Legislative Assembly

Wednesday, 31 May 2006

THE SPEAKER (Mr F. Riebeling) took the chair at 9.00 am, and read prayers. BILLS Returned 1. Treasurer’s Advance Authorisation Bill 2006. 2. Superannuation Legislation Amendment and Validation Bill 2006. 3. Energy Safety Levy Bill 2005. Bills returned from the Council without amendment. 4. Energy Safety Bill 2005. Bill returned from the Council with amendments. PAPERS TABLED Papers were tabled and ordered to lie upon the table of the house. LAND INFORMATION AUTHORITY BILL 2006 Notice of Motion for Leave to Introduce Notice of motion given by Mrs M.H. Roberts (Minister for Land Information). MINISTER FOR PLANNING AND INFRASTRUCTURE - RAIL AND ROAD PROJECTS Notice of Motion Mr T.R. Sprigg gave notice that at the next sitting of the house he would move - That this Parliament condemn the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure for her lack of consideration to people requesting compensation and/or mitigation when they have been severely impacted by government rail and road projects. PROCEDURE AND PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE - PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS Notice of Motion Mr A.J. Simpson gave notice that at the next sitting of the house he would move - That in an effort to improve access to the parliamentary process, especially for people in regional Western Australia who will soon have much less direct access to their local member of Parliament as a result of Labor’s one vote, one value legislation, the Legislative Assembly requires the Procedure and Privileges Committee to - (a) investigate the feasibility of using electronic devices or systems, including, but not limited to, short message services - SMS - e-mail and telephone recordings, as acceptable forms of presenting petitions to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly; (b) review the use of e-petitions by other Parliaments both within Australia and overseas; (c) make recommendations for changes to the procedures and the standing orders of the Legislative Assembly; and (d) report to the Legislative Assembly on or before 1 November 2006. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR REMOTE AND RURAL MEDICINE Statement by Minister for Health MR J.A. McGINTY (Fremantle - Minister for Health) [9.07 am]: The Western Australian Centre for Remote and Rural Medicine is funded by both the state government and the commonwealth government to provide a range of services to attract and retain rural doctors, including implementation of the overseas-trained doctors scheme. Similar work force agencies exist in other states and territories. The Western Australian government has provided funding to WACRRM from its inception. In 2005-06 the government allocated $1.4 million to WACRRM. In June 2005 I initiated a ministerial review of WACRRM as a response to the Western Australian government health reforms and the national review of the national work force agencies funded in each state. The report of the national review is in the final stages. However, the Australian government Department of Health and Ageing

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3309 has advised that no decisions have been made as to when the report will be released or acted upon. The review committee was chaired by Max Trenorden, MLA for Avon, and Shane Hill, MLA for Geraldton. The review was completed in January 2006 and the review report has been made available to WACRRM, the Western Australian Department of Health, and the Australian government Department of Health and Ageing. The review made 20 recommendations and identified the following critical directions - (1) WACRRM should focus on its core business of rural medical work force recruitment and retention. The review found that WACRRM has the skills and experience to provide a coordinating role to ensure that the necessary screening mechanisms are in place to ensure overseas-trained doctors have the skills and experience to provide services commensurate with the needs of the community. (2) WACRRM and the Western Australian Country Health Service should be jointly engaged in future medical work force planning. In an environment of chronic work force shortages, it is critical to the development of sustainable country health services that the Western Australian Country Health Service and WACRRM establish coordinated approaches to medical work force planning for rural and remote areas. (3) WACRRM should become an independent and stand-alone entity. The current arrangement whereby WACRRM comes under the umbrella of the University of Western Australia is not considered the most appropriate or effective structure for a medical work force agency, and is not consistent with the arrangements in other states and territories. (4) WACRRM should operate as a brokerage agency, offering a single point of reference for recruitment, retention, financial incentives and advocacy for current and potential rural doctors and the organisations that seek to engage/sponsor them. A working group comprising the director of WACRRM, representatives of the University of Western Australia and the Australian government Department of Health and Ageing, and chaired by the WA Country Health Service, is to be established to review the recommendations in the report and provide advice to me with regard to: the prioritisation of the recommendations; the recommendations that can be implemented in the short term without financial impact; the recommendations that depend upon the outcomes of the national review; and implementation issues and costs. The committee has prepared a public report for circulation among interested stakeholders, and this is available to individuals and organisations who contributed to the review. I thank the committee, the member for Avon and the member for Geraldton, for their excellent work in preparing this significant report. TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES - NORTH MIDLANDS Statement by Minister for Science and Innovation MR F.M. LOGAN (Cockburn - Minister for Science and Innovation) [9.10 am]: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Point of Order Mr C.J. BARNETT: Madam Deputy Speaker, I draw your attention to the reading of newspapers in the house. THE DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mrs D.J. Guise): If someone is doing so, I ask that he or she desist and do it outside the chamber. Debate Resumed Mr F.M. LOGAN: It is with a great deal of pleasure that I inform the house of a major breakthrough in the provision of important telecommunications services for people in the north midlands. Yesterday, the National Party congratulated the government on the work it has done for the people of Geraldton but reminded us not to forget the people of the hinterland. We have never forgotten the people of the hinterland. I can inform them today that businesses and residents - Several members interjected. Mr F.M. LOGAN: The member in particular should listen to this. Businesses and residents in the towns of Coorow - Several members interjected. Mr F.M. LOGAN: They get me every time. The member for Hillarys, as a fellow Croydon boy, will understand. They get me every time. Mr R.F. Johnson: It’s that wonderful accent of yours. Mr F.M. LOGAN: Businesses and residents in the towns of Coorow, Carnamah, Mingenew, Morawa, Mullewa, Perenjori, Three Springs - members should listen to this - Leeman and Green Head now have access to

3310 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] affordable broadband services. This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the WA- based telecommunications carrier BroadbandNet Pty Ltd and the North Midlands Voluntary Regional Organisation of Councils. The MOU was facilitated by the Department of Industry and Resources’ broadband demand aggregation broker project. It is a great outcome for these communities and I congratulate the department and the seven shires for their efforts to secure an essential telecommunications network for the region. This project reflects the state government’s commitment to work in partnership with industry and regional communities to improve access to the full range of modern communication technologies. I am also pleased to see an innovative Western Australian company delivering world-class services to regional Western Australians. This reinforces my support for an innovative, robust and sustainable information-communications technology sector in WA. I have no doubt that access to broadband will assist local industries to compete, provide residents with greater access to educational opportunities, and help the region attract and maintain a skilled work force. The broadband demand aggregation broker project is jointly funded by the state and federal governments. As I said, government members can show the National Party that we do not forget the people of the Geraldton hinterland. WATER PRESSURE - GERALDTON Grievance MR J.H.D. DAY (Darling Range) [9.13 am]: My grievance is to the Minister for Water Resources. I raise an issue that is of major importance to the people of Geraldton, and in particular to businesses in the central business district. I acknowledge and thank the member for Murdoch for his assistance in providing much of the information that I will relate to the house. There is a problem in Geraldton with the capacity of water supplies, and water pressure in particular, as I understand it. It is of concern to the City of Geraldton. The Mayor of the City of Geraldton, Vickie Petersen, expressed this concern to the opposition yesterday. The problem is demonstrated by the fact that the Geraldton Beach Hotel has recently undertaken a substantial renovation of the upstairs area of its business at a cost of about $160 000. Having completed the upgrading, the business operators have been told they need to spend an additional $200 000 to install water tanks to increase the water pressure that would be available in case of fire. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: If members wish to have a discussion inside this house and they do not have the call, they should please do so outside. Members on my left! Mr J.H.D. DAY: That is required by the fire regulations. This is not a problem for only that business. I understand other businesses face the same problem, although they have not undertaken their construction projects or redevelopments as yet. Examples include the proposed Geraldton medical centre, which is intended to be a $4 million construction project. That is on hold, as it has been advised that water tanks would need to be installed for the same purpose as I have outlined, at a cost of about $300 000. There is a proposal to renovate the Camel Bar, one of the liquor outlets in the central business district. That project is also on hold, as the operators have been advised that they would need to spend $200 000 to install water tanks for the same purpose. Young Motors is in the process of a renovation to expand floor space and has been advised of the need to spend $250 000 to install roof water tanks so that the business will have adequate water available in case of fire. The cause of this problem is insufficient capacity in the water supply system in the Geraldton CBD in particular, which leads to inadequate water pressure to fight a fire if one were to occur. Inevitably, fires occur from time to time and the community needs to be prepared and the infrastructure needs to be available to deal expeditiously with that eventuality. I understand that the mayor, Vickie Petersen, made the comment yesterday that a large- scale fire could wipe out three-quarters of the CBD. This is directly the responsibility of the state government. The state has the responsibility for providing adequate water supplies throughout Western Australia, with perhaps the exception of Bunbury and Busselton, which have separate water boards. Certainly, here in Geraldton and throughout most of WA it is the direct responsibility of the state government, through the Water Corporation. Ultimately, the Minister for Water Resources needs to take responsibility for ensuring there are adequate water supplies in the Geraldton CBD and elsewhere. I raise this problem on behalf of the community in Geraldton and seek a response from the Minister for Water Resources as to what action the government will take to deal with a very real problem. Quite clearly, a plan is needed to upgrade the water infrastructure, presumably the capacity of the water supply system in the Geraldton CBD in particular. No doubt it is impacted upon by the growth that is occurring in the mid-west and in the greater Geraldton area. Whatever the cause, the problem needs to be dealt with. We heard lots of pronouncements from the government yesterday, and no doubt we will get lots more today, about what a wonderful job the government is doing in Geraldton, and singing its own praises. Several members interjected. Mr J.H.D. DAY: I think it would go over a little better if the community was allowed to judge whether the government was doing a good job, rather than the government singing its own praises, which appear to most

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3311 people to be hollow. As the member for Cottesloe says, there is a substantial degree of bragging in it. If that is how the government wants to carry on, that is its business. This is a real issue and it needs to be dealt with. It has not been adequately addressed in Geraldton and we ask for a response from the government and a clear outline of the plan it will adopt, the time scale and the funding arrangements, to upgrade the water supply in Geraldton. Businesses in the Geraldton CBD should not face a substantial impost if they want to upgrade their premises and facilities - I have outlined the examples. Substantial costs such as those are clearly a major impediment to the growth of Geraldton and businesses in the area. MR J.C. KOBELKE (Balcatta - Minister for Water Resources) [9.20 am]: I thank the member for his grievance and the opportunity to inform him and other members of some of the facts behind the matters that the member has raised. The Water Corporation’s responsibility is to provide water services in accordance with its operating licence, which is issued by the Economic Regulation Authority. Through the operating licence, the ERA sets water pressure and flow rate standards for residential and commercial services that the corporation provides here in Geraldton. The operating licence does not specify - I repeat, does not specify - minimum flow requirements for street hydrants or to a building for fire fighting purposes. It has been the corporation’s experience that in most cases properties can satisfy their fire fighting requirements by direct connection to the scheme. However, it is accepted that there are some areas where, although the corporation provides services in accordance with its operating licence, the fire fighting requirements cannot be achieved by direct connection to the main. This issue has been addressed by a special interdepartmental working party, which has been set up between the Water Corporation and the Fire and Emergency Services Authority. The working party has developed a set of common standards and has presented these standards through an information paper to the water, land development and engineering consulting industry. The building fire services design process, which is set out in the information paper, allows the corporation, when consulted, to work with property and building developers and engineering consultants, to help them provide the owner with appropriate advice on alternative solutions to meet the requirements of FESA and local government, so that the owner can then implement the chosen solution. I think the member is saying that it should not be the owners who have to do it, but it should be the Water Corporation that provides it. That is simply not the case. Mr R.F. Johnson: It should be the case. Mr T.R. Sprigg: You have to provide services. You are in government. Mr C.J. Barnett: It is a utility service. Mr J.C. KOBELKE: It is great that we have the audience here witnessing the ignorance of this Liberal opposition. We see it all the time. They bray, shout, yell and declare their ignorance. I am very happy with that, because the public can know how ignorant this Liberal opposition is. Mr R.F. Johnson interjected. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr J.C. KOBELKE: The requirement is 20 litres per minute for the operating licence. The requirement is something like 600 litres per minute for the building codes for fire fighting. We have a program in Perth, one which Malcolm Turnbull, the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, has acknowledged is something that should exist around Australia. The program is to reduce water pressure in the mains, because higher water pressure leads to greater usage and less efficiency. The program in Perth, by which we are reducing the pressure in the mains to conserve water, clearly does not give way to the issue of concern here. Mr C.J. Barnett interjected. Mr J.C. KOBELKE: The member for Cottesloe is very good at making noise when there is a real issue to be addressed. He does not understand the facts and is not interested in the facts. The opposition members basically want to make a noise and think that they can score political points through their sheer ignorance of the facts. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas interjected. Mr J.C. KOBELKE: The member might want to listen and actually get some facts. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: I am listening. Mr J.C. KOBELKE: The member might be enlightened, because a little learning is a dangerous thing. We see that in the opposition all the time. Opposition members go off half cocked and make fools of themselves because they do not listen to the facts. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas: Really? We do not make fools of ourselves. We can see straight through you, minister. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, member for Carine!

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Mr J.C. KOBELKE: Members opposite like to yell and shout, and show people how ill-informed they are, rather than listen to the facts. Mr J.H.D. Day: This is a significant issue and it deserves a considered response from you. Mr J.C. KOBELKE: There are real issues here. I met with FESA a couple of days ago. FESA has indicated to me how it deals with these issues; that is, its vehicles carry additional pumps so that if a major fire occurs, fire fighters can draw on other sources. Practised emergency responses are also in place. If there were a major fire, fire fighters could turn on another major tank in the area, which would provide the required water to fight the fire in one area. The downside is that, while that is in place, other areas of Geraldton would not have water. That is clearly not the usual operating practice. However, emergency responses are practised in order to be able to provide water at the higher pressure if it is needed in a given area. If there is only one building in the commercial area of a particular height that creates pressure issues, should every other building have to meet the cost of upgrading to that standard? There are issues of compromise to suit all businesses. Higher costs should not be put onto all businesses to meet the requirement of one new building. Standard procedure here and in other places is a requirement for the building code to place an obligation on the people who are constructing the building to meet that standard. Of course, in a town such as Geraldton, which is experiencing rapid growth, particular issues need to be addressed. A meeting was set up some weeks ago, and is taking place today, to address changes and improvements that can be made to this matter. For instance, there will probably be a water supply for the foreshore redevelopment, which will, quite likely, be engineered differently and have a higher pressure. If that supply runs adjacent to central business district development, it may be one way of addressing this issue for some of the prospective developments in that area. Mr T.R. Sprigg: So they hold off that development until the water pressure is there, do they? Mr J.C. KOBELKE: What is the member suggesting? Is he suggesting that all the businesses should meet a higher cost so that one building does not have to pay up? Mr T.R. Sprigg: Do your job. That is what you have to do. You should provide the right facilities. Mr J.C. KOBELKE: Again, the comments of the member clearly show how little he knows about the subject. The facts are that there is an issue here. There is a meeting today to deal with it. Simply increasing water pressure overall may not be the most cost effective way of dealing with it; in fact, increasing pressure generally across the system would lead to greater water usage. At a time when we are trying to be economic with water, we must look very carefully at the issue. Several members interjected. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! MALEY’S BRIDGE Grievance MR S.R. HILL (Geraldton) [9.26 am]: My grievance is to the Minister for Heritage. A rain-bearing depression from cyclonic activity in January 2006 caused widespread flooding in the Greenough area. As a result the historic Maley’s Bridge was badly damaged. Construction on the bridge began in 1864 by ticket-of- leave convict labour, using local limestone spalls to form the road approaches and the bridge substructure, most of which remains intact today. The bridge forms a significant part of the historic Greenough flats hamlet. The superstructure was constructed from sawn jarrah timber that has been largely replaced or added to over time. Additional timber stringers were added after World War II to increase the level of serviceability and later, from 1978 to the present day, to allow the 17-tonne load limit. Maley’s Bridge was located on the original main road alignment between Dongara and Geraldton and provided a safe, all-weather crossing of the Greenough River, surviving the largest recorded floods of 1872, 1888, 1953 and 1994, until the floods of January 2006. Maley’s Bridge forms one of several local access routes for tourists and the local community alike between the front and back flats of the historic Greenough hamlet, and some 172 vehicles travel over the bridge daily. The bridge is the oldest operating bridge in Western Australia, having provided more than 140 years of continuous service. It has been determined that some of the original timbers may well be the oldest existing timbers in an Australian bridge. Levee banks along the river course were constructed in 1960 to the inland side of the Greenough River in the lowest floodplain area, to contain the river during peak flow conditions. This action resulted from widespread flooding that occurred within the Greenough flats during the 1954 flood. However, due to the lack of ongoing maintenance, the levees downstream from the bridge were breached during 1988 and 1994 and, more recently, in the 2006 floods, causing extensive flooding of the Greenough area on each occasion. Repairs were carried out in the 1980s to the timber components of the deck, as well as to some areas abutting the pier walls.

