Kirkup looks to spirit of bipartisanship to solve local jobs crisis | ELECTION 2017

Mr Kirkup said the community was “crying out” for the two major parties to put aside their differences and work together to boost employment, and jobs would be his top priority.

“People more than ever need both parties to work together to get a good outcome on jobs,” he said.

“Within the first 100 days that would absolutely be a priority of mine to hold a joint forum with David Templeman, or the member for Mandurah, to listen to people about what we can do to make sure they have a future here.

“The future of the district of Dawesville and the district of Mandurah are intrinsically linked. To ignore one is at the peril of the other.”

Mr Kirkup said he agreed with Mr Templeman that growth in health services would provide employment opportunities in the region.

“I agree with David, I think health services are going to be a huge part of the growing job market here,” he said.

“Once NDIS [the National Disability Insurance Scheme] kicks in, there’s already assessment being done across Australia that shows we don’t have enough health care workers to implement NDIS, so that will be a massively growing sector especially in an area like the Peel region.

“Tourism as well is absolutely in line with what the Premier said, to make sure we can enable those businesses to thrive and that’s cutting payroll tax, that’s allowing less regulation and less red tape so they can start.”

Mr Kirkup, who had run a forum on methamphetamine addiction in Dawesville, said the drug also effected joblessness in the region.

“I think there's a strong linkage between the unemployment rate in Mandurah which is continually climbing and the rate of drug use,” he said.

“I want to make sure we make address the issue of jobs and we try to do what we can to crack down on drug dealers and support addicts as well.”