Fresh off his engagement to long-term partner Jodie Haydon, no one will begrudge the Prime Minister having a spring in his step when he arrives in WA in a few days.
And while he can expect a warmer reaction — who doesn’t love a wedding — Anthony Albanese must also be ready for some tough questions.
West Australians are not gullible.
We can see past the knee-jerk political reactions, such as Labor’s decision to abandon stage three tax cuts, and whistle-stop tours of our State.
And we realise that, despite promising to “stand up for WA” before the last election, Labor’s policies seem to be pulling our State backwards instead.
Firstly, Anthony Albanese can be certain that he will be asked to explain his position on live exports.
Labor’s plan to outlaw this industry will not only be catastrophic for the WA economy, it will also decimate livelihoods and erase the generations of achievement of our farming communities.
When an industry is worth more than $120 million to WA and feeds hundreds of thousands of people around the world, it’s only a weak leader that would bow to the demands of extreme animal rights activists — even if many of them do live in his own electorate.
Labor’s damage to our farming communities hasn’t stopped there.
Less well known by many is that our farmers raise hundreds of millions of dollars every year in compulsory industry levies.
Yet, Labor has just re-committed to a new levy that forces Australian farmers to pay for the biosecurity costs of international importers.
The new tax will punish WA farmers, push up prices at supermarkets, and add to the cost-of-business challenges for our grain growers, meat producers and fruit and vegetable farmers.
Farmers are already dealing with labour shortages, climate and cost-of-living challenges.
Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers’ answer — to impose more taxes — needs to be called out.
We can also expect the Prime Minister to try to justify the $10 million Labor has donated to the now-discredited Environmental Defenders Office.
This body, whose current target is Woodside’s $16 billion dollar Scarborough gas field off the northwest coast, is a direct threat to 120,000 West Australians employed in the resources sector.
It’s also a threat to the roads, schools, and hospitals across the country who rely on royalties from WA miners.
Anthony Albanese should follow Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s example and promise to shut it down after the next election.
Then we come to the housing crisis — now the worst in the country.
While there are many factors that go into housing, what is hurting WA renters the most is Labor’s record, unmodelled immigration policy.
In three years Labor will bring in 1.5 million people from overseas, with no plan to manage its impact.
In 2023 alone, more than 500,000 immigrants came to Australia.
This put significant strain on WA. Per capita, our population grew more than any other State last year.
Unsurprisingly, in December the average price to rent a house in WA hit $600 a week for the first time, and rental availability shrunk to below 1 per cent.
Finally — and this list of grievances is far from complete — the Prime Minister can expect to be held accountable for his Government’s failures in Indigenous affairs.
Despite spending more than $450 million on a referendum that was overwhelmingly rejected by WA voters, Anthony Albanese and Minister Linda Burney have been silent on the epidemic of alcoholism, violence and sexual abuse that scars too many remote indigenous communities.
If the Prime Minister cares so deeply about improving health and education outcomes for Indigenous Australians, he should include Broome, Derby, Halls Creek and Kununurra in his itinerary.
No one is saying it’s an easy issue, but the PM’s symbolism-over-substance policy, combined with a refusal to see first hand the communities worst impacted by this current scourge, is insincere at best.
With speculation growing the election will be later this year instead of early next year, WA voters are watching closer than ever and are asking themselves whether Anthony Albanese really has WA’s back or is in fact going behind it.
So far, the evidence says it’s the latter.