Libby Mettam: Liberal leader pledges to deliver promises, not ‘sugary treats’ like Labor

There will always be infrastructure and services governments spend money on that not everyone will use or see a direct benefit from.

It’s called the common good and it’s a necessary function of government.

Governments hold a fundamental responsibility to care for the common good. This includes ensuring basic needs like food, shelter, and health care are accessible to all citizens.

Common good should always be the guiding line for government expenditure.

The Cook Government has spectacularly failed the common good test. After two terms of record revenue from a mining boom, the likes of which the State has never seen, a record number of families are in severe financial hardship, our health system is on its knees, our police force is undermanned, and our schools will start the coming year without a full complement of teachers.

When a government loses itself in its own hubris and spin, it loses sight of the common good.

The common good is not difficult to see.

Those who live all their lives in the city will never access the benefits of the Patient Assisted Travel scheme that ensures their country cousins have access to essential medical care.

Hopefully, most people will never need the services of a specialised children’s cancer ward, or the burns unit at Royal Perth Hospital, but few would disagree they are necessary for the common good.

An increasing number of spending decisions and election promises by the Cook Labor Government have no reference at all to the common good. Rather, they are firmly locked around vote winning and paybacks to union mates and vested interests.

If you’re lying awake at night thinking about how you are going to cover your children’s back-to-school expenses, you probably couldn’t afford tickets when Coldplay came to town and you know you won’t be able to afford tickets to whatever the Cook Government might use its promised $37 million “blockbuster events” fund for this year.

It’s hard to see the common good in the Cook Government paying millions for an international rock band to earn itself tens of millions performing in Perth. Especially knowing other States paid nothing for the same performance.

By the by, cost of tickets was not a problem for the Premier. It’s also probably safe to say Premier Cook didn’t have to juggle expenses to find capacity to pay the $895 he put on his Government credit card to get his “merch” — a Coldplay shirt — framed.

If you’re wondering how you will pay your electricity bill when the current rebate from the Cook Government runs out, you’re also probably not seeing the common good in giving millions of dollars to already eye-wateringly rich international soccer clubs to play in Perth.

Maybe if Mark McGowan hadn’t broken his 2017 promise of no new taxes or tax increases and hiked the fixed charge of your electricity connection by 10 per cent you might be a little more understanding.

A $50 voucher to give the kids free entry to a cultural event next year sounded promising but then you realised you’d have to pay the adult fee to accompany them — it’s a big ask to expect a five-year-old to negotiate Sci-Tech on their own.

And while you ponder whether you can afford these treats in your life, don’t forget, you’ve already paid for them with your taxes — whether you wanted to or not.

The hardship stories I’m hearing day after day in the electorates I visit make me determined deliver a WA Liberal election campaign that is focused on cost-of-living measures for families, assistance for small businesses — our State’s largest employers — restoring our health system and keeping West Australians safe.

I am proud to tell West Australians a Liberal government will permanently reduce their electricity bills, not with election-timed sugar hits, but by reducing their fixed charges. We will increase their access to free public transport, and we will focus financial assistance on those most in need.

Every West Australian deserves premium health care.

The Liberals promise that every person in WA who needs elective surgery will get it in within the medically recommended time frame, we will build the new women’s and babies hospital in the safest and recommended location, we will provide free meningococcal B vaccinations and we will restore the standard and capacity of regional health services and infrastructure.

Overtime incentives will put 300 more police on the streets from day one of a Liberal government. There will be no expensive, extended overseas recruitment campaigns, just a sensible adjustment that benefits our existing officers.

The Liberals will not be the government of sugary treats that made the Labor Government of the past eight years the highest spending in the State’s history but did nothing to help families put food on table, send their kids to school and keep a roof over their heads.

Libby Mettam is the Liberal leader.