CHRISTIAN PORTER
Liberal candidate for Pearce
LIBERAL MP Christian Porter is recontesting the seat of Pearce, which he won at the 2013 election, in the coming July poll.
The former State Government minister held various portfolios in WA including attorney general, minister for corrective services and treasurer.
Mr Porter was born and raised in WA and lives with his family in Yanchep, in the northern part of the electorate.
Mr Porter said he was often approached to talk about the need for better communications in the region.
"Rural mobile coverage was a very low priority for the former Labor government, so there is a lot of catching up to do," he said.
"The previous Labor government did not spend a dollar on mobile black spot coverage.
"The coalition has already fixed 27 mobile black spots and delivered 10 new or upgraded Telstra base stations in the Pearce electorate, but I still have more work to do to achieve better coverage and services.
"If re-elected, and as part of a Turnbull government, there is a further commitment to invest an additional $60 million in the Mobile Black Spot Program, bringing our total investment in eliminating mobile black spots to $220m."
Mr Porter said continued coalition management of the National Broadband Network (NBN) would see the network completed by 2020, six to eight years sooner than under Labor's plan and about $30 billion cheaper.
"Under the coalition government's rollout about 9579 homes and businesses in Pearce have NBN services and superfast broadband available to them," he said.
"A further 3874 homes and businesses in regional and rural Pearce have been able to connect to affordable high-speed broadband with the launch of the NBN's commercial Sky Muster service.
"This compares to a scarce 109 homes across all of WA gaining access to the NBN under the entire eight years of the previous Labor government."
Mr Porter said jobs and growth were important to regional Australia's national economic plan, and building on the achievements over the past three years would support stronger, more livable regional communities with better infrastructure.
He said more support for the rural health workforce would allow better access to health care.
Mr Porter said the Turnbull government had committed to the most significant package of education reforms in a generation to drive excellence in Australia's school students.
"These quality reforms mean that Pearce schools would stand to benefit from an extra $596m the Turnbull coalition government will allocate to WA schools between 2015-16 and 2019-20," he said.
"This additional money is focused on initiatives that are proven to lift student performance and results."
Mr Porter said for the children in Pearce to get ahead, "we must focus on evidence-based initiatives that make a difference to student achievement".
He said the Turnbull government's student achievement plan would improve student outcomes in literacy, numeracy, and science, technology, enterprise and maths, teaching quality and encourage high performing teachers to work in disadvantaged schools.
"These initiatives are to ensure that our students are receiving the quality outcomes they need to secure jobs in our new economy," he said.
"As well as these major policy issues, as a local member I have been giving attention to local initiatives such as the construction of the St John Wheatbelt Regional Office and the Aboriginal and Environmental Interpretation Centre," he said.
Mr Porter said the Turnbull government promised the only fully funded health plan.
"The Labor Party has admitted their $57 billion hospital promise was never funded and they are in fact only committing $2b towards hospitals over four years, like many of Labor's promises and backflips, they have no credible way to deliver, or pay for, any of their policies," he said.
As the Member for Pearce, Mr Porter said he had substantial success in obtaining unprecedented levels of funding to help grow jobs, build businesses and improve the lives of families in the electorate.
"Importantly, since 2013 I have helped secure a record $1.2b in road and infrastructure funding for Pearce," he said.
"There has already been record investment in creating stronger and more prosperous regions and the 2016 budget built on that with initiatives such as the $1b National Stronger Region Fund, more than $710m in drought assistance and support and an unprecedented $50b investment to upgrade and build safe and reliable land transport infrastructure across the country."
Mr Porter said there was no better place in the world to raise a family than in WA.
"Every time I get off the plane from Canberra, I cannot wait to get home to my electorate," he said.
Mr Porter said Pearce was experiencing some of the strongest economic growth in Australia.
"Pearce is ranked as the 12th fastest growing electorate with a growth rate of 4.8 per cent in the 2014/15 financial year,'' he said.
Mr Porter said the government's focus on science and innovation was driving jobs and growth across every level of society.
"Our unprecedented free trade agreements with Korea, Japan and China have opened up new makers to local businesses in Pearce that have never been in reach before,'' he said.
"Only the Turnbull government can deliver jobs and responsibly manage and grow our economy - our community and our country cannot afford to go back to the chaos of a Labor-Greens-Independent minority government."
Mr Porter said he and other coalition MPs were committed to the returns that the live export industry delivers to the national economy, to local communities and to families at the farm gate.
"We remain absolutely committed to ensuring the welfare of animals is protected in this trade, however, this government will not sacrifice one for the other,'' he said.
"The government will continue to work with industry to improve the way we regulate the trade to improve animal welfare outcomes, reduce costs for industry and realise greater opportunities for Australian producers and exporters."
He said cutting red tape for farmers and the supply chain was a key part of the coalition's strategy to build a stronger, more productive and diverse economy.
"The coalition has made substantial inroads to reduce the burden in Pearce on agribusinesses, farmers, individuals and families so they aren't forced to comply with unnecessary and ineffective rules and regulations," he said.
"Last year, decisions were taken by the coalition that, once implemented, will reduce the burden of government regulation by an additional $2.5b, bringing the government's total efforts to more than $4.8b in just two years.
"This exceeds our original commitment to reduce red tape by $3b across three years."