Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:53): The short answer is: no, I have not. The second part of the answer is that Liberal members and senators from Western Australia are very strong advocates for the great state of Western Australia. The first thing we did after the most anti-WA government in the history of Australia, the Gillard Labor government, which gave us the anti-WA mining tax and the anti-WA carbon tax and which created chaos and dysfunction at our borders with illegal boat arrivals as far south in Western Australia as Geraldton—if Julia Gillard had been Prime Minister for another few months, we would have had illegal boat arrivals coming up the Swan River in Perth— Senator Sterle: Mr President, I have a point of order on relevance. The question was very clear. Senator Cormann is going off on some psychobabble about other things. Would you direct him to the question please? The PRESIDENT: Senator Sterle, there is no point of order. The minister directly answered the question at the commencement of his answer. Minister, you are in order. Senator CORMANN: Of course on coming into government the first thing we had to do was repair the mess and the damage that the most anti-WA government in the history of the Commonwealth had done to our great state of Western Australia. We had geniuses on the Labor side. Former Treasurer Wayne Swan—remember him?—delivered a mining tax that was designed to hit the WA mining industry for six. He thought it was going to raise millions of dollars. He spent all the money he thought it was going to raise and more and created massive uncertainty in Western Australia at the worst possible time. It is this government that got rid of it. It was the Liberal members and senators from Western Australia who repaired the damage that Labor did. The PRESIDENT: Point of order, Senator Sterle? If it is on relevance, I will rule you out because he is being directly relevant. Thank you, Senator Sterle. Minister. Senator CORMANN: When it comes to Western Australia and the GST-sharing arrangements it is a matter of public record that this government has actually stopped the drop in WA's share of GST at the 2014-15 level by making a $1 billion unilateral grant over two financial years to Western Australia towards infrastructure. That is more than the Labor Party ever did. I have not heard Bill Shorten suggest that he is going to take money away from Tasmania and South Australia to give it to Western Australia. Are you suggesting that Bill Shorten is going to do that? The PRESIDENT: Senator Sterle, final supplementary question. Senator Sterle: No, it is my first one, Mr President. The PRESIDENT: Well I will give you the first supplementary question.