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The 1988 floods resulted in considerable scouring of the sand bed around the piers and the abutments. The scours were not deep enough to threaten the stability of the foundations at the time. The rain-bearing depression from cyclonic activity over the Greenough River catchment area, brought about by cyclone Clare in early January 2006, caused widespread flooding of the Greenough area. Although the bridge was not over topped, the levee banks some distance downstream from the bridge were breached, causing floodwaters to cut the Brand Highway and flood the Greenough flats. This flood is considered to be of greater magnitude than the previous floods of 1994. Information received indicates that there was considerable debris build-up against the bridge abutments and piers, and in particular at pier 4, against which a large tree had lodged itself. Excessive restrictions to the flow at pier 4 caused extensive undermining to the upstream end of the pier base, and eventually resulted in the collapse of the masonry-limestone pier. Pier 4 collapsed, and the pier wall was broken into a number of sections. As a result of the deck span sagging considerably over the collapsed pier, the span finally collapsed after a number of vehicles tried to cross the bridge. Maintenance works on the bridge had generally only been undertaken on a reactive basis when problems occurred, and regular planned and preventive maintenance works were infrequently undertaken. This was mainly due to the unavailability of funding and to a lack of understanding of how to maintain the timber and masonry structure. As a result, some of the restoration works undertaken on the bridge in the past have been ad hoc at best, and in some cases have been detrimental to the nature of the bridge. Over the past 30 years little recorded maintenance work has been carried out on the bridge. The recent flood damage and the extent of further deterioration that has been reported have raised considerable concerns about the extent of upgrading work required for the bridge to remain functional and to comply with the current bridge code for load capacity and safety requirements. The present structural condition of the bridge clearly indicates that the bridge has more than exceeded its designed lifespan. It is not possible, economically, to provide the desired level of service or to meet the bridge design code and safety requirements without total reconstruction of the bridge. The heritage value of Maley’s Bridge, however, is significant, and all means possible should be considered for retaining the bridge in some form that is representative of the original form and fabric. The Shire of Greenough council met recently to consider a number of options, and it was suggested that the bridge be repaired to pre-flood conditions and that the work include full restoration and flood protection work. Repairs would require reconstruction of the bridge deck with a similar material to pre-flood conditions. The direct benefit of this option would be that replacement of the deck would result in an increased load capacity, with the installation of new or suitable replacement stringers. The restoration works needed are mainly the repair of deteriorated lime mortar and limestone in the pier and abutment walls, and the preservation treatment of all elements of the bridge. To reduce the risk of flood damage, consideration should be given to the construction of a guide bank either on the eastern abutment upstream of the bridge or on the lower eastern approach road between the abutment and the river levels, to reduce lateral flow effects. Other options that could be considered include: restore the bridge as non-functional with flood protection, and build a new bridge; restore a non- functional bridge, with flood protection and road connection to Company Road and West Bank Road; or restore the bridge as non-functional with flood protection, with a low-level flood-crossing bridge next to it. Regardless of which option is chosen, it is of paramount importance that the bridge be restored to its pre-flood condition. The heritage significance of Maley’s Bridge is such that it cannot be treated lightly. During World War II, soldiers carved their names into the historic wood on the bridge after reinforcing it to take military vehicles. Again, I request the minister to assist in having Maley’s Bridge restored to its original condition. The bridge has withstood large flood events during its 140 years, and the historic nature of the bridge indicates that it should be restored as an in-service bridge, as many in the community would like. MRS M.H. ROBERTS (Midland - Minister for Heritage) [9.33 am]: I thank the member for Geraldton for raising with me his concerns about Maley’s Bridge. A matter of days after cyclone Clare went through this region in January of this year, I had the opportunity to see Maley’s Bridge, and there was still a lot of flooding in the area at that time. It is of huge concern that a bridge built by ticket-of-leave convicts some 140 years ago was so substantially damaged as a result of cyclone Clare. As Minister for Heritage, I also comment on the excellent heritage of the Geraldton and Greenough regions. The member for Geraldton has been working very closely with me on a range of heritage issues, and he is very keen on heritage tourism opportunities. There is no doubt that there are unique opportunities in this region for heritage tourism. The member for Geraldton has been instrumental in Greenough’s achievements to date. I was very proud to see the Shire of Greenough receive the Heritage Council award earlier this month for an outstanding contribution by an organisation. That was a state- wide award that I presented, and the ceremony was attended by the member for Geraldton. The member for Geraldton has highlighted the importance of maintaining this historic convict bridge in Greenough. It was constructed between 1864 and 1866. It is closely associated with the local miller of the time, John Maley, who helped design the structure. Maley’s Bridge was entered permanently into the state Register of Heritage Places, so it is protected under the Heritage of Western Australia Act. The bridge is essential to the

3314 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] heritage values of the Shire of Greenough, and is one of the very few extant early bridges in this state. It was until recently a remarkably intact example of nineteenth century bridge construction. The member for Geraldton is absolutely correct; we need to reconstruct Maley’s Bridge to its former glory and capacity, and conserve it for the benefit of all Western Australians well into the future. Having survived for 140 years in a sunburnt land of droughts and flooding rains, Maley’s Bridge finally succumbed to flood water when cyclone Clare howled along the northern coastline, dumping record rainfall in January this year. One of the bridge’s stone piers was washed away and the superstructure then collapsed. With the support of the member for Geraldton, the Shire of Greenough has commissioned an engineer’s report to assess the options for the bridge’s traffic capacity. The report was received in April and assessed by the shire, Main Roads Western Australia and the Heritage Council. Earlier this year I advised the member for Geraldton, in my former capacity as Minister for Emergency Services, that natural disaster relief funding would be able to provide substantial funds for the repair of the bridge. I understand that the Shire of Greenough will receive $120 000 by way of its insurance policy. The member for Geraldton stressed to me that the future of the bridge lay not only in its capacity to take pedestrian traffic, but also for it to be restored to take vehicle traffic into the future. I have heard the concerns of the member for Geraldton on this issue over the preceding couple of months, and as a result of his requests I have been in touch with the Shire of Greenough and have asked it for some final details of the funding required. It is accessing natural disaster relief funding and insurance, but there is still a shortfall of $105 000. I am delighted to announce that our government will invest the $105 000 that is required to complete the restoration of Maley’s Bridge in Greenough. With the member for Geraldton and the community of Greenough, the state government is committed to seeing Maley’s Bridge restored to its former glory, ensuring that the community will be able to use and access that bridge for another 140 years. The member for Geraldton also raised another issue to do with heavy vehicles and difficulties that are currently being experienced. I understand that a temporary river crossing is to be constructed, and it is to be hoped that that may be used for heavier vehicles. That will take some of the load while the other work takes place. The member for Geraldton’s petition and grievance has certainly paid off, and I am really delighted, as Minister for Heritage in this state, to see that such an essential part of this state’s heritage will be restored. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES - RURAL AND REGIONAL AREAS Grievance MR G. WOODHAMS (Greenough) [9.39 am]: Before I address my grievance, I acknowledge the presence in the house of students from Geraldton Grammar School. I welcome them, and I hope their experience today is an enjoyable and educational one. It is good to see them here. Similar to the previous speaker, I enjoy a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains etc, etc. Several members interjected. Mr G. WOODHAMS: I was just reminded. My grievance today is directed to the Minister for Health and relates to rural and regional mental health services in Western Australia. Across Western Australia, there is a drastic need to develop adequate support measures for not only mental health patients, but also mental health carers. As most members would be aware, almost one in five Australians will suffer from depression at some stage, with about six per cent of the population experiencing clinical depression in any one year. Mental health issues are undoubtedly a serious problem across Australia, and particularly in Western Australia. I know that the minister acknowledges that fact. It is an area that, thankfully, is receiving more attention and more funding; I acknowledge that. However, as Western Australia continues to develop and expand, it has become apparent that more resources are required and the government needs to devise a new model for mental health emergencies in rural areas. The incidence of mental health problems is notoriously common in regional Western Australia. Not only does there appear to be a growing occurrence of problems, but also there is a severe disparity in the services provided to the mentally ill in the country compared with those services available in the city. Beyondblue, the national depression initiative, strongly supports this suggestion that I make. I will quote from beyondblue - While the rate at which mental disorders occur does not differ greatly between metropolitan, rural and remote populations, the likelihood of professional help being sought is lowest among men living away from big cities. I apologise for my ringing mobile phone, Mr Speaker. Mr M.P. Murray: Twenty bucks. Ms M.M. Quirk: It’s your mum again! Mr G. WOODHAMS: I think it is Mr Kennett.

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A member: I think it’s a point of order. Mr G. WOODHAMS: It was Mr Kennett, Mr Speaker. The reference to beyondblue was an instant line to him! Beyondblue states - Young men living in rural Australia are unlikely to seek help for mental health problems and subsequently face a higher risk of suicide than those living in metropolitan areas. . . . The data shows that suicide rates among men in rural and remote areas were higher across almost all age groups, with those aged 20-29 years showing particularly high rates. . . . Increasing or improving service use by and for young rural men, even to a small degree, could therefore impact upon their suicide rates. That is the end of the quote, and the end of the mobile quote as well. Suicide is an area of great concern for Australian society in general. Although those deaths attributed to suicide are relatively low as a percentage of total deaths - there were just over 2 000 in 2004, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and this accounts for 1.6 per cent of all registered deaths - the human and economic costs are substantial. Suicide is the greatest external cause of death in Australia, even outnumbering deaths from transport accidents. Suicide affects some groups more than others. For example, in the 10 years between 1994 and 2004, 20 per cent of all deaths in males aged between 20 and 39 years were from suicide. I know that the minister knows that suicide occurs in all age groups and in all environments. However, there appears to be somewhat of an epidemic among young males, particularly those who live outside the metropolitan area. Concern for our rural constituents prompted us to conduct some reasonably simple research into the current availability and efficiency of mental health assistance options for rural Australians. The research has uncovered poor coordination between agencies and departments, as well as a chronic lack of funding in regional Western Australia. Service provision for at-risk groups such as refugees, young people, indigenous communities, the elderly and those in remote and rural locations was found to be poor. We found that the relevant hotline or telephone service numbers are difficult to locate in the phone book, which leaves rural Western Australians with limited and unreliable access to the Internet, for example, to search for emergency numbers that should be readily available. The most prominent option, SANE Australia, is available Monday to Friday, from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm eastern standard time. The only after-hours answering service refers people to Lifeline. As members may know, Lifeline is a volunteer-based organisation that receives no direct funding assistance from the state government for its 24-hour-a-day telephone crisis counselling service. Lifeline has approached the minister and his department a number of times for possible funding assistance, so I will be interested to hear any comments the minister might make in that respect. The other tele-help options include the Psychiatric Emergency Team, or PET. Most individuals suffering from a mental illness are probably reluctant to admit it. Therefore, it is likely that the terms “emergency” and “psychiatric” will turn them off, and they will not be likely to access that service. Disturbingly, we have heard that the government is planning to downgrade the number of level 3 clinical nurses on duty in the afternoon-evening shift from six trained professionals to just two. It should be noted that during this peak time, nurses can receive as many as 40 or 50 calls, and in some instances those calls can last for longer than two hours. Rural health services are already stretched to such an extreme that they are not able to deal with the escalating mental health problems. General practitioners servicing the country often do not have the training or additional time available to treat patients with mental health issues. Greater access to mental health professionals in rural areas is needed, as well as additional training for those health professionals. Incentive packages should be introduced to entice trained professionals to work in rural areas. This might ease somewhat the burden that currently falls on tele-help services and those professionally employed in trying to help people with mental health problems in Western Australia. I know that this is an area for which the minister has great concern and that he is interested in helping. I look forward to his response. The SPEAKER: Before I give the call to the minister, I think it is appropriate that I once again draw to the attention of members that they should have their mobile phones turned off. I will not call the member for Greenough to order, because the rule is really designed to stop people who are giving a speech from being interrupted. Of course, the ringing of the telephone interrupted the member’s speech. However, I ask members to please make sure that their phones are turned off. MR J.A. McGINTY (Fremantle - Minister for Health) [9.46 am]: I thank the member for Greenough for raising this very important issue of mental health care, particularly as it relates to the mid-west region. I will provide some information by way of background on what has been done to address this much-neglected area of health care.

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I think it is common ground that not enough was done over the last several decades. This is not a political comment. Both sides of politics did not do enough to assist the one in five people, or 20 per cent of the population, who at some stage of their lives will suffer a mental health condition. It has been brought very much to the public attention in recent years, and I am pleased that we are now seeing a very strong response. The government recently committed $173 million to a three-year mental health strategy to try to at least lift the level of services to meet the basic needs of people suffering from mental health conditions. In rural Western Australia - perhaps I will instance the wheatbelt as the example - there are four major problems and shortfalls in the services that are provided: firstly, in Aboriginal mental health; secondly, for young people - that is, adolescent and youth mental health issues; thirdly, for psycho-geriatric mental health conditions, or mental health conditions of the elderly; and, fourthly, in the support provided to carers. To me, they are the four major areas for which services are missing or are insufficient in rural Western Australia. I will give the example of the wheatbelt. Throughout the state, the demand for mental health services has risen enormously in recent years. In the wheatbelt, five years ago there were 1 144 mental health clients of the public health system. Last year, that had almost doubled to 2 292 mental health patients in the public health system in the wheatbelt alone. That doubling in five years of the number of people reporting mental health conditions and wanting treatment is putting enormous strain on the system. Nonetheless, it is one that we must rise to meet. I turn to the shortages. About 80 per cent of all adult presentations to mental health services have co-morbid mental health and alcohol and drug issues; in other words, people presenting with mental health issues are also involved in alcohol and drug abuse. One of the problems that we have is the structure of our health service delivery, whereby mental health services are separate from alcohol and drug counselling. The sooner we can integrate those into one service - we have a bill before the Parliament at the moment, the Alcohol and Drug Authority Repeal Bill - the better. I think that will provide a more integrated service to meet the two issues together, rather than trying to treat them separately. With regard to Aboriginal mental health and, again, referring to the wheatbelt as the example, there is a very high level of mental health morbidity among Aboriginal people. Twenty-six per cent of wheatbelt Aboriginal children and youth are experiencing emotional or behavioural problems, mental illness, alcohol or drug use, family feuding, domestic violence or child abuse. One in four Aboriginal children experiences those conditions. Youth mental health is particularly a problem in rural Western Australia, with the alcohol and drug issues and also youth suicide. Seventy-five per cent of emerging mental health illnesses occur between the ages of 14 and 25 years, and 20 per cent of the national youth population is currently estimated to have a diagnosable mental illness. In the wheatbelt, the figure is 7 854 young people. That gives members an idea of the magnitude of the problem that we are attempting to deal with. We also have the problem, particularly in rural Western Australia, of mental health conditions in the elderly. Because there are no psychiatric facilities for the psycho-geriatrics to be cared for in the regions, they are all too often transferred to Perth and never return to their regions. We do not have an effective carer-support network for people providing care and, generally speaking, family members of people who have a mental health illness. That is the problem and I think many of those issues were rightly touched upon by the member for Greenough. However, I will tell members of the things that are happening to enable people to better cope with the issues involving mental health. Twelve months ago, the Geraldton Regional Hospital employed its first ever mental health nurse in the emergency department so that, when people present to the hospital with an emergency condition, they are able to be seen by a mental health professional. That has had a profound effect on the quality of mental health care and also the operations of the emergency department. Mr B.J. Grylls: It also relieves pressure on the police. Mr J.A. McGINTY: That is quite right. The police were often the ones left holding the baby, if I can put it that way. A mental health professional is also employed in mental health promotion to train other staff to be able to recognise conditions and how to respond initially, at least, prior to professional treatment. Also, as part of a statewide program for the provision of community-supported accommodation, later this year in Geraldton we will begin building nine units of accommodation for 14 people with significant mental health issues. The community-supported residential units will involve a non-government organisation providing support to people with mental illnesses who will be provided with accommodation. Current demand in Geraldton is 15; we are meeting 14 of those places through this construction. It is now at the design stage and will be built on the hospital grounds, so that there will be easy access to expert medical and mental health care from the hospital. It will go to tender in July, with construction beginning soon thereafter. The $2 million project will be completed in mid-2007. The other good news, in light of the fact that I have only a few seconds left, is that the employment of a second psychiatrist in Geraldton is progressing well. An offer has been made to a female psychiatrist who has been in Geraldton for the past few days, and we are hopeful that she will accept that offer. That will double the

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3317 psychiatric services available through the public health system in Geraldton. There is a bright future, but a lot more needs to be done.

TELSTRA - BROADBAND AND ADSL SERVICE Grievance MR B.S. WYATT (Victoria Park) [9.54 am]: I thank the member for Greenough. It has been a pleasure listening to him and the member for Geraldton, and being on their respective patches. My grievance today is to the Minister for Science and Innovation. There has been a poetic theme running through proceedings this morning. While I was sitting and thinking about some appropriate poetry for my grievance, the poet William Blake sprang to mind. He wrote a collection of poems Songs of Experiences and, of course, his Songs of Innocence. These were works of his hopes and desires for industrialisation and then of course the sadness, the bitterness and the cynicism after the inevitable downfall of industrialisation. He wrote a poem called The Sick Rose. It states - O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm, That flies in the night, In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy; And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. Something that makes me sick in this current post-industrialisation age in which we live is the provision of an asymmetric digital subscriber line, or ADSL, to parts of my electorate via Telstra and, generally, the behaviour of Telstra with the provision of broadband access to areas in my electorate and its surrounds. The member for Merredin will be very familiar with the grievance that I am raising. Mr R.F. Johnson: And my electorate. Mr B.S. WYATT: I thank the member for Hillarys. I am getting support from everywhere! Many constituents in the suburb of Wilson have contacted me to register their frustration with the treatment they are getting from Telstra. I will read an e-mail that I received from a constituent. It states - I just wanted to comment on why does a portion of Wilson cannot have Broadband Services. I thought it was part of the government agenda to provide Broadband to ALL AUSTRALIANS including regional areas. Wilson is an area very close to Curtin University and I would have to be speaking for all students that Broadband is an essential tool in our education. I live in Wilson and have recently tried to apply for Broadband Services, however I have what they call a paired line communications system, which in simple terms means that two houses are sharing the same line. A request was made out to Telstra about fixing the line and a reply was received after a week saying that they could not offer Broadband to that area. The options that were available to me were dial-up (ancient and slow) and ISDN (slow and expensive). Wouldn’t it be highly important to provide Broadband to areas with higher density and with a University and schools nearby? And if so, I really do not think I am the only person in my area to be requesting Broadband to be available. If anyone is listening to this letter can they please make a request to Telstra to get Broadband available to our community? The more requests the better the response. Hopefully something can be done…. Its very frustrating trying to study and/or work whilst having to wait 10 minutes for the web page to load. For the benefit of the people of Geraldton, Wilson is a stone’s throw from Curtin University of Technology, a very large university in the metropolitan area. The people of Wilson are covered by the Cannington exchange, which was ADSL enabled in October 2000. However, large parts of Wilson cannot access ADSL, even in those areas that have been serviced by a remote integrated multiplier or RIM. What has been the most frustrating experience for my constituents has been the complete inconsistency and deception by Telstra in its explanation for the lack of this service. I am located in the federal seat of Swan, and Kim Wilkie, the member for Swan, has raised this issue a couple of times in the federal Parliament. On 25 March 2004, Mr Wilkie said in the federal Parliament -

