Mr BRIGGS (Mayo—Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development) (15:30): Mr Deputy Speaker, to start with I must say: stranger in the House! That is not the person who was on the corflutes at the election campaign. Stranger in the House, Mr Deputy Speaker. Mr Gray: Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: can you draw his attention to the subject of the MPI. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Craig Kelly ): He has only just commenced. The assistant minister has the call. Mr BRIGGS: I will take the advice of the member for Brand because I have respect for the member for Brand. It is a big step up from state politics, and we have just seen an example of that, because the member for Perth, who has over the last— Mr Laurie Ferguson interjecting— Mr BRIGGS: As I said to you, Laurie, you're not my favourite Ferguson at the moment, so let's— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind the minister for infrastructure to use the member's parliamentary title. Mr BRIGGS: He has changed seats so many times in the last few years. What we have seen this week with the first reshuffle of the Shorten shadow ministry is the introduction of a shadow parliamentary secretary for Western Australia, the new member for Perth. I congratulate her on her appointment after such a short period in the federal parliament. Congratulations on being elevated to the front bench. But it is ironic that they are trying to sell this as a symbol to WA that they somehow now care about Western Australia. If the positions on the front bench show care for a state, let's step through the positions on the front bench of both sides, shall we, Mr Deputy Speaker? We have got on that side the member for Brand, who is the shadow minister for resources, a position he does know quite a bit about. Now we have the shadow parliamentary secretary for Western Australia. Joel, you're not from Western Australia, sit down! The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I give the call to the member for Hunter. Mr Fitzgibbon: Mr Deputy Speaker, on a point of order: the minister has just indicated that it is his intention to go through a description of every member of the opposition frontbench. If that is the case then, by his own admission, he could not possibly be relevant. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The minister has the call. Mr BRIGGS: This is an MPI about Western Australia, Joel. The member for Perth has been appointed because the member for Fremantle has had to step down. The member for Fremantle was of course a shadow minister. The member for Perth is a parliamentary secretary. So we have got one shadow cabinet minister and one shadow parliamentary secretary, under the symbolism rule of the Labor Party, when it comes to Western Australia. There are five ministers on our side of parliament. We have got the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party as the foreign minister. We have got the defence minister. We have got the minister for justice— Mr Fitzgibbon: Mr Deputy Speaker, on indulgence: I appeal to the minister to withdraw the remark that the member for Fremantle had to step down, which implies some impropriety on her part. She stepped down for family health reasons. He should clarify that. Mr BRIGGS: Member for Hunter, I did say that she stepped down— Opposition members interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! If the minister would assist the House. Mr BRIGGS: I did not say she had to step down. I said she did step down, Joel. I know exactly why she did. I did not make that reflection and it is wrong of you to say so. The member for Perth is a parliamentary secretary. The point we are making is a comparison between the amount of Western Australians on the front bench from the Labor Party and the amount from our side, because that is clearly what this appointment is about—to call it a parliamentary secretary for Western Australia. So we were walking through this— Opposition members interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I also remind members on my left that it is disorderly to be interjecting unless you are in your place. Mr BRIGGS: That was poor, Joel—really poor! Mr Fitzgibbon: Check your transcript. Mr BRIGGS: I will, mate, and I'll send it to you. We have the foreign minister, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party; we have the defence minister, Senator David Johnson; we have the member for Stirling, the Minister for Justice; we have the assistant minister for immigration; and we have my great mate, the Minister for Finance. And why having the Minister for Finance is important is because it shows how much we on our side care about Western Australia. When we were elected to government we found that the Labor Party had committed to two very important road projects in Western Australia—the upgrades on the Great Northern Highway and the North West Coastal road—and they were not funded. Ms MacTiernan: They were funded. Mr BRIGGS: They were funded out of a mining tax that the member for Perth has waxed and waned on over the years— Ms MacTiernan: They were in the budget. Mr BRIGGS: Where there was no revenue, so there was no money to pay for the upgrades, Member for Perth. So don't come in here and claim you had all this money from a tax that did not raise any money in the first place. Ms MacTiernan interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I remind the member for Perth she has had her opportunity and the minister has