STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator WHITEAKER (Western Australia) (13:57): I thought this would be a good opportunity to remind senators that Western Australia is the best state in this country. We have the best beaches, the best sunsets and, of course, the best footy team in the Fremantle Dockers, whose home is just down the road from where I live in Cockburn. I want to apologise to any Cats supporters in this chamber and to the Deputy Prime Minister for what happened at Optus Stadium on the weekend—I said I want to, but I'm not going to!

What I will do is congratulate the Dockers on an absolute ripper of a season and wish them all the best against the Sydney Swans on Friday night. While I'm on the topic of WA success stories, I want to talk about the fight for WA's fair share of the GST. For too many years, WA was getting less than 30c in the dollar.

That simply doesn't add up. Our economy is the engine room of the nation. We have the critical minerals the world is lining up for; our exports help pay for the hospitals, the schools and the roads in states right across the country; and we're building the defence manufacturing future the country needs.

All we ask for is our fair share. That's why I am so proud to be part of the Albanese Labor government that has backed in WA every single day since coming to government, whether it's on making sure we get our fair share of the GST, whether it's opening Medicare urgent care clinics right across the country, whether it's delivering tax cuts for every taxpayer across Western Australia or whether it's building the Henderson Defence Precinct just down the road in my local community for the shipbuilding jobs of the future.

That's what an Albanese Labor government's delivering for WA. The east coast can't beat us on the footy field, and they're not going to beat us on the GST either.