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I decided to follow up my constituent’s complaint with Telstra, and their response was staggering. Telstra says: ‘For commercial reasons, upgrades are demand driven, so customers wanting ADSL in the RIM areas serviced by the Cannington exchange need to register their interest on the ADSL demand register.’ But guess what? When you ring to register your interest, you are told that the Cannington exchange is already ADSL enabled. It is a contradiction. These people are being misled, and I am sure they feel as though they are banging their heads against a brick wall. Many of us are familiar with the case of Mr Kel Watkins and his company Freightshop, which received a bit of press late last year. As at 10 August 2005 Mr Watkins, whose company is located right next to the international airport, could not access broadband for his business. Another issue that has been brought to my attention from people from all over Perth is Telstra’s often-used tactic of promising residents access to broadband on a trial basis. People who sign up for the trial receive very good broadband service throughout the course of the trial, and then are told at the end of the trial that broadband is not available in their area. It is clearly a testing of the commercial waters by Telstra. The problem is that broadband is not a luxury any more. It is a necessity. It is essential-knowledge infrastructure. The new Telstra chief executive officer, Sol Trujillo, has recently belled the cat on this issue; Telstra has completely underinvested in its broadband infrastructure. We are left in a situation in which we have stone-age infrastructure in a world requiring very modern technology. That has been the biggest piece of market manipulation I have seen in a long time, with the provision of profits purely to boost nothing but the share price. I ask the minister to at least provide me with some comments on this grievance that is certainly making me sick. MR F.M. LOGAN (Cockburn - Minister for Science and Innovation) [10.00 am]: I thank the member for Victoria Park for his grievance. Comments we have heard around the chamber indicate that his is not the only area suffering from lack of access to broadband. My own area, Cockburn, suffers from the same problem. I will first of all take the member back to the issue of why suburbs are suffering from the lack of access to broadband and, in some cases, network coverage for mobile phones and for telephones generally. The commonwealth is absolutely obsessed with privatising Telstra. It is absolutely obsessed with privatising anything. It is in the process of privatising Medibank Private, privatising Telstra through the T3 sale, and selling off its holding in Snowy Mountains Hydro. It has spent huge amounts of money trying to convince rural residents that the issues of telephone coverage and broadband access have been fixed, as a way of justifying the sale of Telstra. The federal government has been throwing huge amounts of money at certain areas to convince the Nationals in the Senate that the issue of broadband coverage and telephony in the bush is fixed, as a way of trying to justify the final sale of Telstra. The reality is, however, that Telstra has still not connected broadband in some Perth suburbs. We have just referred to a couple of those suburbs. The member for Hillarys says that some of the suburbs in his electorate are not connected to broadband. Mr C.J. Barnett: It is available in Swanbourne. Mr F.M. LOGAN: The member for Cottesloe is obviously very lucky. He obviously has great connections himself with the commonwealth, and is able to fix the problems in his electorate. As one of the member’s constituents, I must congratulate him for his efforts, if it has been due to his efforts. However, other people in Perth have negligible access to broadband. The example just given by the member for Victoria Park is the suburb of Wilson. Curtin University is in the middle of Wilson. One of the member for Victoria Park’s constituents who is a student at Curtin has been complaining about access to broadband. Broadband access is absolutely fundamental for students. If it is unobtainable in the area around the university, students could be in a lot of trouble. Mr R.F. Johnson: What are you going to do about it? Mr F.M. LOGAN: I am coming to what we are doing about it now, but we must remember who actually provides the service. The service is provided by Telstra. The commonwealth is simply obsessed with privatisation, not fixing the issues that currently exist on the ground, particularly in Western Australia. As members know, the commonwealth continually forgets Western Australia in every area, particularly that of investment. Instead of restructuring Telstra to ensure open access to the network, the commonwealth government is just obsessed with privatisation. Mr J.H.D. Day: It has a lot to do with the distance from exchanges. Mr F.M. LOGAN: This is the problem. The member is talking about fibre to node connections. If he just listens, he will find out the answer. The answer to the problems the member for Victoria Park has just highlighted, and that members around the electorate of the member for Darling Range have also highlighted, is to restructure Telstra. That is what should occur. The federal government, instead of being obsessed with privatisation, should first take a lesson from what has been done in Western Australia, particularly with the disaggregation of Western Power. In the process of the disaggregation of the electricity industry, the networks

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3319 have been required to provide open access to any generator. That is exactly what the commonwealth government should do before going further with the T3 sale. It should separate the network from the retail area. That is the only way it will occur. The member for Darling Range can talk about fibre to node connections, and we will see what the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission comes down with in its decision on that issue, but that will not fix the broadband connection problems in Victoria Park or Hillarys. Open competition will fix that, and that is what Telstra does not provide. Instead of actually dealing with the issue, the pro- competition commonwealth government is obsessed with getting the money from the sale of Telstra. That is its obsession, not fixing the problem by separating the retail area from the network, allowing open access to the network for all companies, and ensuring that competition exists in the telecommunications sector. That is the problem, and the member for Cottesloe agrees with me on that issue. I do not believe that that will occur. I believe that the situation will get worse, because monopoly control of the network system will take it out of public ownership in which, as taxpayers, through public pressure, whether it be through the state government, local government or the general public, we can apply marginal pressure to try to force our federal politicians to make changes in Telstra. We will lose that capacity completely once the monopoly network is passed from public to private ownership. Do members honestly believe that the new owners of Telstra, with virtual monopoly control of the network, will try to address the problems of the members for Victoria Park and Hillarys? I do not believe that they will. We are in for a long struggle, and the state government is doing everything it possibly can, despite the lack of effort from the commonwealth, to overcome those problems. The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr M.J. Cowper): Grievances noted. While the member is making his way to his seat, I welcome students from John Willcock College and St John’s School, Rangeway to the chamber. I thank them for giving us a wave, and welcome them to the Parliament of Western Australia. NURSES AND MIDWIVES BILL 2005 Second Reading Resumed from 16 November 2005. DR K.D. HAMES (Dawesville) [10.08 am]: It is good for the audience to see something that everybody assumes does not happen, but actually happens more often than not; that is, a situation in which the government and the opposition agree on legislation. All that is ever presented through the media to the public is question time or areas in which we come into conflict, so everyone assumes that all the opposition and the government do is fight each other. That is not the case. On many occasions we agree, and on this occasion we are supporting the government on this bill. At the end of my speech I will raise some issues relating to one particular aspect raised by the body containing the minister’s favourite people, the Australian Nursing Federation. This bill is one of nine bills that create a new registration procedure for medically based organisations. It was based on the Osteopaths Bill, and I am very pleased that we are coming to the end of the road. I think this is bill number eight. I think we have only the Dental Bill to finish. Mr J.A. McGinty interjected. Dr K.D. HAMES: We are still to debate the medical bill, but I do not think it is classed as one of the nine. It is a separate bill of its own accord. The Nurses and Midwives Bill 2005 repeals the Nurses Act 1992. Many acts that were repealed by this practitioner legislation dated back way beyond 1992; some acts were extremely old. Under national competition policy the commonwealth government requires many areas of legislation to be reviewed, in particular to ensure that the governing boards have a modern framework and modern procedures and are set up in a way that protects the public. This bill does that. The bill does another thing, and the explanation is in the name of the bill, the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2005. It repeals the Nurses Act 1992, which deals with registration and contains provisions for the management of nurses. This is the first time that midwives have been recognised in their own right, which is something they have long sought. Not only does the bill allow nurses who have trained as midwives to be registered with the Nurses and Midwives Board of Western Australia and, in fact, to be members of the board, something that has never been specifically allocated to midwives before, but also it allows people to train as midwives in their own right. Therefore, people can train as midwives without having to become nurses and they can be registered and practise as midwives in the community. That is a great boost forward for the management of obstetrics in Western Australia. Managing the delivery of babies has always been the province of doctors; they have been the responsible ones, and midwives have not been given proper recognition and have been in some ways regarded as an appendage. However, I have to say, as a general practitioner who has made many deliveries in the past, often midwives are the ones who deliver the babies and have a lot more experience than some doctors have. In my view, midwives over generations have earned the right to practise midwifery in their own right; therefore, I very much welcome this change. The bill also changes the Nurses Registration Board and adds extra members to the board. It adds in particular a community representative and a legal representative, which is characteristic of all of these practitioner bills. The rest of the bill is set out in the same format with the same requirements. It has two key committees similar to

3320 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] those in the other acts. It provides for a complaints review committee so that people with complaints about the actions, management or activities of nurses have somewhere to go to complain and have their complaints reviewed. A separate committee can consider the ability of a practitioner to practise. People will be able to make complaints about practitioners whose abilities are affected medically, through drug use or for other reasons, or when people become aware of someone being involved in those matters. Therefore, as with all other practices, there will be a panel to review those complaints to make sure that practitioners practise in good health and with full abilities. This bill also registers nurse practitioners. Again, doctors have long opposed this move. They say that their training as doctors means that they alone can assess patients and make diagnoses. I do not support that view either. It is very important for nurses to have the ability to make those assessments and diagnoses, particularly in remote areas and Aboriginal communities, and to treat people with the full backing of the law and registration that allows them to play that key role in the community. Doctors have always maintained that medicine is a profession for which people must have six years’ training. I can tell members that I could train a monkey to do half of the stuff that we as general practitioners do. Mr J.A. McGinty: I am glad I did not say that! Dr K.D. HAMES: No, and doctors might not appreciate it. Mr P.B. Watson: But we will use your comment! Dr K.D. HAMES: As a doctor, I am in a position to know. I am talking about things such as testing urine samples, taking blood pressure, writing prescriptions and a lot of routine investigations and examinations in order to have an understanding of medical problems. Mothers do that at home with their children once they learn the signs to look for and the problems to deal with. In many remote communities, particularly Aboriginal communities, Aboriginal health workers learn a lot, through experience and practice, about many of the simpler aspects of medicine. They might have a lot more experience of and practice in dealing with certain problems than that gained in the six years’ training that doctors have to be able to tell people not only what is wrong with them, but also about the six or seven other things that might be wrong with them if the first view is incorrect. Nevertheless, I think there is a great opportunity for nurses, with the huge amount of practice and training that they go through, to gain that extra training to enable them to go into the community and practise in areas where it is badly needed. The shortage of doctors in Western Australia - and in Australia and to some extent the world - means that this bill is very important for people with skills, dedication and something that all nurses seem to have, a heartfelt communication with their patients. It is that understanding of the needs of patients that makes them excellent practitioners; therefore, nurse practitioners are also included in this legislation. The last issue I want to raise was raised by the minister’s good friends at the Australian Nursing Federation; that is, patient care assistants. This bill does not register patient care assistants. However, the ANF has suggested the registration of some carers in Western Australia who provide, in effect, a nurse-caring arrangement. Patient care assistants care mostly for elderly people in their homes, assisting in the personal care of people who are unable to fully care for themselves. Those people often administer medications, assist people to shower and assist in the management of other personal toiletry matters. Those people are currently not registered under any system. Some carers require police clearance to do that work. However, last year we saw the prosecution of a carer who got a pensioner to sign over significant amounts of money and then went off and married another elderly pensioner. I do not recall all the details of that case, but it highlights the extreme importance of ensuring that people who are going into the - Mr B.S. Wyatt: She is now doing time. Dr K.D. HAMES: She is? I am pleased to hear it. What she did was disgraceful. We need a better system to ensure that people who have the responsibility of providing nursing-type care to elderly people in their homes should have some system of registration. However, it is not appropriate to have a separate registration board for carers. We have considered this issue with many other professions, and the key is the risk to the public. The government deregistered optical dispensers. The government was of the view that they did not require that registration given the level of their contact with clients and their ability to cause harm to their clients by professional mismanagement. The carers are a different kettle of fish. Some categories of those carers could be included under this legislation. The Nurses Board of Western Australia would then have some control over the registration of those persons. That would ensure that training mechanisms are put in place for the carers, that patients are given the correct medication and that the carers look after their patients to the best of their ability. It has been suggested by the Australian Nursing Federation that, in effect, carers would be a category that would come under the label of nurses. We would have registered nurses, enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners and the next level would be carers who would come under that label. I will read some of the notes that have been provided to the opposition by the ANF. The Carers Recognition Act 2004 includes definitions that explain the different categories of carers and what they do. In other words, there are different kinds of carers. The duties undertaken by care workers determine the category they come under.

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3321

Those categories include patient care assistants, assistant nurses, support workers, accommodation support workers and personal care assistants. The ANF’s submission refers to patient care assistants - PCAs - and indicates that this category of carers should be included in that registration. Its submission states - In other words, “Patient Care Assistant” refers to paid work carried out by people performing basic nursing duties in hospitals and aged care facilities with the effect of excluding those carers involved in foster care and disability services. I am not sure whether I agree with that, because that does not cover those carers who provide nursing-type assistance to people in their homes. The opposition does not intend to amend this bill today. The ANF’s submission was made available to us as an option about two weeks ago. Prior to that, I said that the opposition would support the Nurses and Midwives Bill without amendment. I have not had the opportunity to take the ANF’s submission to our committee or to our party room. I want to discuss it with our committee and party room to ascertain the view of the party. I understand from comments made earlier that perhaps an Independent member will move some amendments to this bill to include carers. The member has not informed me that that is her intention. However, if she does move amendments today, we may not be able to support them. It does not mean that we will not support them eventually. Our plan is to take this submission further, and when the bill reaches the other place a decision will have been made whether to either support or include an amendment that added carers to the Nurses and Midwives Bill. It is an opportunity that is too good to refuse. If the minister is not in favour of this proposal, I would certainly like to hear his arguments today so that we can take them into account when we discuss in the party room whether to support relevant amendments. Of course, we will listen with interest to the Independent member’s comments. I understand that she will move to amend this bill. It is a proposal that is worth consideration by our party to determine whether an amendment should be supported. Overall, the opposition supports this legislation. We very much welcome the inclusion of midwives in this bill. I remind members of some meetings and conversations that we had with regard to midwives nearly a year ago. I dealt with a deputation representing midwives. As it happened, there was a division at the time and I managed to talk to the minister during the division. The minister supported the further expansion of the ability of midwives to undertake deliveries. I spoke with midwives in the Pinjarra region and they were frustrated at the delay in obtaining support from the minister and the opposition for the activities of midwives to be further expanded. I hope the minister will be able to tell us the stage that this has reached. I presume this legislation is the first step for midwives to be able to progress their aims. I thought that closing down the maternity service at, for example, Kalamunda District Community Hospital would have been the ideal opportunity to provide somewhere for midwives to practise. Certainly, the midwives in the electorate of the member for Murray are very interested in running a midwifery practice. What opportunities does the minister intend to provide to midwives? Given the reduction in the number of general practitioners who now provide obstetric services, therefore easing the pressure on other service deliverers of obstetrics throughout the state, I would like the minister to inform the house of his plans. It does not apply so much to the metropolitan area because, as the minister and I know, those extra services will be provided at Swan District Hospital and at the proposed Fiona Stanley hospital. The minister is aware of my criticism of the closure of 1 500 deliveries at Osborne Park Hospital. We do not oppose the closure of obstetric services at Bentley Hospital, because of the close proximity of the proposed Fiona Stanley hospital and the delivery services that hospital will provide. The same does not apply to Osborne Park Hospital. The women who would otherwise go to Osborne Park Hospital will have to go to either King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women, Swan District Hospital or Joondalup Health Campus. That is a long way to travel for women who live in that mid region. The member opposite may shake his head, but we have obstetric services at, for example, Peel Health Campus. That campus is the same distance from where the proposed Fiona Stanley hospital will be situated as the distance that people who live in the member for Perth’s electorate will be from their nearest maternity hospital. King Edward is a tertiary hospital and women should not go to that hospital for routine deliveries, because of the cost of managing a tertiary hospital. However, all those people will have to go there. The forward predictions for King Edward by the minister, the Reid report and the clinical services framework, and supported by the opposition, are that in the long term there will be a reduction in the number of beds at King Edward. The minister will correct me if I am wrong, but it is currently around 240 beds, reducing in the long term to about 174 beds. It is something of that order. It is a big reduction. That does not encourage people who live in Joondalup, Yokine or other parts of the metropolitan area to go to King Edward. The government wants them to go to the secondary hospitals. To travel from the mid-regions of the metropolitan area to either Swan District Hospital or the Joondalup Health Campus will take the same time as it will take patients from my electorate to travel to the proposed Fiona Stanley hospital. However, to my knowledge no-one is talking about shutting down the maternity services of the Peel Health Campus. If they did, there would be an absolute outcry. I am aware that the minister has children. I do not how far the minister’s wife had to travel to hospital and whether she was in labour at the time she headed for the hospital, but long

3322 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] drives to hospital with a wife in labour are not good. We need to provide hospitals that are in close proximity to all areas of the metropolitan area to improve that quality of service. Members should remember that obstetrics is a natural event, not a medical problem, and that is the reason that I support midwives being able to practice. It is a natural practice that should be allowed to continue, without the need to regard it as a medical emergency. I have diverted from my comments. I will conclude my remarks by again expressing our support for the bill. DR J.M. WOOLLARD (Alfred Cove) [10.30 am]: Unlike the Liberal Party, if the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2005 is not modified, I will not be supporting it. For the benefit of those members who are unaware, I point out that I am a registered nurse. I am a member, and also a past president, of the Australian Nursing Federation. Mr J.J.M. Bowler: It is not a bad union. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: It is a very good union, minister. In fact, one has to wonder why, if it is such a good union, the Minister for Health is refusing to meet with that union. That union represents approximately 12 000 nurses. However, this minister is refusing to meet with that union and discuss this bill. I am not sure who the minister has discussed this bill with. The minister has obviously discussed it with a few nurses. However, the minister is refusing to meet with the peak professional body for nurses. I congratulate the opposition. It is obviously in communication with the ANF; the channels of communication are open. The opposition is also listening to the Australian Medical Association and other allied groups. As members of Parliament, we have a duty to ensure that we achieve improvements in health care. Therefore, we have to wonder where this minister is coming from. The explanatory memorandum for this bill commences with the words - This Bill assists in delivering the State Government’s commitment to National Competition Policy principles . . . It goes on to state - As part of the Western Australian State Government’s obligations under the Competition Principles Agreement and its commitment to review antiquated health practitioner legislation . . . The legislation that is on the table today does not even bring us up to date with what we need currently, let alone with what we will need in the future. The legislation is still antiquated. The explanatory memorandum goes on to state - As well as satisfying competition policy objectives, this Bill provides an updated version of an Act dating back to 1992, delivering more appropriate legislation for today’s health professionals. If we had good legislation, perhaps we would not have the problems that we are currently experiencing in the work force. Yesterday many members of Parliament, and many members of the community, went to see the new Geraldton Health Campus. Geraldton now has a wonderful hospital. However, what good is a hospital if it does not have good staff to look after the patients? When I say good staff, that means good doctors, good registered and enrolled nurses, good patient care assistants, good allied health workers - Mr P.B. Watson: Cleaners. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: Yes, and good cleaners. No matter what hospital ward it may be, the staff should be working as a team, with the patient as the focus of that team. People should be working together to make sure that, regardless of whether the patient is an elderly person or a child, the patient is the priority. All the staff should be focusing their care and attention, and working together and talking together, on addressing any concerns the patient may have, and providing an appropriate response to whatever the issue may be. This bill will not ensure that that is done. The explanatory memorandum states also - The Bill provides for the effective registration of nurses and midwives. It controls the use of the titles enrolled nurse, registered nurse, nurse practitioner and midwife . . . The midwives are a very strong group. They have obviously managed to get the minister’s ear. There are not 12 000 of them, but the minister has obviously listened to them. The minister has also listened to the Nurses Board of Western Australia. One of the reasons that these changes are being introduced is that in the United Kingdom, a person who completes a direct-entry mental health nursing program can be registered. Such a person can then come to Western Australia and be registered as a mental health nurse. However, a person from another country, perhaps the United Kingdom, who has completed a direct-entry midwifery program cannot gain registration in Western Australia because of the restrictions that apply. Therefore, the Nurses Board of Western Australia advises such people to first gain registration in New South Wales or Queensland, because their degree will be accepted in those states, and then apply to transfer their registration to Western Australia. The result of bringing midwifery under this bill is that midwives from other states will be able to gain registration in this state

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3323 and commence work immediately. That is a good part of the bill. However, one good part does not make all the other parts of the bill good. The minister said in his second reading speech - This bill introduces a modern framework to protect the health and safety of members of the public . . . We all know that a team approach must be taken to the care of patients in hospitals. I do not think the minister has listened to the concerns of the Director General for Health, Dr Fong, either, because during the estimates debate he said - There are not enough resources or bodies in terms of doctors and/or nurses. We need more doctors and nurses but we need people who will do different jobs assisting people in their particular professions. One of the key planks of our health reform program is designing new jobs and new ways of providing health care in the community using a collaborative approach. Minister, I stress the words “a collaborate approach”. To me, that means a team approach. However, how can it be a team approach when registered and enrolled nurses will be allowed to provide care in one domain but not in another? The minister has been introducing carers in metropolitan hospitals to try to cut down on costs. However, these carers do not come under the supervision of the registered nurses. That means that only third- grade care is being provided, because the care is not being supervised by people who have the proper qualifications. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in the minister’s second reading speech where he talks about this bill improving nursing. I want to raise a couple of points from that speech. He talked about the role of the new board. I point out that the minister will not meet the ANF personally and have discussions, but at least at the moment the nurses union has a voice on the Nurses Board. Mr J.A. McGinty: I should appoint you to it Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: I would be delighted to be on that board, minister. I would rattle a few cages there. The minister does not meet the ANF directly, but at least the ANF has a member on the Nurses Board. It puts names to the minister and, yes, I believe it has recommended me as one of the names to go forward to the Nurses Board. Mr J.A. McGinty: A very good recommendation. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: This bill takes away that union representation - a person who belongs to a body representing 12 000 nurses. The minister will not meet the union and he will not have a representative from that union on the Nurses Board. One has to wonder where he is coming from. Is this maybe a throwback to the old days when the minister was secretary of the Hospital Service and Miscellaneous Workers Union? I know there was antagonism then between nurses and the miscellaneous workers’ union. In fact, we have two miscellaneous workers’ union members in Parliament now - the Minister for Health and Hon Sue Ellery. I would have hoped that Hon Sue Ellery would have put in a word for nurses because she was actually an organiser for the ANF at one point. It is very disappointing that the minister refuses to meet a professional group who care about the standards of patient care in hospitals, the community, and nursing homes, and that he refuses to listen to them. The member for Dawesville mentioned that nurses believe this bill could be strengthened if the minister included in the registration process patient care assistants and, possibly, student nurses. I point out to the minister that currently TAFE runs various certificate programs, and the certificate 3 program would be the equivalent of what we would see - I believe I am speaking on behalf of the nurses that he will not meet - as a minimum qualification for those nurses to be working within a team to ensure there is improved patient care. Certificate 3 covers things such as community services, aged care, disability work and home and community care. Those patient care assistants who enjoy nursing at that level and maybe want to continue their education could then do an enrolled nurse course. Other states are running programs so that enrolled nurses can upgrade to registered nurses. This means we would be capturing someone at the patient care assistant level who cares and who enjoys the work. Nurses and patient care assistants go into nursing because they enjoy working with people. They enjoy that time. It might be reading the newspaper to someone who cannot read. They enjoy washing patients. It gives them an opportunity to discuss various things with the patients and to learn whether the patients have any concerns. This minister is bringing patient care assistants into hospitals as a cheap form of nursing. If those patient care assistants are not working in a team and reporting to the enrolled and registered nurses, they may not pass on something they may think was a routine part of the conversation, but which could have a major influence on a patient’s health care recovery. That is why they need to work under the supervision of a registered nurse to make sure patients get the best care possible. [Member’s time extended.] Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: I tried to persuade the opposition spokesperson on health to let me be the lead speaker because I knew I would have problems with this bill. It is such an important bill.

