Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD)
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Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD) THIRTY-NINTH PARLIAMENT FIRST SESSION 2013 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Tuesday, 25 June 2013 Legislative Council Tuesday, 25 June 2013 THE PRESIDENT (Hon Barry House) took the chair at 3.00 pm, and read prayers. BILLS Assent Messages from the Governor received and read notifying assent to the following bills — 1. State Agreements Legislation Repeal Bill 2013. 2. Natural Gas (Canning Basin Joint Venture) Agreement Bill 2013. PAPERS TABLED Papers were tabled and ordered to lie upon the table of the house. CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT BILL (NO. 2) 2013 Notice of Motion to Introduce Notice of motion given by Hon Michael Mischin (Attorney General). NATIVE FOREST — CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISEASE Notice of Motion Hon Sue Ellery gave notice that at the next sitting of the house Hon Sally Talbot would move — That this Council condemns the Barnett government for its continuing failure to protect Western Australia’s remaining native forest from the effects of climate change and disease. INFRASTRUCTURE — LONG-TERM PLANNING Notice of Motion Hon Ken Travers gave notice that at the next sitting of the house he would move — (a) that this Council expresses its concern at the failure of the Liberal–National government to develop a long-term state infrastructure plan for Western Australia; (b) this Council notes that the lack of long-term planning can lead to poor investment decisions being made in the expenditure of scarce government funds; and (c) therefore, we call upon the government to immediately commence the development of a long- term state infrastructure plan and to ensure that its development involves — (i) wide community consultation to identify priority infrastructure projects; (ii) the inclusion of major infrastructure projects based on a comprehensive assessment of their relative benefit to cost ratios; and (iii) the plan is developed in an open and transparent process. BROWSE LNG PROJECT — NEGOTIATION Notice of Motion Hon Stephen Dawson gave notice that at the next sitting of the house he would move — (a) that this Council condemns the Premier for his lack of leadership in securing an outcome in benefits for the Indigenous communities in relation to the James Price Point LNG processing plant; and (b) that this Council calls on the Barnett government to honour the agreement signed with the Goolarabooloo–Jabirr Jabirr traditional owners to deliver the Kimberley benefits package. APPRENTICESHIPS AND TRAINEESHIPS Notice of Motion Hon Alanna Clohesy gave notice that at the next sitting of the house she would move — That this Council condemns the Barnett government for its disregard for the future of young Western Australians and calls on the government to commit to making substantial increases, beyond pre–global financial crisis levels, in the number of apprentices and trainees in training, especially numbers in trades training. 1976 [COUNCIL — Tuesday, 25 June 2013] DISABILITY JUSTICE CENTRES — PROPOSED SITES Notice of Motion Hon Amber-Jade Sanderson gave notice that at the next sitting of the house she would move — (a) that the Council notes the significant community response to the proposed disability justice centres in Kiara and Caversham, and the lack of consultation with the affected communities; (b) that the Council calls on the Minister for Disability Services to immediately stop the current process for placing these centres in those locations; and (c) that the minister instigate a genuine and thorough community consultation process with the communities surrounding the proposed centres; and (i) the process should include a community reference group, consisting of, but not limited to, representatives of residents, representatives of Lockridge Senior High School and Lockridge Primary School, the Department of Corrective Services, the Disability Services Commission and the minister or her representative; and (ii) any final decision should be made with consideration for the communities’ concerns and within the guidelines already set for the location of these centres. FLORA AND FAUNA — THREATENED SPECIES MANAGEMENT Notice of Motion Hon Sue Ellery gave notice that at the next sitting of the house Hon Sally Talbot would move — That this Council condemns the Barnett government for its failure to resource threatened species recovery plans. BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE Standing Orders Suspension — Motion HON PETER COLLIER (North Metropolitan — Leader of the House) [3.09 pm] — without notice: I move — That so much of the standing orders be suspended as to enable the following variations to the order of business and sitting times for next Wednesday and Thursday — (a) no motions on notice on Wednesday; (b) no consideration of committee reports on Wednesday; (c) no private members’ business on Thursday; and (d) to sit after 6.00 pm on Thursday night, if required, with the dinner suspension from 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm. By way of explanation, this is the last week of the current sitting session before the winter break and the government would like to pass three pieces of legislation. Passing this motion will provide what we would regard as sufficient government time to pass that legislation. I have had discussions with the Leader of the Opposition behind the Chair and we have collectively come up with what we regard as the most viable avenue to ensure that that legislation is passed before the house rises on Thursday before the winter break. HON SUE ELLERY (South Metropolitan — Leader of the Opposition) [3.10 pm]: I rise to indicate that what the Leader of the House has said reflects the conversations and the agreement that has been reached between us. The three bills that the government advised us are its priority bills—that are on the notice paper— are the Supply Bill 2013, the Duties Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 and the Rates and Charges (Rebates and Deferments) Amendment Bill 2013. The basis of the understanding is that we will try to create more time to deal with government business this week. Question put and passed with an absolute majority. ADDRESS-IN-REPLY Motion Resumed from 20 June on the following motion moved by Hon Liz Behjat — That the following address be presented to His Excellency — To His Excellency Malcolm McCusker, Companion of the Order of Australia, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, Queen’s Counsel, Governor in and over the state of Western Australia and its dependencies in the Commonwealth of Australia. [COUNCIL — Tuesday, 25 June 2013] 1977 May it please Your Excellency: We, the members of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled, beg to express our loyalty to our most gracious sovereign and thank Your Excellency for the speech you have been pleased to deliver to Parliament. HON KEN TRAVERS (North Metropolitan) [3.12 pm]: I want to use the remaining 16 minutes of my response to the Address-in-Reply to comment on the speech that was given by the Governor and, more importantly, to identify some of the things that were not included. As we know, the Governor’s speech to this house is supposed to outline the government’s agenda for the next four years. It outlined, obviously, the positive side of the government’s agenda, but there is a very negative side to this government’s agenda, which we have seen rolled out over the past few weeks since the Governor’s speech to this chamber. By that I mean the ongoing series of broken promises and announcements on issues that were never disclosed to the people of Western Australia before the election. I have mentioned before how the government—both the Liberal Party and the National Party, but particularly the Liberal Party—put a great deal of store in their re-election on the argument that it had a fully funded, fully costed plan. We still do not know whether its plan was so poorly thought out and worked upon that it did not know what it would have to do in the first few weeks of this Parliament or whether its plan included a range of measures that the general public would be devastated by and it simply chose not to declare them. On top of that, of course, the government has made numerous broken promises. I will give some examples of the sorts of things I am talking about. Before the election there was no mention of the public sector job cuts that have since been announced by the government. There was no mention in the Governor’s speech about public sector job cuts. There was no mention that the government would seek to put a secret tax on families through its compulsory third party insurance for motor vehicles. There was no mention of that during the election campaign, but immediately after the election campaign the government introduced legislation that will ultimately lead to an increase in the cost of third party premiums as part of motor vehicle registrations; that is a tax on the families of Western Australia. We have seen the broken promise of the Premier who stood there and—I was about to say stared down the camera, but looked sideways during the election debate—told the people of Western Australia that power prices would go up by only around the rate of inflation. Even though his own past budget suggested that they would be a lot higher, he specifically said that that would not be the case. He said it would go up by around the rate of inflation, yet after the election power prices have increased by 45 per cent above the consumer price index. That is not around the rate of inflation. That is a clear broken promise by the Barnett government. The original duties legislation had the duties on non-real property disappear out of the tax act. The government previously deferred that abolition, due to come in on 1 July, for a couple of years.