The Prime Minster's policy decisions show that he treats our great state with contempt despite his constant lauding of how many times he has been here - as if that will impress us.
Mr Albanese does not seem to understand that Western Australians are seeing through his rhetoric and will judge him on his actions.
Mr Albanese and his Government’s true colours in relation to Western Australia have been on full display in recent weeks and they confirm his disdain for us.
Let’s start with the joke in extremely poor taste Mr Albanese made to a recent rural women’s dinner in Canberra.
Mr Albanese quipped about an earlier dinner he had attended with Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto. He said: “When we had dinner – beautiful Australian beef, not the live export, we made sure it was dead.”
It was an absolute disgrace that Mr Albanese joked about live exports after he and his government have moved to shut down the Western Australian live sheep export industry which will cost some of our farmers their livelihoods.
It clearly shows he holds Western Australia and our live export trade in complete contempt.
Mr Albanese pretends he supports Western Australia but is happy to make our farmers the butt of his jokes.
The live beef export industry should now be on notice that Mr Albanese is likely to do the same to them as he has done to the live sheep industry.
Any move against the live beef export industry will clearly be another attack on Western Australia.
Mr Albanese has consistently refused to apologise to Western Australia and our farmers over his joke – revealing further his true colours.
Another true colours moment shone through last week when the Albanese Government’s Resources Minister Madeleine King, a Western Australian if you can believe it, decided to pick a fight with BHP over their concerns about unions trying to muscle into the Pilbara for the first time in over a decade.
She accused BHP of relentless whingeing about Labor policies and she has dismissed concerns from the mining industry that a return to widespread unionism in the Pilbara will mean increased costs and a drop in productivity. Ms King reckons it is “hysteria” from the mining industry.
Ms King should be standing up for the mining industry in Western Australia. She should be telling her Cabinet colleagues the importance of the industry not only to the State of Western Australia but also to the nation.
But it is hardly surprising she hasn’t done that. She sat around the Cabinet table when this Government decided to implement the industrial relations reforms that, through the collective bargaining provisions, have gifted the unions entrée back into the Pilbara. She was part of the Government which implemented the so-called Same Job, Same Pay laws that BHP warned would risk 4500 jobs.
So while Western Australia needs a Federal Resources Minister who absolutely backs our mining industry and argues for it in Canberra you can be assured Ms King is not doing that.She would rather take pot shots at BHP, letting her true colours shine through, just like the Prime Minister did.
And of course, there is also the betrayal of our state and the people of the South West with Chris Bowen’s announcement of the South West Offshore Wind Farm.
Once again, Labor steamrolled a local community in pursuit of its ideological renewables-only policy.
This Offshore Wind Farm has lacked genuine consultation, it’s void of community support, and it reinforces Labor’s reckless indifference towards regional Australia.
Labor has learnt nothing from its failure to engage east coast communities on offshore wind zones, and they’ve brought their bad faith and broken processes here to our great state.
The Coalition has made it clear - we stand with the people of our South West, not the Labor Party.
This isn’t a community rallying against action on climate change. It’s an informed community which understands its coastline second to none and has very real and genuine concerns about this project that the Albanese Government has failed to address.
The two month consultation period was an absolute scandal. We heard stories about meetings being cancelled last minute, questions being ignored, genuine local experts being dismissed and no assurances provided to local fishers that their businesses could coexist.
And yet Chris Bowen still made the announcement that the Offshore Wind Farm will go ahead.
So Western Australians should take with a grain of salt all the posturing that was going on last week with the Albanese Cabinet meeting in our State.
It’s all for show – look at what they do rather than what they say they will do.
Western Australians are also smart enough to know that Mr Albanese is trying to deceive them with ridiculous claims about our State’s GST deal.
Claims by Mr Albanese that the Coalition would end WA’s GST deal are so outrageous as to be laughable.
This is a truly desperate Prime Minister willing to say anything to curry favour with voters.
Everyone knows the GST deal for Western Australia was put in place by the Coalition Government and the Coalition has and always will stand by that deal.
Mr Albanese is desperate because he knows his Government has let all Western Australians down severely.
The cost of living crisis is so bad in this State that we now see reports some Western Australians can’t afford medical treatment they desperately need.
Western Australians know that the price of everything they need to survive, like basic food items, energy and housing keep going up under the Albanese Government.
What we should also be concerned about here in Western Australia and around the nation is the weakness that Mr Albanese so regularly displays and overlay that onto the possible outcome of the next Federal election.
Look at the outrageous display last week over the LGBTQI+ census question. What we saw was more confusion and chaos from this Government.
Imagine what could happen if this mob end up forming a minority government with the Greens – who knows what this weak Prime Minister will agree with to keep the Greens happy.
We saw last week the Greens announce their Robin Hood tax plans. They want to rip $514 billion from big corporations over the next decade.
But it is worth looking at other Greens policies. They’ve “reimagined” the idea of an inheritance tax – rebranding it a “dynastic wealth transfer tax.” Australians can be assured that a death tax, something that has long been unpopular in the country, is a death tax no matter what fancy name the Greens come up with.
Then there are their plans for $4.5 billion in climate reparations and “the ongoing impacts and legacy of colonialism”.
Their policy agenda reads: “As a wealthy, colonial country, Australia has a responsibility to contribute its fair share of aid and pay reparations for its role in the climate crisis and the ongoing damage caused by western imperialism.”
So it’s not hard to imagine the true colours of an Albanese/Greens government and the likely detrimental impacts on Western Australia and our nation.
LABOR'S 'F' FOR FAILURE ON ECONOMY
The recent National Accounts figures were more bad news for Australians as they revealed the slowest GDP growth since the 1990s, outside the pandemic. Our economy is experiencing the sixth consecutive quarter of negative GDP per person growth.
KEY NATIONAL ACCOUNTS NUMBERS
Treasurer Jim Chalmers can play the blame game however the reality for Australians is that because of the policies of the Albanese Labor Government:
Living standards (real disposable income per capita) have fallen by 8.7%;
Productivity has collapsed 6.3%;
Household savings are down 10.2 percentage points;
Personal income taxes are 25.3% higher; and
Interest paid on mortgages has almost tripled. This means that after Labor's 12 interest rate hikes, small businesses continue to do it tough while homeowners with a typical mortgage of $750,000 are nearly $35,000 a year worse off.
It is also a fact that since the May 2022 Federal election, the price of everything has gone up 10 per cent.
Under Labor:
Gas is up 33 per cent;
Electricity is up 14 per cent (even after taxpayer funded rebates);
Rents are up 16 per cent;
Health is up 11%;
Education is up 11%;
Food is up 12%; and
Financial and insurance up 17%
Australia's core inflation is higher than all comparable economies, higher than the US, UK, Canada, Japan, the Euro Area, Sweden, Norway Switzerland and New Zealand. In fact, we are the only advanced economy where inflation has not come down this year.
THE COALITION HAS A BETTER APPROACH
A Peter Dutton government will put in place policies that fight inflation and ease the cost of living pressures Australians are facing.
Along with boosting productivity, fiscal discipline is essential to bringing down inflation and restoring Australia’s standard of living.
The Coalition will get Australia back on track by delivering a back to basic economic agenda that includes
Cutting red tape;
Securing our energy future;
Reforming our tax system;
Restoring sensible workplace laws;
Encouraging enterprise and small business; and
Supporting a strong financial sector.
That is how we will restore our standard of living and ensure future prosperity.