Reflection: Farewell 2021

Well, 2021 has been an unusual year for each Western Australian and our families.

Sadly, it has been a very bad year for our Parliament and the Institutions that make the West the Best.

I know it seems like ancient history now, but in late 2019Labor was looking like losing at least 6 seats to the Liberal Party.  Western Australians were burdened with repeated increases to household taxes and expenses imposed by the lacklustre McGowan-Cook duo.  Their mismanagement and poor decision making, effectively soured the voting population’s perspective of the State Labor Government.

Then COVID hit.

From the start, I have strongly supported the Government’s decision to impose strict border restrictions.  It is worthwhile remembering that Mark McGowan actually opposed the closure of the borders when we called for this at the start of the pandemic.  He lectured the Opposition on the fact that the Constitution prevented State border closures.

It’s fair to categorise McGowan’s management of COVID restrictions as unsophisticated but effective from an electoral perspective.  The remoteness of WA’s population centres and the State’s limited points of entry meant that border restrictions and snap-lockdowns managed to keep COVID out of WA for the most part.  These were hasty, even blunt, measures but Western Australians accepted that McGowan had kept COVID at bay and rewarded him for it come Election time.

A now often overlooked but, at the time, striking event leading up to the March 2021 State Election was the 5-day Lockdown imposed on 31^st January – the first week of the official election campaign.  The medical advice behind this lockdown remains unclear.  One hotel security guard had contracted COVID.  The problem was caused by the failure of the McGowan-Cook Labor Government to establish proper quarantine controls on outside security staff.  

A very surprising aspect of this case was that, despite the person involved having very extensive contact with many people at different locations around Perth, there was not a single case of community transmission.  The duration of the lockdown was significantly longer than for an essentially identical event post the election (5 days versus 3 days).  

The Liberal Party was prevented from campaigning for 5 days whilst the Premier and Minister Cook were on the television and radio several times every day.  Our internal polling showed that our vote dropped dramatically when the lockdown occurred. In fact, even Cottesloe and Vasse were in doubt at that time.

Five weeks later, the interrupted election occurred, and the results were devastating for the Liberal and National Party.  The WA Labor Party celebrated the largest election landslide in Australian history, and for the first time, the Liberals were not the official Parliamentary Opposition to the Labor Government.  Unfortunately, our fears of a bicameral super-majority for the Labor Party quickly materialised.

Immediately following the election, we saw Mark McGowan start to use the Parliament and our Government institutions as tools for the Labor Party’s political advancement.  McGowan’s behaviour was less like that of a Premier and more like that of a kid in a candy shop with daddy’s credit card – and a spoiled kid at that.  The examples of WA Labor’s unbridled political brazenness are too numerous to cover in full.

One of the most disgraceful examples was his so-called Upper House ‘reform’.  Despite telling the Western Australian electorate “it was not on their agenda”, he quickly set about disenfranchising regional, rural, and remote voters.  Worse still, when the passing of this egregious Bill was announced in the Lower House, he laughed in the face of the opposition and the regional voters he betrayed. 

In a major blow for proper checks and balances on executive power, for the first time since the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) was formed in 2004, the head of that body was made as a partisan Labor appointment against the wishes of the Liberal and National Parties and every minor Party in the Parliament.  Labor actually rewrote the CCC Act which previously would have prevented Labor’s appointed candidate from being chosen.  The CCC has tremendous investigative powers and is one of the only bodies that has the capacity to hold the Premier and Ministers to account if they misuse their positions.  We now have the most unfortunate situation that the head of the CCC knows that he is the personal choice of the Premier and owes his appointment to the Premier and the Labor Party.

Many Labor MPs boasted that they had not expected to win a double majority at the Election but having done so they now had the power to make whatever electoral changes and decisions as they please.  It is very distressing that they are they not using their massive majority and huge windfall budget surplus to bring about immediate improvements to our State’s Public Hospitals, Housing and Homeless Crisis, Regional Crime and more.

Recently, the McGowan Government ignored serious concerns that the proposed anti-Bikie Bill will reduce the ability of our Police to crack down on convicted drug dealers and paedophiles in the community.  The WA Labor Government could have responded to our concerns by amending their Bill to maintain the current restrictions on convicted Child Sex Offenders and drug traders.  Instead, they opted to put politics above your safety by shrugging off these glaring issues and forcing the Bill through Parliament anyway.

