‘Don’t leave us behind’: Durack residents, business and community leaders' message ahead of Federal election

Punters and community leaders from around the electorate of Durack have weighed in on the current election campaign and their message is loud and clear — don’t leave our region behind. From Port Hedland to Broome, punters echoed the rest of the country, highlighting housing, health, climate change and cost of living as their primary concerns when they head to the polls on May 3. Cost of living issues are exacerbated in Durack according to Port Hedland mayor Peter Carter who said the region was being neglected by Federal politicians despite being a major economic powerhouse for the nation. “I think the biggest issue — for the whole Pilbara, really — is around child care, affordable housing, health, education. Basically, it’s about liveability for the town,” he said. “The old saying is, ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’ — well, they’re actually eating the hand, not feeding it. We generate a lot of income, and we need to be looked after. “We make money for the Federal Government every day — and I think we’re being left behind. “Child care, education, health — they’re at the top of the list because without those, we don’t have a community.” Mr Carter said the town should not be forced to beg for the basics that metropolitan regions get. “We should be able to get grant funding for projects a lot easier. We shouldn’t have to beg for it. We should be saying, ‘Here’s what we need — support us, because we’re supporting you,” he said. In Broome, Djukun Nation managing director and Greens Kimberley candidate in the recent WA election Jaala Ozies said she would like to see more promises from all sides of politics to tackle regional issues such as housing, healthcare and climate change. “As we head into the coming election, one of the biggest threats facing Durack is the industrialisation of the Kimberley, particularly through fracking,” she said. “We need more than just words; we need real commitments from all parties to ban fracking in the Kimberley, tackle the affordable housing crisis, improve access to healthcare and take action against the high cost of living and price-gouging by big retailers in our regional and remote communities.” “It’s time for politicians to listen to the people who live here and stand up for country and community.” East Pilbara beef producer Lance Coppin took aim at Labor’s plans to phase out live sheep exports, saying the beef industry would be next. “The biggest issue is market security in the live export industry. There’s a lot of lost confidence in the industry because of the Labor government sabotaging the live sheep export markets by phasing it out,” he said. “We know that it’s the first step towards banning live cattle exports. They don’t do these things all in one go overnight, they take incremental steps towards it, and we know that (the beef industry) will be next. “Even if we got a Liberal government and they said, ‘right, (the ban) is temporarily off the cards, you can keep trading’– so much confidence has already been lost, and buyers are already looking at other markets. “(Buyers) are looking for security of consistent supply and if Australia’s constantly having these debates, they’ll start securing markets elsewhere.” He said he did not have confidence in either major party to address the red tape which he said was strangling the industry. “There’s just so much regulation in all the industries that service our industry, and it just pushes the cost of operation up,” Mr Coppin said. “They need to restore confidence in the live export industry, in sheep and cattle, and they need to move away from ... net-zero policies. They need to abolish those. Stop trying to impose costs on us for other things completely unrelated.” Broome resident David Galwey, who has lived in the town for around 25 years, said communities across the Kimberley were grappling with a collapsing standard of living, rising insurance premiums, fuel prices, and a deepening housing crisis. “My main concerns up here are about the cost and standard of living.... the housing crisis obviously goes without saying — that’s right around the country,” he said. He said the Federal Government had previously promised to underwrite insurance costs in the north, “but that just seems to have gone away”. “Right now, I think there’s a major crisis up here, because there are a lot of households that aren’t insured,” he said. Mr Galwey also said the region’s lack of defence infrastructure left it dangerously exposed. “Another big area to me, in terms of Federal Government, is defence and the lack of any application to recognise our absolute insecurity at the moment, given the geopolitical concerns,” he said. Mr Galwey said the problems facing Broome and the wider Kimberley were not just the result of economic pressures — they were a symptom of political neglect from Canberra, where regional areas like Durack were often treated as an afterthought. “Political will is always formed by where the most votes are,” he said. “They don’t have to do anything up here, because in the scale of things, it means nothing in terms of seat counts.” The Federal election is on Saturday May 3.