Prime Minister Tony Abbott has reached out to his West Australian party colleagues by hinting at their state conference that the local shipbuilding industry might win defence contracts.
Mr Abbott complimented WA's shipbuilding capability on Friday after a tour of Austal's Henderson yard, where he inspected Corvette-sized support vessels being built for Oman's navy.
He said Austal was also constructing ships for the US Navy, which does not take such contracts lightly.
"What an extraordinary West Australian success story," Mr Abbott told the conference on Saturday.
He indicated, as he did on Friday, that Austal could win future Australian defence contracts despite Adelaide's shipbuilding industry being the favourite for the work, which drew strong applause from the crowd.
"I am determined that this country will have the best possible defences ... the strongest possible manufacturing industry," Mr Abbott said.
"To make that happen, we need to get the spirit of Western Australian shipbuilding into South Australian shipbuilding.
"We need to create that spirit right around the country."
Mr Abbott also reiterated his party's preference for a plebiscite on gay marriage, and said the Liberals' deregulation agenda to boost business activities would continue.
"We've already repealed some 50,000 pages of useless and redundant legislation and regulation, and there's much more to come," he said.
Mr Abbott did not hold back in sledging environmentalists, describing them as busy-bodies and "Green vigilantes" who should not be allowed to destroy the economy.
He singled out the controversial Adani coal mine in central Queensland.
"I'm quite concerned about the fate of the ornamental snake and the spotted skink; we must have strong environmental protections in place," he said.
"But once a project has passed every reasonable environmental test, it must be allowed to proceed.
"The idea that green activism, that green warfare, should be able endlessly to delay and ultimately to sabotage these projects is just dead wrong."
Mr Abbott also took aim at the CFMEU for its "racist lies", which were being passively supported by Labor, about the China free trade agreement.
"This is shameful," he said.
"I never thought that I would sit in the parliament haunted by the ghosts of the White Australia Policy, but that's what's happening now."
There was laughter when Mr Abbott said the Liberals had stopped asylum-seeker boats while the only boats Labor had stopped were the ones carrying our exports abroad, referring to the now-axed mining tax.
Mr Abbott capped off his Perth visit with a trip to Dawesville in the Canning electorate before next month's by-election following the sudden death of sitting Liberal MP Don Randall.
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