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I turn now to clause 98, which deals with incriminating information, questions or documents. It states - An individual is not excused from complying with a requirement under section 75 on the ground that the answer to a question or the production of a document or other thing might incriminate the individual or render the individual liable to a penalty, but neither - (a) an answer given by the individual that was given to comply with the requirement; nor (b) the fact that a document or other thing produced by the individual to comply with the requirement was produced, is admissible in evidence in any civil or criminal proceedings against the individual other than proceedings for an offence against section 94(1)(b). It gets worse than that when one looks at some of the - one moment, Mr Acting Speaker. The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr M.J. Cowper): Members, while we are waiting, I would like to introduce students from Geraldton Grammar School and St Mary’s Primary School, Northampton, who are in the gallery. Thank you for attending the Parliament today. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: I have lost my marker in the bill, Mr Acting Speaker. Mr P.B. Watson: Do you want me to sing? Mr R.F. Johnson: Anything but that! Mr J.J.M. Bowler: Is there a mercy rule? Several members interjected. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: Clause 98 states that it is unlawful. The minister is introducing an investigator as part of the Nurses Board. The person would be able to go into any setting, which could be a hospital or community setting, ask questions and demand, for example, that a nurse answer a question. If the nurse did not answer the question, the nurse would be breaking the law. Members will have seen such television programs as The Bill in which a policeman says to a suspect that he has the right to remain silent, but that any statement he makes may be used in evidence against him. That person does not have to make a statement without legal advice. This bill is taking away such rights for nurses. Anti-terrorism legislation has been debated in the Parliament over the past few months. Many members of Parliament did not want to support it, but we were forced to in case there was a terrorist attack in Perth. The anti-terrorism legislation gives police the power to arrest someone and detain him, without anyone knowing where he is and without him being able to phone anybody or to explain to family or friends why he has been arrested. This legislation is about nurses and midwives, yet the government is introducing the equivalent of anti-terrorism legislation. Clause 98 reads - An individual is not excused from complying with a requirement under section 75 on the ground that the answer to a question or the production of a document or other thing might incriminate the individual or render the individual liable to a penalty, but neither - (a) an answer given by the individual . . . nor (b) the fact that a document or other thing produced . . . is admissible in evidence in any civil or criminal proceedings against the individual other than proceedings for an offence against section 94(1)(b). The minister is saying that under this legislation an investigative person can go into the workplace of a registered or enrolled nurse and ask the nurse questions. This legislation takes away nurses’ right not to speak until they have had legal advice or even spoken to their union about the issue. Some nurses would be intimidated if such a person were to walk into their work place and say that they must answer questions and that if they did not answer, it would be an offence. Mr J.J.M. Bowler: Do you support John Howard’s WorkChoices and attacking unions and getting rid of unions? Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: If members are willing to give me more time, I am willing to veer off onto other issues. In some ways we cannot help but laugh at the minister, because was it not just a few months ago that the Premier or Minister for Health said that he wanted to introduce a bill of rights? Was it the Premier or was it the Minister for Health? It was one of them. Mr J.B. D’Orazio: It was the Attorney General. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: It was the Attorney General who wanted to introduce a bill of rights, yet he is introducing the equivalent of anti-terrorism legislation into the nursing area. Nurses have obviously got up his nose, because he is not listening to them and he is not supporting them. That is why we have such poor retention rates. Nurses do not get the job satisfaction today that they got years ago.

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Mr R.F. Johnson: Not under this government; that’s for sure. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: No, they certainly have not. This government has not listened to nurses. Mr R.F. Johnson: It doesn’t listen to anything. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: No. Queensland has introduced similar legislation, which provides that a person with similar investigative powers can go into a workplace to ask questions. However, Queensland’s legislation states at section 130 that it is a reasonable excuse for a person to fail to answer a question or to produce a document, other than a document required to be kept by a person under the act, if answering the question or producing the document might tend to incriminate the person. At least in Queensland the investigative person is not carrying out a Gestapo-type role. This is terrorist legislation. The minister has said that the legislation will cover regulation. Under this legislation the Nurses Board will register and regulate registered nurses, enrolled nurses and midwives. At the moment we are discussing the bill, but regulations flowing from the bill will affect practice. I draw the house’s attention to the Nurses Act 1992, which states at section 50 - Unlawful delegation A registered person shall not, except as authorised by the rules, authorise or permit a person - (a) who is not registered to carry out any nursing for or on behalf of the first-mentioned person; or (b) who does not hold, and have entered in the register in respect of the person’s name, qualifications approved by the Board in respect of a nursing speciality, to carry out any nursing in that speciality for or on behalf of the first-mentioned person. The Nurses Act states that there should be no delegation of nursing work to unregistered people. However, there is nothing in the rules to say that and we know that it has been happening. We know that the minister has been employing patient care assistants in hospital settings, because it costs less to pay patient care assistants than registered nurses. However, he is not happy for those patient care assistants to be supervised, which is what the amendment would bring about; it would mean a registered nurse would supervise them when they were providing that care. I am sure that members here would like to think that if they or members of their family went into hospital, they would get quality care, not third-rate care. Mr R.F. Johnson: Absolutely. Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: Yes, minister, I would be interested in playing a role on the board. The Nurses Board of WA also released the “Report of the Scope of Nursing Practice Project”, which states - Within the Queensland model delegation is seen to occur between Registered Nurses, from Registered Nurses to Enrolled Nurses and from Registered Nurses to unregulated care providers. We say that under this bill, those unregulated care providers could be patient care assistants. It continues - Delegation is seen as an important function of the role of the Registered Nurse that requires guidance. Nothing in the Nurses Act or the nurses rules builds the team relationship that is needed in a hospital setting if patients are to receive quality care. We do not have that structure at the moment. Some people are working over here, and some people are working over there. However, the patient care assistants are not supervised by registered nurses. The minister could modify the bill to ensure that in whichever health care setting it may be - whether it be a hospital setting or an aged care setting - a team of people cares for each patient. I urge the minister to consider these amendments. The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr M.J. Cowper): I welcome to the Parliament of Western Australia the teachers and students from years 8, 9 and 10 at Northampton District High School. MR T.K. WALDRON (Wagin) [11.01 am]: Before I start, I congratulate the Premier, the government and everyone involved in our Parliament for conducting regional Parliaments. I think they are a great idea. It is fantastic to see people here. It is worth everything we do to see children in the audience. The Nationals will support this bill. I think it is a good bill. I will outline some of the main points and make a few comments on the bill. The purpose of the bill is to provide for regulation of the practice of nursing and midwifery and the registration of persons as nurses and midwives. The good thing about it is that it will give protection to the public and will recognise midwives in their own right. The bill provides a framework for the registration of midwives and acknowledges their key role as health professionals, and provides for the Nurses Board to be renamed the Nurses and Midwives Board, of which two members will be midwives. The bill also recognises that a limited number of direct-entry midwifery courses are now available that do not require, as an entry prerequisite, completion of an undergraduate nursing program. The bill will allow a person to register

3326 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] directly with the board as a midwife, without the requirement to firstly register as a nurse. The bill also provides for both title and practice protection for midwives. I will make some general comments on the bill relating to the importance of nurses and midwives. Having had four daughters, I certainly appreciate the role and the work of midwives. When a person is witnessing a birth and a few things start to happen, it is very nice to know that people such as midwives, who are outstanding and brilliant, are available. I think I have said to the minister before that I have four lovely daughters and a lovely wife, which is why I am bald and broke but happy. I will also comment on the work that nurses and midwives do generally in Western Australia, not in just country Western Australia. However, I know that some nurses and midwives in country Western Australia are disappointed that some of the smaller hospitals no longer deliver babies. Although I am disappointed about that in some areas, I understand the reason that has happened. At the end of the day, we must have the best available care for patients. I want to touch on the shortage of nurses, because attracting nurses to regional areas to cover the shortage of nurses in those areas is an issue. I think it comes back to training. Some great things are happening in nurse training. In Narrogin, the town where I live, there are new nurse training university programs. Training for nurses is a wonderful initiative. It is good for our region. It is also good for nurses to receive university training in a town such as Narrogin, and to work with the local hospital. I know that that also happens in Geraldton. I was very impressed the other night when I met Ann Larson from the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health in Geraldton. I did not know a lot about it. I know that it is basically a commonwealth-funded body that receives some support from the state government. I am keen to learn more about it, because I believe that if we had more of those centres, it would be a great advantage in the provision of health services in regional Western Australia. This bill recognises nurse practitioners. I believe that more nurse practitioners will be needed. There is generally now an acceptance of nurse practitioners. Recently, four or five new nurse practitioners went into rural areas. The National Party certainly welcomes that. We have been championing the use of nurse practitioners for quite some time, and I believe that should be extended further. It would provide great benefits, particularly in those areas in which doctors are scarce and to which doctors are hard to attract. We do not expect nurse practitioners to ever take over the role of doctors. As the member for Dawesville alluded to, people can play many different roles in the health area. As a medical doctor, the member for Dawesville talked about midwives and their knowledge of the birthing process. Nurse practitioners can do many things that will certainly benefit the delivery of health services in our rural and remote areas. I am sure that we will see many more of them in those areas. I want to mention a couple of matters about training. I support the university training of nurses. I believe it is a good thing. A lot of people who were nurses many years ago - elderly ladies, in particular - regret that there is not more nurse training in our hospitals. I believe that it is a question of balance. I know that there are programs under which undergraduates go to work in hospitals. When I spoke to Ann Larson the other night, she told me that she is greatly supportive of the programs under which training nurses work in country hospitals. I certainly support those programs. There is a difference between working in a major hospital in Perth and working in a small country hospital. We must make sure that nurses have overall training. They also need specific training, guidance or direction so that they are able to carry out the tasks that they will be required to perform. That is why I believe that the programs under which they are sent to work in hospitals as part of their practical education are very important. While we are talking about nurses etc in the debate on this bill, I will deal briefly with mental health nurses. Of course, the member for Greenough delivered a very good grievance today on that subject. I was very interested in the answers that the minister gave. I know that the minister is chatting at the moment. However, I was astounded today when he released those figures on mental health. He said that the government is spending $173 million, which is fantastic. He also talked about needing more mental health workers. Just recently, I have seen again in the area that I represent the real problems experienced by someone who works in mental health, because of the stress and strain that that person is under. The figure that the minister quoted for young Aboriginals in the wheatbelt suffering mental health problems was 26 per cent. That astounded me. I knew there was a real problem, and I know that there is a problem in the Aboriginal community, but that staggered me. We want to work with the minister to try to do something about that. However, I do have a concern. I think we need to be very careful that we do not burn out mental health nurses and people who work in that area in country WA. I know the government wants to do as much as it can, and we want to work with it. I encourage the government to make country mental health a priority. Some of that $170 million in the government strategy to be spent over the next three years needs to be spent in this area. I do not want to say much more, other than to say that I think it is a good bill. I would be interested to hear the minister’s comments about the inclusion of patient carers in the legislation. It is an area that I have not gone into

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3327 as much other than to recognise the great work that carers do and the importance of carers. I will be interested to hear the minister’s comments on their inclusion. I will finish by saying that it is important that, in anything we do with nurses, we acknowledge their training and that more of that training needs to occur in our regional centres. Also, we must continue as members of Parliament to give them the recognition and support they deserve because we could not do without them. DR G.G. JACOBS (Roe) [11.11 am]: It is a great opportunity for me to talk to the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2005. However, before I do, I would like to refer to another health-related matter. I congratulate the Western Australian Centre for Remote and Rural Medicine review that was presented to the Parliament today by the Minister for Health. WACRRM was the brainchild of Professor Max Kamien, who was a professor of general practice. Some 20 years ago he sought to address the problem of the medical work force in country and regional Western Australia. The problems still exist and they do not appear to be getting any better. However, I congratulate the members for Geraldton and Avon for their work with the WACRRM review. I know it was received very well by the doctor population in my area. These two gentlemen came to my area and took verbal submissions from all the practitioners and also the community. I believe that the report has focused WACRRM on its core business, which is, as Max Kamien delineated 20 years ago, retaining and attracting medical practitioners and allied health services to regional and rural Western Australia. I believe this bill is a positive one. However, I believe also that it needs some finetuning. I had a great tour of the Geraldton Regional Hospital yesterday and it was good to see such a facility in the mid-west. I hope soon that the same facility will be afforded to the south east of Western Australia. On our tour of the hospital, I was very interested to see the birthing suite and the maternity section. The Geraldton hospital delivers about 450 babies a year and has 14 midwives. In my town and many other towns, there is a grave shortage of nurses and particularly midwives. With only 14 midwives to deliver 450 babies a year, tremendous stress is placed on the staff. I will come back to that because there is a very important issue about working as a team - the doctor, the midwife, the enrolled nurse and the patient care assistants. In my experience at home over 25 years before I came to this place, delivering babies was part of general practice, as it is in the bush. After my training and before I decided that I would go to rural Western Australia, I made up my mind that I had to be able to do three things among other things. I had to be able to give an anaesthetic because that allowed me to resuscitate someone involved in a road accident who needed to be intubated and ventilated. Therefore, if I learnt anaesthetics I would also learn to do that. I also had to learn some surgical skill, which was to take out an appendix, being 700 kilometres from the nearest hospital where that could done. The third thing I needed to learn was to at least assist - I am not saying deliver babies because I do not believe doctors deliver babies; women deliver babies and doctors assist - in the delivery of babies when necessary. As a doctor, I believe that I must acknowledge that if a woman has a baby before I get to the hospital, it is a natural phenomenon. I always had the view that if I did not get to hospital before the woman had the baby, I probably was not needed. That is important in the team approach to delivering obstetrics, which is an area of medicine close to my heart in rural and regional Western Australia. I do not believe in the them-and-us approach. I think it is very important to encourage midwives and nurses to go to places such as Geraldton and Esperance and the many places in between, and that there is good country accommodation to attract these people to the regions and for them to stay there. It was good to see in the budget an allocation of $24 million, admittedly over some years, for stage 2 of country accommodation associated with health. That is a big factor in attracting staff to regional and rural Western Australia. The concept of direct-entry midwives included in this bill is good. A direct-entry midwife is one who does not necessarily have to have a post-graduate nursing-midwifery qualification. I hope that this does not produce multiskilling problems in country hospitals. For instance, in smaller country hospitals a nurse can do general medical work, general surgical work and, if she has her midwifery certificate, midwifery work. A direct-entry midwife can do only midwifery work and cannot be involved in general medical or surgical work. We have to be a bit cautious about that. However, we recognise that there is a major problem with midwife staffing of hospitals. I will touch very quickly on the nurse practitioner definition in this bill, which I hope will become an act with some amendments and some changes. The nurse practitioner controversy has raged for some time and again it is a them-and-us problem. As a practising doctor, I have no problem with the concept of nurse practitioners. I do not share the view of the Australian Medical Association that a nurse practitioner could set up across the road in competition with me, and therefore that I should feel threatened. Before coming to this place I have often talked to and consulted nurses in isolated nursing posts. They have consulted with me in describing and prescribing treatment for patients with whom I am not in contact and cannot see. There are regions in Western Australia to which doctors will not go. What do we say in such situations? Do we say that, because doctors will not go there, we will not provide any form of medical or nursing treatment in remote Western Australia? I believe that nurses have a role. I have worked in the past with nurse practitioners, although not by the strict definition in the bill, but with nurses at nursing posts who act as nurse practitioners.