the right to be heard in silence. Mr BRIGGS: The Minister for Finance said to the Deputy Prime Minister and me: 'We must find a way to fund these roads because they are vital for Western Australia, they are important roads for Western Australia.' The Minister for Finance said, 'We have to find the money in the budget to fund these roads.' So what did we do? We funded them. In December last year, contrary to the scare campaign the member for Grayndler was running around with, we funded them out of the budget, out of real money—not out of a tax that did not raise any revenue in the first place, Member for Perth. Just dealing with that tax, for a party that have now appointed, in an act of symbolism, a parliamentary secretary for Western Australia, if they really cared about the Western Australian economy, if they really cared about the Western Australian people, what they would do is get their senators in the Senate to vote down the carbon tax, to get rid of the carbon tax. Of the top 20 carbon tax bills, 16 have been sent to electricity companies. Electricity companies have been slugged a total carbon tax bill of $4.1 billion in Western Australia. If you really want to do something for consumers in Western Australia, for Western Australians, get rid of a carbon tax. The second thing you can do if you want to do something other than symbolism for the people of Western Australia is get rid of the mining tax. The member for Perth, in a moment of clarity a couple of weeks ago in the caucus—sources have reported—got up and said to the Leader of the Opposition: 'Bill, get rid of the mining tax, it's killing us in WA.' But it must be said for the purposes of the record, to make sure that we are not misleading the parliament, that on 22 August 2010, shortly after her state political career had ended, the now member for Perth said in The Australian: I think there were many aspects of our story, I think the fact that we vacated the field on the mining tax, you know I actually think the mining tax is a bloody good thing and we should have gone out and told people why it was good, why we needed to do it … That is the problem with the Labor Party. They think taxing your most successful industry, taxing the thing that has made the great strength of that great state Western Australia, is so important. We should do more of it. Ms MacTiernan interjecting— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Craig Kelly ): I would again warn the member for Perth. She has had ample opportunity to speak during this MPI. She should either desist or leave the chamber. Mr BRIGGS: You cannot injure a business enough in WA and make it more successful. Of course you cannot, and the member for Brand knows that. The member for Brand of all people in this place knows very well that the mining tax is killing Western Australia. We have done for Western Australia what Western Australians want us to do. We have announced plans to fund and deliver road upgrades, not deliver a record such as the member for Perth when she was a state minister: the Pilbara was exploding and she refused to release more land so more houses could be developed, so those towns could not develop and take the opportunity. Don't you worry about that, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly, when I was in the Pilbara at the beginning of February that was exactly the message they had. Thank goodness for Colin Barnett. Thank goodness for a federal Liberal government that has come to the party and said: 'We will fund—we won't just announce out of a mining tax that does not raise any revenue—the upgrades which can allow WA to make the most of the opportunities, the enormous opportunities, that the state has.' We will work with Colin Barnett and Troy Buswell to deliver the upgrades to Western Australian infrastructure which will ensure we have the strongest economy we can possibly have. We have funded projects which were left unfunded by the Labor Party. When you hear the member for Perth claim that we are cutting funding, it is a complete and utter fib. What the Labor Party did in their last years is put money outside the forward estimates. That is what they did, and in fact if you look at the difference between the total overall budget and the next four years, between what we have intended to spend on infrastructure and what those on the other side would have spent had they been re-elected—and thank goodness they weren't—we are spending $6.2 billion extra. We have not even had our first budget. I say to the member for Perth: hold onto your hat, because on budget night on 13 May, I think you should sit there quietly—I know it is going to be difficult—and listen to the Treasurer deliver for Western Australia, because that is what we will do. And the people of Western Australia know that. Whether it is the five serious and senior ministers of the Abbott government, our plans to get rid of the carbon tax and the mining tax or our plans to invest in the infrastructure of the 21st century, this is best government Western Australians could hope for. We will deliver for Western Australia. We will not go to war with the state government of Western Australia like Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard wanted to and always did. We will go and talk to Colin Barnett. We will work to implement an infrastructure program which will ensure that Western Australia can be as strong and as prosperous as it should be. That is why the Abbott government was chosen last September, and we will deliver.