Perth Voice Interactive

FEDERAL Perth Labor MP Patrick Gorman says he wants an Aboriginal Cultural Centre on Perth’s waterfront to be “Western Australia’s answer to the Opera House”.

The centre received a further $20 million from the Albanese government in this week’s budget, following the $50m it pledged to match state funding back in 2022.

“I’ve championed this project for about five years now,” Mr Gorman said.

“I know that Western Australia can host a world-class Aboriginal Cultural Centre that will give both Western Australians more access to 65,000 years or 21 million sunsets worth of Indigenous culture, but also share so much more of that with businesses from around the world.”

He remains confident that significant corporate backing will bolster the project. 

“We’ve seen expressions in the past with some of the funds that have been put together from large corporates in Western Australia that they are keen to contribute into this. 

“I think you’ll remember the fund that former premier [Mark] McGowan announced a few years ago, and this was one of the projects that was playing as a potential beneficiary of that fund.”

The Western Australian Government has already secured a site along the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River) in Mr Gorman’s electorate. 

“It’s not going to just be about culture of 65,000 years, but it’s going to be also sharing Aboriginal culture and art as it is today, modern Aboriginal art, including some of our fantastic visual artists, musicians, cinematographers, and other creators.”

The budget has been described by some as “vanilla,” in response to an uncertain global environment. Mr Gorman acknowledged the economic challenges but argued the government’s efforts have provided stability.

“We know that there is uncertainty, but we also know that there are some things that we can do as a government that will give people a sense of more certainty and things are heading where we need them to head,” he said.

He pointed out that this is the government’s fourth budget in three years, an occurrence not seen since the 1940s. 

“We’ve got a story of having brought inflation down, which has been a whole-of-country, whole-of-economy, whole-of-nation effort, and now we can start to make some of those other investments that have been needed for a long time, like what we’re doing on Medicare.”

One of the key health initiatives in the budget is increased funding to encourage general practitioners to bulk bill.

“The problem we have at the moment, and I see this across my community and across WA, is that we don’t have enough doctors who are bulk billing all their patients,” Mr Gorman said. 

“So all of the additional incentives that we’ve designed in this budget are to get entire GP practices to shift into the bulk billing system.”

He dismissed concerns the funding primarily benefits doctors rather than patients. 

“It’s all about making sure that when you go to the doctor, you’re not paying a gap fee. So yeah, it really does help people. 

“I know in my electorate, people are paying $40/$50 gap fees when they go to the GP. 

“If we can get to our goal by 2030 of nine out of ten GP appointments being bulk billed, that’ll make a huge difference.”

The budget also allocates funding for the federal government’s plan to phase out live sheep exports, a move that has drawn mixed reactions. 

Mr Gorman said the industry has been declining for years, and the government was offering support to assist farmers through the transition.

“We’ve appointed an advocate for the industry. 

“That person is based in Western Australia, and they’re doing a range of consultation work to make sure that we get the supports right,” he said. 

“What we want to do is make sure that we grab all of the opportunities. I see huge opportunity when it comes to chilled and frozen sheep meat, and even expanding sheep meat use in Australia.”

He flagged there could be further incentives for abattoirs if there’s not sufficient local expansion of processing following the phase-out.

“We’ve always said that we’re really open to working with industry to make sure that we both protect jobs, but also acknowledge that it’s better to have a managed conclusion of live export than to just leave it to the market, which could lead to an abrupt end with no government support on the way through.”

On the potential for international trade tensions, particularly with the United States under a possible Trump tariff in retaliation, Mr Gorman remained diplomatic: “I don’t want to speculate on what other nations might choose to do. I think it’s always an unwise move to speculate on tariffs. 

“Australia is proudly a trading nation. Western Australia, our industries face the world.”

by STEVE GRANT