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The whole nub of this is a partnership; it is a team approach, as the member for Alfred Cove said before. The days of one-man bands are gone, as are the days when the doctor was god. Dr S.C. Thomas: Don’t tell the doctors that. Dr G.G. JACOBS: I am sure that the member for Capel will be very happy to hear that! The team approach is very important, if we are really serious about delivering health care to everyone in Western Australia, in such situations as an incident occurring late at night, when a woman has given birth to her baby but the placenta is stuck. The member for Leschenault is not here, but he said that I should not go into too much detail on that case. I suggest that, at two o’clock in the morning in the Esperance District Hospital, a team is needed. If the placenta is stuck, it must be delivered or it will cause significant haemorrhage. The woman must go into the operating theatre and be anaesthetised so that the placenta can be manually removed. This cannot be done by pulling on the umbilical cord, which has usually come away by that stage. The placenta is still there, but there is nothing to provide traction on it. I give this example just to show members how a team would work. Mr A.J. Carpenter: What do you do? Dr G.G. JACOBS: Without going into too much detail, the placenta is manually removed using a very long glove, and the doctor’s hand is inserted to manually remove the placenta from the uterus. I only went into detail because the Premier seemed genuinely interested. I provided this example only to suggest that it involves not only the practitioner performing the operation. An anaesthetic is required, and a number of nurses are involved, both midwives and general nurses, enrolled nurses and patient care assistants who look after the care of the patient. Patient care assistants also care for the elderly, providing general hygiene, mouth care and diet, and making sure that they are well fed and have good nutrition, and receive pressure care, so that people lying in bed for long periods do not develop pressure sores or deep vein thrombosis. Their role is just as important as that of the practitioner performing the operation. In the light of the team approach, I was disappointed that patient care assistants were not included in this bill. It is important for nurse practitioners and midwives to be included in the provisions of this bill. It is important to define a direct entry midwife as a means for addressing the acute shortage of midwives. It was disappointing that patient care assistants were not included, because there is a continuum of skills from a patient care assistant to an enrolled nurse and even to a state-registered, trained nurse. This continuum is one of gaining certificates and skills through training. I believe that patient care assistants should be included in that continuum. They are included in the continuum in a practical way in the delivery of health care, and from the point of view of a career path, with patient care assistants gaining certificate 3 and then going on to enrolled nurse training. I agree with the submission of the Australian Nursing Federation that consideration be given to including the patient care assistants in the legislative continuum because it is happening in the practical continuum, and it is within the training continuum. I commend this bill. It is important to recognise that it is essentially a registration and regulation bill. Many of the bills that have passed through this Parliament, whether they be for physiotherapists, podiatrists, optometrists or whatever, were drafted on a template that was the Osteopaths Bill. It is about registration and regulation, and the things that can go wrong in practice and the delivery of health care, and providing some guidelines for such situations. Otherwise, people can suffer harm. It is very important to be prescriptive about modes of practice, acceptable practice and even the imposition of fines for particular breaches of that practice. [Member’s time extended.] Dr G.G. JACOBS: There is no problem within the profession with regulation and registration. However, there are some problems and concerns about, for instance, the definition of “midwife”. The bill needs a bit more care in its drafting. The bill describes a midwife as someone assisting in the delivery of a child. I suggest that a midwife does more than that. A midwife assists before, during and after the delivery. Some concepts have been missed out. There is an antenatal aspect - before the baby is born - and there is a very important postnatal part, especially for women who are having their first baby. There is the advent of postnatal depression, and all the problems associated with feeding, mothercraft and all those issues. There are very big factors in the role of the midwife, not just popping out the baby. We are talking about all those other factors in preparation for childbirth and after childbirth. So I think although the minister in his - Mr A.J. Carpenter: The time lines will be interesting in such a definition then. Dr G.G. JACOBS: Absolutely! However, I suggest - I will do it later if I get an opportunity - that we are talking about antenatal and postnatal periods. Those definitions already exist in obstetric texts. Why can they not be inserted in the bill, rather than there being just an assurance from the minister that “midwife” has a broader definition than the narrow definition in the bill? The minister stated that in his explanatory memorandum, which members may care to read. He said that although the definition was a little narrow, everybody would understand that a midwife does more than just assist a woman having a baby. I am not happy with that definition. I believe it would be easy to broaden, but also restrict, the definition of “midwife”.

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In my final remarks I add my support for the bill, although I believe it needs some cleaning up. There are some issues about definition, and the issue of encouragement for midwifery staff which is a bigger issue than the provisions in this regulation and registration bill. Without doubt, there is a great shortage of midwives. It is really important to not only build maternity wards and birthing suites with bricks and mortar, but also to ensure that they have people to service them, such as doctors, nurses, midwives, enrolled nurses and patient care assistants. I therefore support the bill but essentially seek more clarity on the definition of the role of midwife, and confirmation that it in fact encompasses antenatal and postnatal periods. Because of the continuum of PCAs in the practical world, I would like them also to be included in the bill. I believe the direct-entry concept for midwives is a good one, to address the grave shortage of midwives in the state of Western Australia, particularly in regional areas of Western Australia such as Geraldton. MS J.A. RADISICH (Swan Hills) [11.32 am]: I have a few comments to make today on the Nurses and Midwives Bill. Before I do that, I thank the people of Geraldton for hosting us in this fantastic city. Swan Hills is sometimes referred to by people as “south Geraldton”. I used to think that was a disparaging comment, but now I have found that it is an absolute compliment and one that I will wear with great pride. I also acknowledge my good colleague Shane Hill, the member for Geraldton, who has been a great host to all of us. Shane has been an inspiration to many of us in the chamber. Sometimes he drives along Great Northern Highway and rings me saying, “Jaye, why aren’t your roads as good as mine?” I do my best at advocacy, but I think Shane Hill is one of the great advocates in the Parliament for his electorate. Mr S.R. Hill interjected. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, member for Geraldton! Ms J.A. RADISICH: The member for Geraldton, that is right. I certainly acknowledge his contribution and effective role as a person of influence within government. Mr R.F. Johnson: Are you talking to the bill? Ms J.A. RADISICH: Yes, the Nurses and Midwives Bill proposed by the Minister for Health. The Minister for Health has sometimes been called the best ever Minister for Health, and on this occasion I must agree with that proposition. Mr R.F. Johnson: Only by his family; certainly not by us. Ms J.A. RADISICH: Certainly the minister has been a great revolutionary in health and law reform in this state. Mr C.J. Barnett: He has always been a revolutionary! Ms J.A. RADISICH: We will not talk about his university days. By proposing the Nurses and Midwives Bill, yet again the Minister for Health has advanced the interests of people in this state by providing the most reasonable, accessible and affordable health care for people around the state, whether they be from the inner or outer metropolitan areas or from the regions, such as the mid-west where this chamber is today. Some analysis of the bill has been provided on the changes that have been made, and a comparison has been made between the Nurses Act 1992 and the Nurses and Midwives Bill. I will therefore not go into great detail on the bill, other than to say that it is part of the package that was required by the national competition policy review. One part of the bill that I note is the strengthened provisions for offences committed by people who act outside the ambit of the bill. Those provisions are important because, like other professionals, 99 per cent of medical professionals do the right thing. There must be sufficient deterrents in any law or regulation that we put forward to make sure that rogues have the least possible incentive to behave in a way that is disadvantageous to the community. That is an important consideration in this new bill. It is also important that the people registered by the Nurses and Midwives Board will be required to have proper professional indemnity insurance. Unfortunately, it is a fact of life that legal complications have arisen in some cases, and we must ensure that people working with other people’s lives - whether it is the life of a mother or a child - have the relevant qualifications as well as legal and insurance protections so that people can have recourse in the event of something going wrong. I think that is very important. The concept of midwifery is interesting in itself. It is in part a matter of access to qualified professionals for assistance with childbirth, but it is also a matter of consumer choice. We talk a lot about choice in education, health care and treatment options and a range of public services. Choice in childbirth is important, not so much to me right now but certainly to a lot of people in my electorate. The member for Roe just gave a very explicit description of how those events transpire. Frankly, I did not appreciate that, but I realise it is a reality. Not long ago at the Chidlow show I met a large group of community midwives and community midwifery advocates from my electorate. At morning tea, one woman said to me, “Jaye, you know what we’re like in the hills; we just like to breed like rabbits.” Mr R.F. Johnson: Just in the hills?

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Ms J.A. RADISICH: Those were my constituent’s words, not mine! At the Chidlow show, as I was saying, there was a great display of community midwifery in action. I am not sure whether the graphics that were on display at the show were suitable for children, or even for me, but they demonstrated a range of birthing methods from which people could choose. I believe people should be able to choose from those methods in the safest possible environment and circumstances, which includes a qualified, trained and registered midwife to assist with births that occur in or around water, in the family home or in some other serene location, if that is what the family chooses. That is why I support this bill and the recognition of the professional and important role that midwives play in the community. As I said, there is a large group of women in Swan Hills who either practise or advocate midwifery. We, as a government, must provide those safe options for women who choose that path. A lot of work has been done in this field under the national maternity action plan. There are a lot of aspects to the support of midwifery, including the obvious financial savings in the health care system, because hospitals are not filled with women giving birth naturally without complications. This bill goes a long way towards bringing Australia into line with international best practice, as well as meeting community demands for a range of accessible and appropriate maternity services. New Zealand is probably the most advanced country in its approach to midwifery. I understand that up to 80 per cent of pregnant women in New Zealand receive primary care from a midwife. Therefore, a large percentage of women use midwifery services in New Zealand. Midwifery has also resulted in a drop in maternal mortality for Maori women, because the midwives are trained, registered and act in a professional environment rather than provide a service which is more a home craft. It is important to professionalise these health services. Interestingly, in Brazil the World Health Organisation has been working on these issues for some time. The training and professionalisation of midwifery in Brazil has been of great benefit to that country. Over the past few years an additional 225 000 nursing and auxiliary personnel have been trained in Brazil, which has resulted in a decrease in mortality rates for both women and children. Clearly, there is evidence from around the world that professionalisation of these services provides a decrease in costs to the community, choice and much greater safety for women who give birth. Another aspect to this issue is the accessibility of sufficient medical services. Clearly, there is a massive shortage of general practitioner and specialist services in Western Australia. That has been of concern to me for some years, as I know it has been to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. In the outer metropolitan area, not unlike many parts of regional and remote Western Australia, we do not have enough doctors to provide a service to the community, whether that be treating a child for a cold or assisting in the birthing process. I have long held the view that the federal government should triple the funding for medical student places in Western Australia, so that in, at least, six years a sufficient batch of medical students will come through our universities to provide more doctors in the community - I include Bullsbrook, Ellenbrook and Chidlow - to serve the people in my electorate. Dr G.G. Jacobs interjected. Ms J.A. RADISICH: I am sure the member for Geraldton would agree that a few more doctors in his town would not go astray. We often hear members from regional Western Australia complain about the lack of professional services that are attracted to those areas. They are not alone. In fact, in some cases, they are better off. Although many parts of my electorate are only 30 to 45 minutes from the Perth central business district, we still cannot access sufficient doctors to work in brilliant locations such as Glen Forrest, Mundaring and so forth. We have been successful in attracting doctors over the past one to two years, but that has been because of the enterprise and dedication of particular individuals. I have previously mentioned in this Parliament a fantastic individual who lives in my electorate, Dr Samuel Bada. I recruited Sam a few years ago through an advertisement in a national medical journal. He came from Queensland to Swan Hills. He is originally from Nigeria. He set up a little practice in my electorate. We had a situation in which 10 000 people had no access to a GP, which was unacceptable and needed to be rectified as a matter of urgency. Fortunately Sam Bada took that challenge and now he has built a new medical facility, which takes care of everything from Botox injections through to mole scanning, alternative remedies and pre-obstetrics. Mr R.F. Johnson: Botox! Ms J.A. RADISICH: Dr Bada runs a broad-ranging facility with six other doctors whom he has recruited. Is it right that we in Australia, one of the wealthiest countries in the world and with one of the highest rankings in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development nations, are stealing doctors from underdeveloped nations? Dr G.G. Jacobs: You stole one from Nigeria. Ms J.A. RADISICH: I know and I am not proud of that fact. However, my responsibility is to my electorate. We have a bigger responsibility; we have a responsibility to the world. In Australia, we are in a position in which we have the funds -

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Dr G.G. Jacobs: I agree with you, but you stole one from Nigeria. Ms J.A. RADISICH: The federal government has the funds to inject into medical training to provide enough doctors to serve Australian communities. It is not acceptable to take doctors from Thailand, Nigeria and other countries around the world that desperately need medical services. Every human being needs medical services. However, who are we, living in one of the richest countries in the world, to be stripping those nations of the services that they need? I put it to the Minister for Health that part of the state government’s role must be to continue to lobby the federal government for more fully funded places in our public medical schools in Western Australia. That will not only support our local community, but also be the right thing to do for the international community. Under this bill, there will be people who specialise in areas, such as nurse practitioners and midwives, who provide choice in the system for consumers, resulting in cost savings. Equally, we must have GP and other professional medical services at a sufficient level to service the community. Better still, we should work towards having sufficient numbers of highly qualified, highly trained medical professionals so that we can afford to send some to other parts of the world where they are most needed. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: May I take this opportunity to welcome the students from Mt Tarcoola, Walkaway and Yuna, if I have the names of the schools right. Welcome to our Assembly. MR J.H.D. DAY (Darling Range) [11.47 am]: Madam Deputy Speaker - Several members interjected. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: When members finish their little discussion across the chamber, we will listen to the member for Darling Range, who has the call. Mr J.H.D. DAY: I am pleased to have the opportunity to make a few comments on the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2005. Like other opposition members, I support the bill. I cannot speak with the same degree of anatomical knowledge as the member for Roe. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It is probably just as well. You might put the member for Swan Hills off having children for life. Mr J.H.D. DAY: I think the member has already expressed that view. I also do not have the same degree of knowledge as the member for Maylands, who I understand will speak after me. My anatomical knowledge is primarily above the neck rather than below it. The bill provides for a registration system for nurses, midwives, enrolled nurses and nurse practitioners. It puts in place a more modern and streamlined disciplinary system in line with other health professional regulations that operate in Western Australia. There is an issue and a debate about whether patient care assistants should be part of the registration process. I will not go over that argument, but it will be interesting to hear the minister’s views on that issue, and whether he agrees with the proposal, or, if he disagrees, the reasons for such disagreement. A suggestion has been made that nursing students should be subject to registration, particularly as they enter the latter years of their course, so that they will be able to play a role as patient care assistants, gain work experience and help to relieve the nursing shortage that exists from time to time. The member for Alfred Cove referred to that earlier and, no doubt, that will be taken up further in consideration in detail. That is at least worthy of consideration and a considered response by the government. It is worth observing that the role of nurses has changed over the past 20 years. These days nurses have a greater degree of independent practice. That is very much for the better, because of the increasing demands for health care in an ageing society and in a society in which, for various reasons, there are increased measures and demands on the health system. The introduction of the position of nurse practitioner in recent years is a welcome change. It is particularly relevant and helpful in the more remote parts of Western Australia. I am conscious of the crucial role that, for example, remote area nurses play in many of the remote communities in Western Australia, whether it be in the Kimberley or Pilbara region or, to some extent, areas in the mid-west and even closer to Perth. I recall that there was a remote area nurse stationed at Bremer Bay, on the south coast. The position of nurse practitioner has been established in legislation. That was done about two or three years ago. That process began when the previous government was in office, with the establishment of a steering committee to make recommendations and draw up guidelines for the registration of nurse practitioners. That steering committee was chaired by Judge Antoinette Kennedy. When we were in government we were very appreciative of the role that was played by that committee in bringing together a range of somewhat disparate interests to consider the issues, work through all the concerns and make recommendations. It is those recommendations that led to the establishment of nurse practitioners in a formal sense, and that has been recognised in this bill.

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It is also worth observing and placing on record that the education of the nursing profession has changed substantially over the past 30 years or so. Until the mid-1970s, the training of nurses was principally hospital based. Today, nurses are principally trained in the university sector, but they do gain a degree of clinical experience in a hospital setting. That change was not universally welcomed. In fact, it is still subject to some debate by those who consider that the clinical expertise and experience within a hospital setting have been lost on those who train as nurses within the university system. That view is held particularly by some of the older members of the nursing profession, who were, of course, trained in a hospital setting. It is, nevertheless, the case that nurses these days have a much stronger theoretical base for the practice of nursing. In the midwifery area, there is no doubt that midwives are coming out with fewer clinical and practical skills than was the case when the training was entirely hospital based. I am hopeful, although I do not have detailed knowledge of this area these days, that a greater degree of clinical experience is now being provided through the university courses. Mr N.R. Marlborough: It is. Mr J.H.D. DAY: That is good to hear. It is essential that nurses, who play such a critical and pivotal role in our health care system, have a strong theoretical and academic base for the important service that they provide to the community. In the context of the changing role of the nursing profession, and the substantial demands that have been placed upon the nursing profession in the past 20 years or so, it is important to note that the former coalition government established a major study of the nursing and midwifery professions. That study was established in the second half of 2000 and was to take 12 months. The purpose of the study was to inform the then government and the community about the future of nursing and midwifery in Western Australia. The committee was chaired by Judge Antoinette Kennedy, the now Chief Judge of the District Court, who also chaired the steering committee on nurse practitioners. The five specific issues that were to be addressed in that study were: professional practice, including how to improve the quality of patient care through the development of a decision-making framework for the profession; work force issues, in particular the management of the nursing and midwifery work force, and recruitment and retention strategies; professional standards, including clinical specialisation, and the expansion of roles that may develop and may need to be considered; education of nurses; and nursing and midwifery strategic leadership. I will not go through the details of that study any further, except to say that I would be interested to hear a response from the minister on the outcomes of that study, if it was continued after the change of government in February 2001. The study was certainly intended to be consultative and inclusive of the nursing and midwifery professions. It is timely that the Nurses and Midwives Bill is being debated in Geraldton, because yesterday the Premier opened the new Geraldton Health Campus. That is a $49 million development, and it is certainly very welcome to the local community in the mid-west area. Without overstating the point, it is worth placing on record that although all the construction, and most of the planning, for that new health campus has occurred since the Labor government has been in office, the project was initiated and funded in 2000, in the last budget of the previous coalition government. It is, therefore, pleasing to come back to Geraldton and see what has developed over the past five or six years with that new health campus. It is a little ironic that we are debating a bill that deals with midwives, given that the government has taken the action of removing entirely the role of midwives from the one hospital in my electorate - Kalamunda hospital. We have debated this issue at length in the Parliament on a number of occasions, so I will not go over all the issues and remind the government again - I am sure it is well aware - why that is such a detrimental move. It is certainly not in the interests of either the local community or the wider community, because it is resulting in a loss of expertise of not only the midwives, but also the highly dedicated, committed and skilled general practitioner obstetricians who have been providing a wonderful service at Kalamunda hospital for in excess of 30 years. About 400 babies a year had been delivered at Kalamunda hospital up until the time this government removed that service at the end of April. That was a very retrograde step and one that is very much resented by the community in my electorate. Unfortunately, it appears clear that the electorate of Darling Range is very much not on the list of priorities for this state Labor government. That is all too apparent from that extremely unfortunate action. With those comments, I support the bill. DR J.M. EDWARDS (Maylands) [11.57 am]: I too am very pleased to be in Geraldton today and to make a short contribution to the debate on the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2005. It is great that this bill is now before the Parliament. Certain aspects of this bill are also relevant to the regions, so I am delighted that we have been given the opportunity to debate this bill while we are in Geraldton. As a number of other speakers have said, the bill provides a modern framework for the regulation of nursing and midwifery practices. It will provide much- needed greater certainty for nursing professionals. It will also protect the health and safety of members of the public - the health consumers. The bill is one of a series of health legislation amendment bills that form part of a review of health practitioner legislation. The minister’s second reading speech refers to the titles and the roles of the people who are covered in this bill. We have heard about registered and enrolled nurses, midwives and nurse practitioners.

