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 GREAT WA LIBERALS BUDGET CON JOB

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.

WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017

MEDIA CONTACT: LAURENCE COLEMAN (HAMMOND) 0409 797 311

GEMMA BLACK (LINES) 0427 937 587

SOPHIA O’ROURKE (DODSON) 0401 951 676

REBECCA DOYLE (PRATT) 0417 227 940

BEN WHOLAGAN (STERLE) 0400 685 543

ANDREW BENNETT (KEOGH) 0417 999 065

ROBBIE WILLIAMSON (ALY) 0457 677 335

AMY LERAY (KING) 0420 925 345

PETER YATES (WILSON) 0415 777 086