A couple of weeks ago, came the worst display of power-hungry disregard for the Parliamentary process in our State’s history.  WA Labor rammed through the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill that is 278 pages long, containing 309 new clauses and requiring a 130-page Explanatory Memorandum through the Lower House less than 24 hours after making it available to my colleagues and me to review.  A Bill of this scope, is traditionally given weeks of time across both Houses to review the Bill, consult stakeholders and make revisions before it is passed.  

Currently, the Upper House is still sitting and has been compelled to pass all the consequential legislation tabled by WA Labor before the end of the year.  Many of these Bills have not been given proper review or consultation, but for the WA Labor Party, the effect on the public is secondary to its own political interests.  If passing legislation without review by the Opposition and input from the public will help them politically, they will not hesitate to do so.  Indeed, WA Labor says this is an unapologetic result of their Electoral victory.

Unfortunately for you, WA Labor’s abuse of their massive Parliamentary majority doesn’t stop with their brazen ramming through of legislation.  In the last 12 months, the WA Labor party has used their electoral majority to stifle three critical investigations simply to protect the image of three of their Ministers.  Again, Labor says it is unapologetic about denying accountability and transparency to the people of Western Australia to safeguard the Party’s PR.  First, was our effort to launch an investigation into Attorney General John Quigley’s luxury helicopter trip to a Christmas Party in Yallingup just before the State Election – a luxury trip he refused to disclose in his annual Parliamentary Returns.  Then, months later, we attempted to launch an inquiry into homeless deaths in WA and the Housing Crisis.  Premier McGowan quashed both of these investigations.  More recently, their Attorney General Quigley intervened to prevent Labor’s under-siege Health Minister, Roger Cook, from giving evidence in an unfair dismissal case lodged by his long-time former staffer.

It’s clear that the McGowan Government’s priorities are driven by political opportunism.  Meanwhile, WA Labor has allowed critical sectors in Western Australia to wither and suffer.  Deputy Premier and McGowan’s choice as his Health Minister, Roger Cook, for example, has overseen the highest ambulance ramping in WA’s history by far.  Indeed, had ambulance ramping in 2021 been halved, it’d still be the highest yearly ramping ever.  Worse, on his watch, code blacks and code yellows in our Public Hospitals, events that were considered highly rare crises a couple of years ago, have become regular occurrences.

The Healthcare crisis is far from the only crisis WA Labor has foisted on our State.  Worker shortages have skyrocketed across the State and an unprecedented housing shortage is sweeping Western Australia.  Regional teachers – who are in very short supply – in some cases were forced to sleep in caravan parks and even inside the schools where they work.  Even more heartbreaking, WA has seen 100 homeless deaths on the streets of Perth as the waiting list for public housing skyrocketed over the last year and the housing vacancy rate plummeted to just 1%.

Considering all of this, I truly believe that the WA Labor Government under the leadership of Mark McGowan will be remembered for its mismanagement, dishonesty, negligence, and arrogance.  

Out of adversity, rises opportunity.  One such opportunity and an event that is sure to improve the political landscape of our State for decades to come is the close and cooperative working relationship that has been formed between the Nationals and Liberals in WA.  Despite our reduced numbers, our Opposition Alliance has functioned well under great pressure and we have enjoyed working together. 

Whilst we have reduced Parliamentary numbers, we have been working effectively to highlight the Government’s shortcomings and hold them to account.  This includes my colleagues in the Upper House successfully launching an inquiry into WA’s housing and homelessness deaths crisis after McGowan misused his majority in the Lower House to quash it.  Interestingly, my colleague, the Hon. Peter Collier launched this inquiry with the help of the Hon. Brad Petit of the WA Greens Party. 

Finally, I conclude this reflection by thanking each of you who supported us and stayed by our side during these trying times.  As the Leader of the Liberal Party in Western Australia, I will keep our team working hard at holding the McGowan WA Labor Government to account and promoting the interests of all Western Australians. 

I am confident of a better future for our Party and our State.

Thank you for your ongoing support. I hiope that you have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

Dr David Honey MLA

WA Liberal Leader & Member for Cottesloe