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One of the particular changes that I welcome is the change to midwifery registration. A recent review has looked at how the role of midwives has evolved from ancient times to the modern practices that midwives in 2006 are carrying out. The definition of midwifery, and the clarification that is given to the role of midwives in this bill, recognises that in some circumstances, both enrolled and registered nurses will continue to play a role in midwifery in both antenatal and postnatal care. The member for Roe made comments about midwives and the need for teamwork. I absolutely endorse those comments. He also gave a very graphic description of how to treat a retained placenta. I do not know whether it was a coincidence, but almost the entire gallery left when he did so. I will not make any comment on his graphic description, except to say that I believe as women tend to have fewer children, every birth will become more and more precious. People will become increasingly concerned about the welfare of the child and that will lead to a continuation of, and probably an increase in, litigation relating to child birth. This bill is important in that it looks at professional indemnity and protection for midwives involved in these events. As everyone knows, things can go wrong in childbirth, sometimes very quickly, and that is why training, experience and regulation are needed. I also endorse the comments that many members have made about the role of the nurse practitioner. These days I would describe myself as having had a first career as a medical practitioner. Some of the best advice I ever received, particularly as a young doctor, was that if I did not know what to do next, I should ask a nurse, and in particular a nurse with a lot of experience. They would certainly know what to do. I was privileged to work in regional areas. The time I spent in Port Hedland and Busselton is foremost in my mind. In those two different parts of the state, nurses played a huge role in the delivery of medical and health care services. I very strongly support the role of the nurse practitioner. In regional areas, nurse practitioners can play an increasing role and I think it is fantastic that their wealth of experience and skills and their capacity to make diagnoses and initiate treatments to manage patients are now recognised. In the city, when I worked at the Family Planning Association, I also worked very closely with what were effectively in those days nurse practitioners. In that organisation, nurses ran their own clinics and doctors ran clinics in rooms nearby, so there was always that instant referral if it was needed. This greater recognition of the skill, expertise and capacity of nurses will serve us well. It is very good for communities, particularly regional communities. I also want to pick up on some comments made by the member for Swan Hills about doctor shortages. There is a doctor shortage everywhere. Recently, in my electorate, I attended my own GP and as I left I was offered a job. That was slightly horrifying! Even in my electorate the general practices have such a shortage of GPs that they offer people like me jobs. The doctor shortage is critical in Western Australia, a state in which people live in quite isolated areas, and it is an excellent argument for getting nurses out there and having services delivered by nurse practitioners. I also endorse some of the comments made by the member for Swan Hills about the situation of some excellent doctors who are coming to Western Australia. I had an episode recently when my very elderly father went to a doctor who had come to Western Australia from another country and my father, who was perhaps a bit anxious about being in the doctor’s surgery, noticed a Viagra poster while lying there waiting to have his blood pressure taken. He made some very flippant remark about Viagra, only to get a great frown from this poor African doctor who thought that my 80-year-old father was requesting a prescription. My father was flattered to think that the doctor might actually be thinking - Mr M.W. Trenorden: Your father still has got a bit of go in him! Dr J.M. EDWARDS: I do not think he needs Viagra. Ms J.A. Radisich: No child ever wants to think that! Dr J.M. EDWARDS: Absolutely, particularly not at my age. I think it gets back to the point that a lot of health care is about communication. An experienced nurse, as the member for Alfred Cove said, picks up all those nuances and is able to talk to the patient. In undertaking some of the tasks that the member for Alfred Cove described, nurses pick up some anxiety or other non-verbal communication that perhaps someone from a different language group will not always pick up. There are many elements of this bill that are worthy of attention and that are very good for the whole community. I also want to make some comments about mental health and depression. It is fantastic that people are now talking about these issues that are so very real in the community. It is excellent that so many speakers today have highlighted the need for services in the mental health arena. There is no doubt that there is a high prevalence of mental health illness in the community and that it is a great burden. We need earlier intervention and more intervention through general practice. The more nurse practitioners employed in general practice, the earlier we will get intervention, particularly with young people.

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I was listening to Robyn Williams on The Science Show earlier this week when he was putting forward some evidence-based medicine relating to young people with emerging mental illnesses. It showed that early intervention in general practice can change the outcome and the natural progression of some illnesses such as schizophrenia. There is a need for those services, and nurses are well equipped to play a role. As the member for Dawesville said, nurse practitioners are needed. There is a shortage of doctors. Through this legislation there will be a clearer career path for nurses. I hope more nurses will stay in the profession and will get greater job satisfaction. This is a good bill to be discussing because it shows those members of the public who are here that there are times in Parliament when members agree on most of the content of particular bills when we are looking to put legislation in place so that communities receive better outcomes. I welcome and support this bill. It is good for communities and in particular it will deliver benefits for regional communities. MR M.W. TRENORDEN (Avon) [12.07 pm]: This will be a very short dissertation on this bill. I would like to thank the minister for his recognition of the work that Shane Hill and I did with the Western Australian Centre for Remote and Rural Medicine. I also thank the member for Roe, who is not here at the moment. Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to do that work on the minister’s behalf and I hope the recommendations travel quietly through. The member for Geraldton and I spent considerable time on that activity and got to a high level of consensus even though some of the issues were difficult, as the minister would understand. I want to put one issue to the minister and ask him to think about it. I am doing this because he refused to have a cup of coffee with me. Mr J.A. McGinty: I didn’t refuse; I just haven’t got around to it yet. Mr M.W. TRENORDEN: I want to raise one feature that is not quite within the parameters of the federal funding that was announced four or five months ago. I would like the minister to give serious consideration to this, particularly given the figures he referred to this morning relating to mental health issues in the wheatbelt. I am referring to the wheatbelt and do not wish to deal with matters outside that area. We have a range of competent doctors in the wheatbelt. I will talk about my patch. The minister could use the division of general practice - it is doing an outstanding job in the wheatbelt and is definitely an asset to us. If mental health nurses could be associated with some of the medical practitioners who are good at dealing with mental health issues, we could provide a mental health service, say, every 80 or 100 kilometres. The minister obviously knows that, because today’s statistics show that we are getting over the serious problem, which is not just confined to the wheatbelt. One of the ways to deal with it is to use some of the federal funds and the matching funds that the minister said would be available to trial mental health nurses in appropriate surgeries in which doctors are attuned to mental health care. The mental health nurse could assist the doctor but, more importantly, would be able to go into the community to deal with some of the matters that the minister spoke of this morning. That would be of great assistance in the central wheatbelt, and I am sure it could work elsewhere. If the minister is looking at models over the next few months, that may be one he could consider. The model does not quite fit federal funding guidelines, but maybe it could be massaged a bit to make it fit the guidelines. Even if only one trial took place in the wheatbelt and one in the mid-west, where the minister thought it might work, this could be a fantastic resource in an area that clearly has the fastest growing mental health care needs. This has been a worthwhile debate. I support the issues that have been raised on this side of the house. I was interested that the member for Roe strongly supported nurse practitioners. That was well said by the member for Roe. We have a need and we would like to see that need met. If this bill could help to get a few more services into the regions, it would be a good outcome. MR B.J. GRYLLS (Merredin - Leader of the National Party) [12.11 pm]: I also support the bill. There has been much support for nurse practitioners, but no stronger than that in some of the smaller communities for Silver Chain-type facilities. Hyden, Beacon and Bencubbin have such services. It is very important for those communities that the next level of service be delivered, so that patients do not have to travel the long distances that are necessary at the moment. It is difficult to get a doctor in Merredin, as we well know. It is even more difficult to attract doctors to smaller communities. Any role that a nurse practitioner could play in those communities would be critical. There was a long argument a couple of years ago about support for Silver Chain network services in the regions. I understand there are quite a few of them in my electorate. I am sure they also exist in the mid-west. I support nurse practitioners being appointed to regional areas. We face a real challenge with doctors in regional Western Australia, which will continue to arise. I thank the Minister for Health for the recent decision to allow an advertisement to be placed for three salaried doctors for Merredin Hospital. I have argued this for five years. Ever since I have been a member of Parliament, Merredin has not had continuous health delivery from doctors. It has had overseas-trained doctors. I make special mention of Sola Freeman who has been in Merredin during that whole time. Members need to understand that on many occasions Dr Freeman has been the only doctor available in Merredin, which has a population of 3 500. The supermarket at Merredin has a customer base of 15 000 people. Members can

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3335 envisage the number of people who use Merredin as a regional centre. Dr Freeman has carried that burden in a private general practitioner’s practice, as well as in the hospital on many occasions. His effort in supplying a medical service to Merredin should not be underestimated. His has been a fantastic initiative. After a long argument seeking support for Dr Freeman, at last the WA Country Health Service, Christine O’Farrell and Tim Shackleton have, following a lot of hard work, agreed to a salaried doctor arrangement. Members must understand that the position is for a part-time salaried doctor and part-time private general practitioner. I believe the model has great potential. We look forward to filling those three positions, and to Merredin becoming the regional health centre that it should be. If we can prove the model and make it work, it could have applications further afield in some of the inland communities in the mid-west, the wheatbelt and in the south. If the program works in Merredin, I encourage the Minister for Health to expand that program to provide some certainty to those communities that are finding it difficult to attract doctors. As the member for Maylands said, it is difficult in the metropolitan area. Members can well understand the challenges facing regional Western Australia. Members of Parliament will always hold health services very dear. Members of country communities rate health services as very important when making decisions on raising families and investing in business and industry. If this government, during the strong economic times, can use new models to provide a good health service to larger regional centres such as Merredin, with salaried doctors on a 24/7 roster, as well as nurse practitioners in smaller communities, it will go some way towards bringing country communities into line with the services that many people in the metropolitan area take for granted. DR S.C. THOMAS (Capel) [12.15 pm]: The minister has a very busy timetable. He was listening to grievances this morning. I thought he answered very well, but what I did not hear about this morning, of course, was state-run telephone lines. I thought the minister might have concentrated a little more on state-run 24-hour phone lines. I have not heard him yet answer the question of whether phone calls are transferred to the eastern states at any time during the day. Mr J.A. McGinty: They are late at night. Dr S.C. THOMAS: Does the minister know during which hours they are transferred? Mr J.A. McGinty: I think they transfer to the eastern states after 10.00 pm, from memory. Dr S.C. THOMAS: To 6.00 am? Mr J.A. McGinty: Something like that. Dr S.C. THOMAS: I understand that process is under review. Mr J.A. McGinty: We are looking at it, but there has been no compelling case for changing it at this time. Dr S.C. THOMAS: There are some difficulties with the transfers, of course, but we will not go into that now. I am glad that the minister is reviewing the situation. The minister answered very well, much better than the unfortunate Minister for Science and Innovation, who took credit for the delivery of technological and Internet services in the mid-west and an hour later criticised the federal government’s inadequacy in not delivering them in Perth. I thought that was a remarkable turnaround in an hour; one of the best that I have ever heard. Mr J.N. Hyde: All through the Tanami Desert - a staged government investment. Dr S.C. THOMAS: Absolutely. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: At any time soon the member will address the bill. Dr S.C. THOMAS: Indeed, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will move directly to the bill. Mr J.N. Hyde: Stick to the motion. Dr S.C. THOMAS: I thank the reserve speaker, the member for Perth. I want to talk quickly about two aspects of the bill, in the interests of getting through this debate as quickly as possible. First, we have talked about the various areas and the types of nurses caught by this bill. One thing that does not get caught at this stage, and I would like to hear the minister’s comments on it, is the issue of student nurses. The bill covers a registration and disciplinary process. There are issues with student nurses in hospitals and health centres doing some sort of clinical work. I understand that patient care assistants and student nurses are not caught by this legislation. The issue deserves some consideration by the minister. The member for Darling Range has raised the issue of training of nurses, and I congratulate him for doing so. I am one of the old-fashioned believers, I must admit, and something of a dinosaur. I preferred the old system of in-house training. Be that as it may, the issue of student nurses is one that could be included in the minister’s discussions at least, if not in the legislation, to address how the student nursing body will be impacted upon by the legislation. The other issues I would like the minister to address when he makes his reply include the process of involving the State Administrative Tribunal. A large amount of legislation has gone through the Parliament, which effectively set up bodies and boards similar to the governing body of my profession. I will not compare my history of obstetrics with that of the doctors in the house.

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Mr R.F. Johnson: Oh, go on! Dr S.C. THOMAS: I have probably got bigger and better stories than any of them, but we will not go into that. Mr J.B. D’Orazio: Is that the horse or the cattle? Dr S.C. THOMAS: Both, member for Ballajura. I had a long and involved history in obstetrics. I will just say that my gloves were longer. I can say from my history and involvement with the Veterinary Surgeons’ Board that there is an issue with the transfer of authority to the State Administrative Tribunal. It is not all good or bad, but it could and should be addressed in the minister’s reply. For instance, I can remember that veterinarians who went before the board at the point of transfer tried to have their cases delayed because they thought that they would receive a softer hearing from the State Administrative Tribunal than they would from their peers in the profession. Mr J.A. McGinty: Did that happen or not? Dr S.C. THOMAS: I do not know whether they were able to delay their cases for long enough, and I do not know whether they got a better outcome than they would have done otherwise. There is also the issue of the cost of accessing the State Administrative Tribunal and the impact that might have upon, say, a complaint against a nurse or a nurse practitioner. There is evidence of State Administrative Tribunal appeals costing appellants $20 000 or $30 000 when they invest in a heavy legal team. Of course, people have the option of not investing in a legal team, much as lawyers might not want to hear that. However, if people do not, they go into a fairly uneven battle. In the nursing profession, there is a concern about the cost of accessing SAT, as I know there is in the veterinary profession. I would like the minister to comment on the potential impact that this could have on nurse practitioners. The earning potential of vets is often over-exaggerated. The income is probably not a heck of a lot different. It will be a major consideration if nurse practitioners are stuck with the costs, when complaints specifically against individuals could have been dealt with at a board level. Previously, the Veterinary Surgeons’ Board, for example, might have dealt with such matters in an interventionist manner, whereas the State Administrative Tribunal is more restrictive and probably far more costly. What impact will that have on nurses and all the other people caught up in this legislation? There will potentially be a rather large legal impost. It is of concern if it will cost somebody $20 000 or $30 000 to defend himself or herself against an allegation that, under a different model, might have been done purely by intervention. If the minister will address those two issues in his reply, from my point of view we probably do not need to progress this debate too much further. The opposition will obviously support the bill, but we seek information. MR R.F. JOHNSON (Hillarys) [12.22 pm]: I have been urged by some of my colleagues to make some comments on this very important bill, and I intend to do so. Certainly, the member for Roe gave some graphic explanations of the sorts of things that nurses must do during childbirth. I have witnessed childbirth. It is something that every father should do. A father should witness his child being born into this world, with all its problems, because childbirth is a magnificent miracle, and we thank God for that miracle happening. Some people may wish that I had never been born, but every single person makes a difference in this world. Every one of my colleagues in this place, and everyone in the regional Parliament here today, has made a difference to someone else’s life. There is a wonderful film called It’s a Wonderful Life. It highlights what I am saying; that is, every single person who is born makes a contribution and a difference in some way to at least somebody else’s life, if not thousands or millions of other people’s lives. I like to think that perhaps my birth did that. I will leave other people to judge whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. Dr J.M. Woollard: It is a good thing. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: The member for Alfred Cove thinks it is a good thing. She urged me to say a few words on this bill. Very often when I make a comment, people listen. I certainly listen, but whether members opposite do, I do not know. In talking more specifically to the bill that is before the house today, I say that nurses and midwives are very important in our health system. They are absolutely essential. I have had a lot to do with midwives’ associations, as I am sure has the Deputy Speaker, because some tremendous midwives operate in the northern suburbs - that is, south Geraldton, as some people always call it, and Wanneroo and Joondalup. Of course, the same would apply to my good friend the member for Joondalup. I am sure that he has had a bit to do with the midwives’ association and the midwives who either live or operate in our three electorates in the northern suburbs. They are three very important electorates, because a tremendous number of people now live there. There are a lot of young families, and a lot of young mothers give birth to their children. That is important. However, I will make a couple of comments about my good friend the member for Capel. I am a bit of a dinosaur. Some people would say that I am a helluva dinosaur. However, I agree with the member for Capel that it is good for nurses to have to go to university and get certain qualifications and all the rest of it, but what is wrong with what happened in the old days when nurses trained in hospitals and did such important work? With the shortage of nurses today - many nurses go on to become midwives - why do we not take a step back and introduce something along the lines that existed previously? I agree with the member for Capel.

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Dr S.C. Thomas: Capel is the Geraldton of the south. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: Yes. It is another wonderful town; another wonderful part of Western Australia. Dr J.M. Woollard: Member for Hillarys, will you take an interjection? Mr R.F. JOHNSON: I will always take an interjection from the member for Alfred Cove. Dr J.M. Woollard: Do you agree that if in this bill, as well as registering registered nurses, enrolled nurses and patient care assistants, we registered student nurses, then students at a certain level could work in the hospitals as care assistants so that they would get that experience and we would get retention within nursing? Mr R.F. JOHNSON: That is a good idea. We have heard by way of interjection the words of a qualified nurse - somebody who has worked in the profession. I will not call it the industry, because nursing is a dedicated profession. The member for Alfred Cove worked in that area for many years. Dr J.M. Woollard: In both areas. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: In both areas. Dr J.M. Woollard: In all areas. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: In all areas! That is wonderful. Quite frankly, we should listen more to people like the member for Alfred Cove. We do not listen enough. I would like to have heard more from the member for Alfred Cove this morning about this bill. I was going to move that she be given an extension of time, but I was threatened by members opposite to not do that. Therefore, I did not do it. Members in this place all have their own foibles and their own uniqueness. The member for Alfred Cove is unique. In her method of getting across her argument - Mr E.S. Ripper: You have four minutes to fill, and I thought I would try to help you with another interjection. I am still thinking of it. However, you now have only three and a half minutes to fill. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: That is very interesting. Do members of the Assembly remember seeing the photograph in “InsideCover” yesterday morning? How many members picked the culprit? I said that, with that beard, it looked like Osama bin Laden; there is a price on his head. However, I covered the beard and I saw those eyes. Mrs M.H. Roberts: A lot of blokes in here would love to have that much hair. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: Yes, they would. The trouble is that it is slicked down. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will be awfully interested in how the member will relate this back to the bill. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: It is all to do with our bodies, or, rather, in this instance, the body of the Deputy Premier when he was younger. He looked like Osama bin Laden. It frightened me when I saw him. I thought, “What’s he doing at one of our teachers’ colleges?” He should not have been there. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Will members on my right please desist from making any more interjections. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: I appreciate your protection, Madam Deputy Speaker. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member sees what happens. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: Exactly. They just run amok. Dr K.D. Hames: I have an interjection that actually relates to the topic. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: That would be good! That would be innovative! Dr K.D. Hames: I am sure you are aware of our policy on nurses, which is that student nurses be employed. At the moment they are working in restaurants to earn extra money as they go through training. They should be given the opportunity to work in a hospital with paid employment. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: Was that not a fantastic interjection? That is part of the Liberal Party policy. Mr A.D. McRae: Did you know that? Mr R.F. JOHNSON: Of course, I knew that. Did I know it? Of course I knew it and that is why I support it. It will involve more nurses in caring for sick people, and that is what we should be about. They do not need a degree to do that. All sorts of people can assist in helping people who are sick in our hospitals. I support the shadow Minister for Health, I support the member for Alfred Cove, I support my very good friend, the opposition Whip who - Mr J.A. McGinty: Do you support me? Mr R.F. JOHNSON: Some of the time I do. The minister gets it right some of the time; he cannot get it right all of the time.

