearer it is that West Australians can't afford Mr Dutton.
In the health portfolio he tried to charge WA families a $7 tax to see their GP. In the High Court he sided with his friend Clive Palmer. And in Cabinet, he opposed the WA GST deal.
This is hard to believe, but it is in black and white in the book of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Turnbull told West Australians it was Mr Dutton who had opposed the GST deal in Cabinet. This is a huge blow to Mr Dutton's leadership credentials.
Mr Turnbull told us that when discussing the GST, “there remained enormous anxiety around the Cabinet table and especially from Peter Dutton”.
Mr Dutton has never explained why he opposed a fair share for WA. It is damaging proof that Mr Dutton says one thing in WA and another when he is actually in power. Mr Dutton and the Coalition have nothing positive to offer West Australians.
In 2024 the Albanese Government will continue working for WA and I will make sure Mr Dutton is held to account for his dirty history on the GST.