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Dr J.M. Woollard interjected. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: That is a very good amendment. Debate interrupted, pursuant to standing orders. [Continued on page 3345.] Sitting suspended from 12.31 to 2.00 pm

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE OUTCOMES-BASED EDUCATION 311. Mr P.D. OMODEI to the Premier: I refer the Premier to a Geraldton teacher who received a flyer from the Premier that offered members of the community the opportunity to meet with government ministers during this regional sitting. This member of the public replied the next day, asking to meet the Minister for Education and Training to talk to her about outcomes-based education and the new courses of study. A few days later a reply was received, which, according to my notes, stated - On behalf of the Premier, I am sorry to inform you that your request for an appointment with Minister Ravlich MLC has been unsuccessful. (1) Why did the Premier refuse this request from a member of the Geraldton community to meet the Minister for Education and Training? (2) Given that the Catholic Education Office has now abandoned its support for the Premier’s approach to the implementation of OBE, will he stand behind the comments of the Minister for Education and Training that she has the support of 90 per cent of teachers and parents for the premature OBE rollout? Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: I truly thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. (1) I am unaware of the detail of that request. I assume that because the Minister for Education was in Geraldton on Monday only, she was unable to meet every person who sought to meet her. As the Leader of the Opposition knows, the upper house of Parliament is sitting in Perth, and she returned to Perth on Monday night or Tuesday. The Leader of the Opposition would be unfamiliar with these country cabinet formats because he never did them in the way that we do them. We invite members of the public to meet the ministers so that they have the opportunity to speak to ministers direct. As far as I am concerned, the Leader of the Opposition can take it or leave it. There is nothing to be read from that letter other than genuine unavailability. If I can get the details, I am prepared to follow that up with the individual teacher. (2) As the Leader of the Opposition may or may not know, I am not shirking away from the debate about outcomes-based education. This is where I thank him for the lead-in to the issue involving the Catholic Education Office. The CEO of the Catholic Education Office is Mr Ron Dullard, who was mentioned this morning in yet another totally misleading an article in The West Australian newspaper that reflected the attitude of the editor rather than that of the reporter whose by-line appeared on the article. I understand that the story was substantially rewritten to be basically false by the editor, none other than Paul Armstrong, who we all know is not up to the job. Any member of the audience who wants to question the reporters of The West Australian newspaper privately will have it confirmed that he is not up to the job and is a severe embarrassment to them. I will read to the Parliament a letter sent to all principals today from the director of the Catholic Education Office, Ron Dullard. He starts off by saying - It seems every time I am reported in the West Australian newspaper I am forced to give the full picture as the articles and headlines in particular are misleading. In my interview with Jessica Strutt I indicated that most Secondary Principals have advised me that they would like to delay the introduction of the new Courses of Study. Nevertheless there were a substantial number of Principals who wanted the Courses of Study to go ahead on the established timeline. This is Mr Dullard. He continues - When I was asked if I would be advising the Minister to stop the introduction of the Courses of Study, my answer was NO. We could not get much more clear-cut than no. He goes on to say -

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Catholic Principals overwhelmingly support the OBE approach to learning and teaching. We have a classic. I worked in the game. I worked in the media. The editor of The West Australian newspaper is borrowing thematically from the tabloids of Britain. Half of the stories on the Internet are practically lifted from the tabloids of Britain and rewritten to fit a local example. We have an example of what my predecessor found particularly hard to deal with. As the people of Geraldton would know, Dr Gallop was an outstanding member of the community. He believed that, properly informed, the community would invariably make the right decision. The difficulty he had was how to ensure that the community is properly informed while struggling with a newspaper such as The West Australian under its current direction. It is quite clear that that article, its headline and the newspaper’s whole approach to this subject is a campaign and it is run irrespective of the truth. Members should ask the principals and the teachers who support OBE whether they get a hearing when they contact The West Australian newspaper. Of course they do not. There has been a sustained campaign to erode confidence in outcomes-based education, and to some extent it is working. This is the direct response. I say to all those teachers - I have said this over and over again - that yes, there are genuine concerns about the introduction of outcomes-based education in years 11 and 12. It has been introduced and has run successfully and is overwhelmingly embraced in primary schools and years 8, 9 and 10. It has been since 1998, as the member for Cottesloe told me yesterday. We will work genuinely, energetically and fastidiously with those teachers in years 11 and 12 who are having difficulties with the change. There are challenges; there always are, especially in education. Any change is difficult. But we will work with the teachers to make sure the transition is successful. Why are we doing it? We are doing it because we know and members opposite know that it is in the best interests of our children. That is why we are doing it and that is why we have to keep going. Point of Order Dr J.M. WOOLLARD: I ask the Premier to table that document. The SPEAKER: If the document was an official document, it can be tabled. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: I have no problem tabling a copy, although this particular one has handwritten notes to me on it. I will get a copy and provide it. SCHOOL RETENTION RATES - INDIGENOUS STUDENTS 312. Mr S.R. HILL to the Premier: Will the Premier please advise the house of the progress of school retention rates for indigenous students in the mid-west? Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: I thank the member for Geraldton for his question. He is a - Several members interjected. Mr A.J. CARPENTER: They know it off by heart. They know in their hearts that he is an outstanding member of Parliament. Everybody in Geraldton knows what he has done. Five and a half years ago Geraldton was in a difficult position. Economically, things were not going well, and there were all sorts of social problems. Educationally, the situation was very difficult; challenging, shall we say. One of the challenges we had to meet was to increase retention rates amongst indigenous children at the schools, in the hope that that would flow over into improved social outcomes in the community generally. To some extent our efforts have borne fruit. With Gerard Neesham’s help we introduced a football academy at the high school with the enthusiastic support of the member for Geraldton. That started a few years ago, and it is being run, as everyone knows, by Craig Turley, former West Coast Eagles and Melbourne footballer, and an outstanding person. He has done an outstanding job. The notes I have about progress in the academy indicate that the retention rate amongst indigenous boys to year 12 in Geraldton now exceeds that of non-indigenous boys, which is remarkable; it is incredible. It is a tribute to all those involved. Considering the observed benefit for the boys at the school, we established a netball academy as well for the girls. I have obtained some statistics that reflect the impact on attendance rates at John Willcock College and Geraldton Senior College. Attendance rates amongst indigenous girls in year 8 were 38 per cent in 2004. In 2006 that figure has risen to 84 per cent. Year 11 retention rates over the same period have gone from 61 per cent to 85 per cent. Attendance of Aboriginal female students enrolled in the mid-west netball academy in 2006 was 88 per cent in year 8. The rate went up from as low as five per cent for some individuals. The year 9 figure was 85 per cent; year 10, 72 per cent; and year 11, 92 per cent. It is undoubtedly producing a brilliant result. This is the sort of thing that must be done in education. The Department of Education and Training, the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Department of Indigenous Affairs worked together to produce that result, which is of enormous benefit to not only the individual students and their families, but also the broader community. The netball academy would never have happened if it had not been for the member for Geraldton,

3340 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] who came to me and said that establishing an academy for boys was one thing, but a similar academy was needed for girls. One of the advantages of being in Geraldton for members of Parliament is being exposed to just how great a benefit an individual member of Parliament can confer on his community. The member for Geraldton’s status is such that it reminds me of the old western movie Shane, starring Alan Ladd. Some members may be old enough to remember it from 1953. It is described as the greatest story of the west ever told, and that is what we have in Geraldton. We should make a revised version of Shane. One of the classic lines from that movie comes when one of the supporting actors thinks the main character is leaving town, and he cries out “Shane, come back!” I am expecting to hear that next time the member for Geraldton heads off down to Parliament House. The good burghers of Geraldton will be crying out “Shane, come back!” and for good reason. Every time he comes back he brings another pile of money. I will leave members with this critical analysis of Shane. On the Hollywood web site it says “Shane leaves powerful memories.” He certainly does; he is a brilliant member of Parliament, and through his good work the attendance rates of indigenous boys and girls in Geraldton have turned around and are exceeding the rates for non-indigenous children. He is the envy of every other member of the chamber, bar none.

LIQUOR STORES - SUNDAY TRADING 313. Mr J. McGRATH to the Minister for Racing and Gaming: I was glad to see the minister down in the main street of Geraldton during the lunch break, checking out the local pubs, which are part of his portfolio. I refer to the government’s intention to introduce legislation that will allow liquor stores in the metropolitan area and some in the country to trade on Sundays. (1) Is the minister aware that the Department of Health is currently before the Supreme Court opposing a Sunday trading approval granted to the Subi Cleanskins liquor store in Subiaco, a business run by a young couple with a baby who have already spent $40 000 defending this case? (2) Is the minister aware that the Department of Health is also opposing an extended trading permit for Wongan Liquor in Wongan Hills, a great country town, on the grounds of public health? (3) Will the minister please advise the house on the implications of the actions of the Department of Health for the government’s plans to deregulate Sunday trading hours for liquor stores? (4) Why are the minister’s department and the Department of Health moving in different directions on this matter? (5) Why is the Department of Health wasting scarce resources pursuing this matter in opposition to the government’s own policy? Mr M. McGOWAN replied: I thank the member for South Perth for the question. I inform members that, of course, when Shane rode off into the sunset in the movie, he was dead at that point! Several members interjected. Mr M. McGOWAN: Unfortunately, that was one of the small facts about that movie that came back to my mind. However, our Shane is well and truly alive and doing a great job. (1)-(5) For the benefit of people in the gallery here today, it is the government’s intention to put in place a comprehensive set of reforms of Western Australia’s liquor licensing laws. For too long the tourism and hospitality industries, and the people interested in public health and law enforcement, have been held back by what are undoubtedly the most outdated laws related to the provision of liquor in Australia. The government is proposing a whole range of initiatives for the metropolitan area that will also apply across the state, although with one difference. In the metropolitan area we are proposing to introduce laws that will allow liquor stores to open on Sundays in the same way that hotel bottle shops are allowed to open on Sundays. At the urging of some of my colleagues, I had a look at the situation in the country and I recognised that, particularly in relation to some small country towns, there would be potential difficulties for the survival of some hotels if liquor stores were able to open on Sundays. The government therefore created a situation in the country different from that in the city. We thought that that would be supported by most members of this house. I have made the offer numerous times for the opposition to come together with the government and work out what it would like to put into this package. I have done that on a completely bipartisan basis. Several members interjected. Mr M. McGOWAN: The member for South Perth will acknowledge that I have made that offer to him many times so that we come together to work out the areas of difficulty.

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In relation to public health concerns, members may be interested to know that the Australian Medical Association and also the public health institute, under the tutelage of Mike Daube, have totally and completely backed our liquor reforms. Several members interjected. Mr M. McGOWAN: If members opposite have concerns about health matters, they should understand that the independent bodies in the community that examine these issues have been working in the interests of public health. Several members interjected. Mr M. McGOWAN: The AMA is independent. Several members interjected. Mr M. McGOWAN: It has said that it backs our reforms of the liquor industry. We have the backing of all sorts of groups across the community for this industry. If members opposite want to ask me questions about the health department, the member is asking the wrong minister. Several members interjected. Mr M. McGOWAN: The member who asked the question is a new member of the house, therefore I will overlook his ignorance. Perhaps the member should address his question to the minister who has responsibility for the actions of the health department. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: I call the member for Cottesloe and the member for Vasse to order.

LIQUOR STORES - SUNDAY TRADING 314. Mr J. McGRATH to the Minister for Racing and Gaming: I have a supplementary question. Given that the minister said that a part of my question should have been directed to the minister responsible for the health department, when and if the government’s legislation is passed in the spring session will he call on the Minister for Health to ask the department to drop its Supreme Court action against the two liquor stores? Mr M. McGOWAN replied: No. ASSAULTS ON POLICE OFFICERS 315. Ms J.A. RADISICH to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services: Will the minister explain to the house the results of the recent review into penalties for assaults on police officers and perhaps provide some information about what protections this may bring to police officers, including those located in Geraldton? Mr J.C. KOBELKE replied: I am sure that all members of the house have found it totally unacceptable for a number of police officers to have suffered serious assaults in recent times. The police officers protect the community, and any attack on a police officer is an attack on all law abiding citizens. The government has reviewed this matter following a report from the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Commissioner of Police on the basis that it will bring legislation to the Parliament within a matter of weeks. That legislation will increase the penalty for an offence of grievous bodily harm against police officers from a maximum of 10 years to a potential sentence of 14 years. Also, it will amend the offence of assaulting a police officer to include assaults on off-duty police, in cases where the offender knows the person is a police officer. It will also increase the charge to aggravated assault when the assault involves a weapon or is committed with an accomplice. It will also require that aggravated assaults on public officers be heard by a District Court, which provides access to higher penalties. In addition, public servants, such as nurses, bus drivers, ferry captains and train drivers, will also be included in the legislation. The legislation will also include ambulance drivers who work for St John Ambulance even though they are not public service employees. Under the proposed legislation, serious offences against ambulance officers will be treated in the same manner as offences committed against public servants, with a maximum penalty of 14 years for grievous bodily harm. Mr R.F. Johnson: When was the last time anybody got 10 years? . Mr J.C. KOBELKE: That is why we will increase the penalty; wakey-wakey.

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APPRENTICES - RETENTION BY EMPLOYERS 316. Mr G. WOODHAMS to the Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training: I acknowledge the presence in the house today of students from Nagle Catholic College and Mt Tarcoola Primary School. It is with some trepidation that I ask this question in bakery parlance, because the person to whom I am about to address my question is more like a mud cake to my matchstick presence. Several members interjected. Mr G. WOODHAMS: It should be a process of self-identification, Mr Speaker. No-one knows who I am talking about yet. My question without notice is to the Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training. Given small business concerns, particularly in the mid-west, about shortening the length of apprenticeships from four to two years and the subsequent drain of trainees to the mining industry and other parts of the state as a result of the resources boom, I ask - (1) Is the minister aware that Geraldton’s biggest employer of engineer apprentices, D-Trans Motor Body Builders and General Engineers, now refuses to hire new apprentices because it is not receiving a long- term return from its investment? (2) Will the minister consider a bonding program to ensure that businesses do not lose apprentices after underwriting their training? (3) What other initiatives does the minister propose to help small businesses retain trained apprentices in the mid-west? Mr N.R. MARLBOROUGH replied: (1)-(3) The mud cake has arrived. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: You are so tasty! Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr N.R. MARLBOROUGH: Even I am turning red. I thank the member for Greenough for the question. As I indicated yesterday, it is great to have new fresh faces in Parliament. Their enthusiasm knows no bounds, and driven by enthusiasm alone sometimes they are so far out of bounds with their evidence to back their question, that it is fairly hard to be serious in giving an answer. However, it is a serious issue and it is a serious question. I will quickly run through it. I had the pleasure on Monday of having lunch with representatives from the Midwest Chamber of Commerce and Industry and I met the proprietor of D-Trans Body Builders, one of the biggest body builders in the state. I am sure the people of Geraldton are delighted that the company is located within the township of Geraldton. I met Mrs Susan Bell, the proprietor of that company, and she advised me that she was concerned that the shorter apprenticeship programs that were now coming into vogue around Australia would see her apprentices trained so quickly that the massive demand by the resource sector would mean she would be unable to hang on to them. There is some truth in that. One of the downsides to the resource sector is that it is taking lots of skills from all sorts of businesses and it is difficult in the present time to hang on to apprentices. Today’s market sees a contract boilermaker working on the Burrup Peninsula getting $63 an hour. Today’s market sees a contract sparky in the goldfields on $72 an hour. It is difficult for companies in the city and regional areas to hang on to skilled people. Let us look at the background of this issue. There has been an absolute dynamic change in apprenticeship training in Western Australia and throughout Australia. That dynamic change has been brought about by ministerial council agreement; that is, the Prime Minister and the states agreeing on the significant changes that are needed in apprenticeships. The reason for that is that the Carpenter government has increased apprenticeship training in its five years in office by some 30 000 new trainees, of which 16 800 are in apprenticeships and the others are in vocational education and training-type training. Although that has been done, the truth is that in Australia today we still train fewer apprentices than we did in 1988. We have a lot of catching up to do. The resource sector drives a massive demand. If we were to draw it on a graph, we would see the resource sector up here and the skill level crossing it at this point, and we have to get skills from that point to this point. Therefore, the states and the federal government have agreed to make significant changes, within those national criteria. Youngsters were not willing to go into apprenticeships. It was not considered sexy to go into apprenticeships. Therefore, we have had to change the rhetoric. We have had to change the mindset of all the key players - educators, parents, industry, unions and politicians. Therefore, this is what we have agreed. As at December of this year, it will be legislated federally that there will be no more time-served apprenticeships; rather, all

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3343 apprenticeships will be competency-based. Competency-based apprenticeships have been in place for many years. However, those apprenticeships have always been based on a time frame. That will disappear. Under a competency-based process, if the training is adequate and the youngster is bright enough, the youngster will no longer need to serve a four-year or five-year apprenticeship but will be able to qualify in a two-year or three-year time frame. For the metal trades, it will be a two or two and a half year time frame. This state has put in place skilled task force areas chaired by heads of industry. I have named those people previously, but it is worth naming them again. They are: Dale Alcock, in charge of construction; Kate Lamont, in charge of hospitality; Steve Murdoch, in charge of metals; Bruce Lake, in charge of the resource sector; and Rod Slater, chair of the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia and head of numerous companies. That group has already put together skilled apprenticeships based on competency. That is one of the reasons that youngsters are now seeing apprenticeships as offering an alternative lifestyle. I can tell all the school students in the gallery today that the new elite of Europe today are qualified tradespeople. That is because there is a world shortage of skilled tradespeople. I am one of those people who has the opportunity to go all around the world. When I go all around the world, I see Australians with those qualifications who are in demand all around the world. The provision of skills training is changing rapidly. The advantage of competency-based training is that it can meet the needs of the nation very rapidly. We do not want a drop off in skills. We are not America. We are a small nation. We cannot afford to lose our skills base. We need to be smart about hanging onto our skills. However, we need to deliver skills training more quickly. That is what we are doing. No government wants to bond, or tie, apprentices to a particular company. Some employers want bonds; others do not. However, bonding is coming back, because of the impact of the resource sector, which is taking people out of apprenticeships more quickly than it has ever done before. Mr B.J. Grylls interjected. Mr N.R. MARLBOROUGH: No, they have not stopped trying. As I have just indicated, in the past four years there have been 16 800 new employees in apprenticeships. That is a significant increase. The member for Greenough mentioned Susan Bell. Someone from my office has spoken to Susan Bell today. She has never said that she is not going to train. She has said that she is concerned about what is taking place. She has raised issues, and I am continuing to talk to her, through my office, so that we can try to overcome those problems. I have already outlined the initiatives that the minister and the government are taking. We are doing a great job. This state is leading the nation in apprenticeship training throughout Australia. APPRENTICES - RETENTION BY EMPLOYERS 317. Mr G. WOODHAMS to the Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training: I ask a supplementary question. The minister has said that he has had conversations with Susan Bell from D- Trans. Obviously, that is an interest the minister has. What answer can the minister provide to Susan Bell about the problem she is facing in retaining apprentices for more than two years? Mr N.R. MARLBOROUGH replied: I have answered that question. Susan Bell raised this matter with me on Monday. I have informed her today that in terms of the metal trades, which she is involved with - that is, building truck bodies - the apprenticeship is for a minimum of three and a half years to do all the competencies. She will not be locked into a two-year system at all. It takes about three and a half years to get through it. I do not think she will be faced with the problem she thinks she will be faced with. I do not think it will be there. BRAND HIGHWAY - FUNDING 318. Mr S.R. HILL to the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure: Before I ask my question, I acknowledge the presence in the gallery today of students from Allendale Primary School, and the home-schooled children as well. I am surprised by a recent advertisement placed in the local Geraldton Guardian by the National Party that says there is nothing in the budget for Brand Highway. Is this true, minister? Several members interjected. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member for Geraldton for the question. The member for Geraldton is such a nice person that he probably has not always filtered with the required degree of scepticism everything that the National Party says. We know that talk is very cheap in the National Party. However, unlike our government, there is an enormous gulf between what the National Party says and what the reality is. The member for Geraldton will know that, earlier this year, we were very concerned about the heavy haulage that was moving on to Brand Highway, and we recognised that we needed to do something about that. We therefore said in January that in addition to the works to which we had already committed, we would put into the Brand Highway a special program worth

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$2.4 million. We gave a commitment that that work would be done in six months. I am very pleased to report that in five months, Main Roads has virtually completed that entire program. It will be completed by the end of - Mr B.J. Grylls interjected. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN: Let us put that in context. That is $2.4 million that we have spent since January. Compare that with the performance of the National Party when it was part of the coalition government. In the coalition government’s last four years in office, it spent $2.7 million on this road. We have spent $2.4 million in six months. In five years, compared with that government’s $2.7 million in four years, we have spent $9 million on this important road. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order, members! Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN: This is incredible! I assure the member for Geraldton that we will keep pumping out those passing lanes. We have provided in the budget, as we advised the National Party during the estimates process, $1.6 million for two new passing lanes that will be delivered this year. We will continue to invest in and upgrade Brand Highway into the future. We have invested $9 million in five years. In the National Party’s last four years in government, it spent $2.7 million. We are producing; they are not.

ACCOMMODATION SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 319. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the Minister for Disability Services: In the 2005-06 budget, the government estimated that it would spend $169.6 million on accommodation support for people with a disability. In fact, the government spent all that amount, and more. However, it delivered 55 fewer places for people with a disability than would have been allocated based on average cost per person. (1) Why did the government spend more, yet deliver less? (2) As the government has promised another 113 places for the next financial year, will the minister give an assurance that those places will actually be delivered? Mr A.D. McRAE replied: (1)-(2) I thank the member very much for giving me my first ever question! It is a privilege to be a Minister for Disability Services in a government that in its first five years in office doubled the budget for the disability services sector from $166 million in 2000-01 to $340 million in 2005-06. That was the Gallop Labor government. The Carpenter Labor government has continued that. This year, in this budget, we are not doing less for less, we are doing more with more. We are adding $100 million to the next four years’ budgets for disability services. It is a great privilege to be a Minister for Disability Services in a government that is making that kind of contribution - Mr P.D. Omodei: Is that why you had six ministers in the past 12 months? Mr A.D. McRAE: I appreciate that the sector wants continuity, but I can tell the Leader of the Opposition what the sector is saying to me already: it has never had a government that has added so much to the sector. No government in five years has doubled the budget in the way that we have. I am also the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Interests, and I am sure many people in the community would like to know why the opposition’s shadow bench does not include a spokesperson for citizenship and multicultural interests. It may well be that I am the sixth Minister for Disability Services. That means the extent of support in cabinet and across the caucus of the Labor government is more than the opposition could put together in 10 years. The opposition has to explain to the people of Western Australia why there is nobody in the shadow cabinet to deal with multicultural interests. The opposition does not have a spokesperson for that area. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Members! Mr A.D. McRAE: I have had advice on some of the questions raised by the member for Roe about the Disability Services Commission and I am pleased to be able to offer him the opportunity for a briefing that I will organise. An opposition member: What about a guarantee that you will deliver the places? That is what the question is about. Mr A.D. McRAE: I think the people with disabilities in Western Australia would be more concerned to hear that the member will accept my invitation to get a briefing so that he is fully informed and well informed. The advice I have is that the member is ill informed. I am prepared to offer to work on a bipartisan basis with the member.

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QUESTION WITHOUT NOTICE 307 Supplementary Information MR N.R. MARLBOROUGH (Peel - Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training) [2.42 pm]: I have some supplementary information in relation to the question asked yesterday by the member for Greenough about Dongara District High School. There was an attack on my credibility yesterday with the suggestion that I did not know where Dongara was. As I indicated, I had a great knowledge of Dongara. One had only to look at my build to know I could never go past the Dongara bakery. I was asked to look at Dongara High School and I went there at seven o’clock this morning. The evidence of my going to the Dongara bakery is that I went in after going to the school and I brought us all back some afternoon tea. Several members interjected. Mr N.R. MARLBOROUGH: I bought - The SPEAKER: Minister, if you have an answer, I suggest you get to it, and quickly. Mr N.R. MARLBOROUGH: I will. I was going to finish by saying that I have a jubilee twist for the member for Churchlands. The Department of Education and Training is aware of the need to provide improved facilities at the school. I had a look at it this morning and I concur. The matter will be considered for inclusion in future capital works programs, but we have some good news: an amount of $68 964 has been allocated to undertake maintenance work at the school under the Fixing Our Schools program. In particular, the roof maintenance and corroded steelwork will receive attention. It is anticipated this work will commence early in the new financial year. A decision to remove demountable classrooms from the school in two weeks is to be reviewed by the Department of Education and Training.

NURSES AND MIDWIVES BILL 2005 Second Reading Resumed from an earlier stage of the sitting. MR R.F. JOHNSON (Hillarys) [2.44 pm]: Can I say how great it is to be here in Geraldton. I welcome all the people in the audience, particularly the school children. It is an honour for me to be back in Geraldton. I have been here many times now. I almost feel I am an honorary resident of Geraldton. Several members interjected. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: My name is not Shane, I agree. I do not have that sort of distinction. My name is a simple one. I have been urged by many people on both sides of the chamber to continue what they believe was a most distinguished speech that I began before the lunch suspension. I have 12 minutes left, plus 10 minutes if I ask for an extension, which would, of course, give me 22 minutes. I would love to talk more and I am sorry to disappoint members on both sides, particularly the Minister for Health. He urged me to continue my remarks because he found them so interesting and so intense. People are still urging me to do it, but I am going to resist that urge because I think it is time to hear the Minister for Health respond to the many great speeches we had from this side of the house today in relation to this important bill. MR J.A. McGINTY (Fremantle - Minister for Health) [2.46 pm]: I thank members opposite for their indication of support for this very important piece of legislation, the Nurses and Midwives Bill 2005. As has been observed, this will provide Western Australia, and in particular its nurses and midwives, with a modern framework within which to practise their profession. The bill is the product of considerable consultation with all interest groups. It has been many years in development, and we now have contained in this legislation a proper recognition of the role of midwives and an enhancement of the professional status of nurses and improved regulation of the profession; in particular, an improved way of dealing with nurses and midwives who need to be disciplined, perhaps even to the extent of suffering the removal of their registration. This bill deals with all of those difficult issues in a context of significantly improved status and conditions for nurses in Western Australia. I will touch briefly on the context in which we are debating this bill. Since February 2001, just over five years, a total of 1 620 additional nurses have been employed in our public hospital system. That is 1 620 full-time equivalents. That would translate into more than 2 000 individual nurses, some working part time, in the public hospital system. That has given us the capacity to significantly expand the services offered throughout the length and breadth of the state, not only in our public hospitals - and we have seen in the past couple of days a very good example at the Geraldton Regional Hospital, the newest hospital in Western Australia - but also in the community. I refer to services that are so dependent on nurses: chronic disease management, mental health and the areas in which we rely on our nurses to keep our community safe.

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Some reference has been made during the course of this debate to the very important and emerging role of nurse practitioners. I advise the house that, as of this year, one-quarter of all the registered nurse practitioners in Australia are registered in Western Australia. We are pressing ahead at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country with the training, registration and employment of nurse practitioners. They are nowhere more important than in rural Western Australia; in those places where a very experienced and very skilful registered nurse, who has reached the competency required to become a nurse practitioner, can fill the role of providing many aspects of the work that is traditionally provided by a general practitioner. I very much appreciate the work that has been done over the past couple of years since the concept of a nurse practitioner was first introduced in April 2003. It is a concept that has been embraced by both sides of the house, and it is something that is particularly valuable to our rural communities. I would like to see us put an even greater effort into the employment and training of nurse practitioners who can fill that very critical role of providing health services to our rural communities. I would also like to touch on something that is a growing problem, particularly for, but not confined to, our emergency departments, and that is the extent to which nurses, on a daily basis, face violence in the workplace - generally speaking, from the very people that they are there to tend and care for. Quite often these are people in a drug-induced or drunken state, suffering from a mental health condition, or perhaps some other circumstances which mean that, unfortunately, nurses in the front line of our public hospital system have to deal with increased levels of workplace aggression and violence on a daily basis. I am a very strong supporter of a zero tolerance approach to workplace aggression and violence against all hospital and health care staff, but principally nurses, because they are in the front line. We have seen some very tragic examples; for instance, the assault that occurred upon Debbie Freeman - a psychiatric nurse at the Swan Valley Centre - who was taken within an inch of her life as the result of the treatment and care she was trying to extend to a mentally deranged patient. We have adopted a policy, backed up by funding, of zero tolerance. We have allocated $750 000 each year over the next four years to provide strategies to train nurses in how to deal with violence in the workplace and how to deal with violent patients. I am determined to ensure that anyone who assaults a nurse in our public health system will face the new, harsh penalties the Minister for Police and Emergency Services spoke about today during question time. When the extent of the injuries constitutes grievous bodily harm, the person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law under the increased penalties made available. When there is a lesser degree of injury - bodily harm short of grievous bodily harm - inflicted upon our nurses, particularly where it is done with a weapon, which can be something as simple as a stick, I am determined, perhaps wearing one of my other hats, to ensure that those people are prosecuted on the charge of assault on a public officer, rather than on common assault. Regardless of their circumstances, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Unfortunately, we have had in the past an attitude among some hospital administrators, and unfortunately some nurses - though it is a thing of the past now - of accepting violence as a fact of life when dealing with seriously deranged mental health patients, or drug or alcohol-induced psychoses or disabilities. I am not prepared to accept any of those circumstances as excuses for the sort of behaviour that has led to the need for increased security in our hospitals in order to protect our nurses. We will continue to ensure that we equip the nurses to be able to deal with these situations, maintain a zero tolerance approach, and make sure that the workplace can be a safe place for our nurses, who are there to lend a helping hand to people who need it because of their medical condition. The other very significant change that has occurred in nursing in recent times, one that I am very pleased about, is that we are no longer dependent upon nursing agencies. A few years ago the cost of providing agency nurses to our public hospitals in city and country areas was astronomically high. It also gave us people who did not have a long-term commitment to those particular institutions. People would fly in and fly out, they would get their agency payment, and that would be the extent of their commitment. I think we are far better served in having permanent staff - people who are not agency based. We have had a very conscious policy through NurseWest of reducing agency dependency for the provision of nurses. In a state as big as Western Australia there will always be a need in particular circumstances to rely on agency nurses. One of the great success stories of recent times is the fact that today agency nurses are almost irrelevant to the delivery of health care in Western Australia. That was not the case a few years ago, but I am pleased that with the employment of an additional 1 620 nurses, we have been able to substantially displace agency nurses from our public health system. I think that is for the betterment of patients as well as the health care system. The other thing we have been pressing ahead with, something which I think has had a very significant role to play in attracting nurses - particularly men and women who may have qualified a number of years ago - back into the profession has been the provision of nursing scholarships. At the last state election we promised to significantly expand the number of nursing scholarships offered. During 2005-06 the number of nursing scholarships was doubled. That was the direct result of the government’s election commitment. A total of $1.5 million was allocated to postgraduate clinical specialisation, $470 000 to undergraduate nursing students and $278 000 to nurse practitioners. We awarded scholarships to assist them to undertake the necessary study to become practising nurses in our public health system.

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We have upgraded the status of enrolled nurses. We have made provision, with effect from last year, for the diploma for enrolled nurses to be re-established in Western Australia, and for post-registration courses to be introduced. They are due to be introduced in the second half of this year. Again, it is a significant upgrading of the professional standing and qualification of enrolled nurses, who play a very important role in health care delivery. We have also in recent times provided funding to develop and publish the remote area emergency nursing guidelines. That was done last year. There are particular problems and issues confronting nurses working in the remote parts of the state. They have been expected to be able to do so much more; often, they just did it because they were the only person there to do it. It is important, in today’s environment of standards and litigation, that people have very clear guidelines within which to perform their work, and that is nowhere more true than in remote area emergency nursing. I return briefly to enrolled nurses. The scope of enrolled nursing practice, including medication administration, was released in 2005. The implementation of the policy has removed artificial barriers to the practice and has introduced greater flexibility. As a result of this, I expect to see far greater utilisation of the skills of enrolled nurses in both aged-care settings and in general hospitals. We spoke in some detail this morning about mental health and the difficulties that confront the community, particularly rural communities, in dealing with the mental health issue. We have not had a specific mental health nursing qualification in Western Australia since the late 1980s. We simply relied on registered general nurses who wished to specialise in mental health. We saw that there was a need to offer a specific postgraduate qualification in mental health nursing for registered general health nurses. Last month I announced a total of 30 places to be funded each year for the next four years, and they will be provided with mental health nursing scholarships, which will include the payment of university fees and salaries for registered general nurses undertaking the course. With the expansion of mental health facilities, we are going to need to employ hundreds of extra mental health nurses in our public health system over the next few years. We cannot do that with workforce shortages, and therefore the scholarships and training places are being provided for people to undertake the qualification to become professional mental health nurses. Dr K.D. Hames: How long will that take for a person who is already a nurse? Presumably, nurses will then want to go on and do that in most cases. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Yes. In most cases it will be existing registered general nurses who wish to undertake one year’s postgraduate study in order to become a specialist in mental health nursing. As a means of recruiting, we have to date been reliant on overseas recruiting; that is, a team of people have been to the United Kingdom and sought to recruit mental health nurses. We also relied on registered general nurses wanting to work in the mental health area. We are finding it increasingly difficult to meet staffing needs in health. That is not an unusual phenomenon. We have heard today about skill shortages in the resources sector. The same is true in the health industry. More needs to be done to educate and train more people to move into the more difficult areas like mental health. That is why we have accepted this challenge to do exactly that. A number of members have spoken today about maternity matters; it was not only the member for Roe, although one could not describe his contribution as a speech on maternity matters, as it was more to do with other matters. As members would be aware, in recent times we have followed through on the recommendation of the health reform plan of the Reid committee, and also on the report by Dr Harry Cohen on obstetric services. We have moved the obstetric facility from Kalamunda District Community Hospital to the Swan District Hospital, where there are 24-hour, seven-days-a-week specialist salaried obstetricians employed at that hospital. The government has also spent $2 million to upgrade the maternity facilities at Swan District Hospital to enable the little over 300 births a year that occurred at Kalamunda hospital to now take place at Swan District Hospital. Similarly, in my electorate of Fremantle, the Woodside Maternity Hospital has been closed and the maternity function, which is basically a midwifery-led service, has been transferred down the road, although still in the suburb of East Fremantle, to the new Kaleeya Hospital. Significant changes are occurring in every aspect of health care delivery, and none more so than in maternity services. We have worked for several months on a new maternity services plan to lay down the principles to guide the delivery of maternity services for decades to come. I hope in the next two months to have concluded that study. We have sought the assistance of Professor D’Arcy Holman to advise us on world’s best practice on maternity services delivery. That study has been based also on significant consultation with all the experts in the field of maternity services. I refer specifically to maternity services, as this legislation will, for the first time, give professional recognition to midwives as something independent from registered general nurses. The title is the Nurses and Midwives Bill. When the maternity services plan is available in a few months, I expect it will say that we will give a lot more emphasis to giving women a greater choice in the way in which they wish to deliver their babies. There will always be those complicated deliveries that will need, wherever they occur in the state, specialist treatment in the tertiary King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth, or the new maternity services hospital when it is rebuilt

3348 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] and co-located with Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in the medium term. However, for many other women, childbirth is not an illness - it is a natural phenomenon. It should be recognised as such, and women should be offered the choice of being able to deliver in the way they wish to deliver their babies when it is safe to do so. In my mind, that will include far greater emphasis on community based midwifery, and it will also include, perhaps, the construction of additional birthing centres to be provided for family birthing purposes - Dr K.D. Hames: In Osborne Park, perhaps. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Well, perhaps. Certainly, we have one at the moment; that is, at King Edward Memorial Hospital. I would like to see that expanded so that women can make the choice with natural childbirth. We should respect that choice rather than seek to impose on women an obstetric model or something else of that nature. Nevertheless, that is a matter we have been working on, and we hope we will be in a position to bring forward for the public of Western Australia our view of the range of services that should be offered to women in the way in which they give birth. I know that when I was last in Busselton, in an area adjoining the electorate of the member for Capel, a number of women approached me, a number of whom were from the electorate of Capel, to speak about their desire to have a birthing centre to service the women of the lower south west in the Busselton region. It is always a question of what is feasible and the medical back-up that is required in order to offer people that service. Nevertheless, I am attracted to that concept of being able to provide that wherever it is necessary. Therefore, the beginnings are already under way with the delivery of the maternity services, and I want to see that continue. It will continue when we have made the decision about King Edward Memorial Hospital. As a result of its close links with Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, particularly involving neonates, the whole question of where Princess Margaret Hospital, or the children’s hospital, fits into this equation will also be a very important consideration. It is the last piece of the jigsaw of how we will arrange health care services throughout the state. The rest of the health reform plan is set in concrete and will not change. That is the last variable. Once that is determined in a few months, it will have a profound effect on the way in which nurses and all other health professionals do their job in years to come. It will also, in my view, lead to a dramatic improvement in the quality of health care for all Western Australians, regardless of where they live, whether it be the city or the country. It is a bold plan. It is a vision that we are determined to drive through. We will not allow local sectional interests to disrupt the planned statewide rollout of that reform program. Dr S.C. Thomas: I thought you were about to announce the new Busselton hospital site; I was on the edge of my seat, minister. Mr J.A. McGINTY: Many country hospitals are being built. Moora has just been finished. Morawa, we announced; Geraldton, we opened. Every hospital in the Kimberley is either being significantly rebuilt or being replaced with a totally new hospital. Port Hedland is under way. Denmark will be under way by the end of the year, and Busselton will follow. Rural and regional Western Australia, in terms of health care facilities, has never had it so good. Dr G.G. Jacobs: Minister, don’t forget Esperance, will you? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am sorry. I did forget about Esperance. Mr P.B. Watson: The same in Albany. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am aware of that. As everyone is aware, this applies to the six major regional cities. We have seen in the past few days the new regional resource centre here in Geraldton, and this will be replicated with the new hospital in Port Hedland being built at South Hedland, the significant upgrade to Broome, big upgrades to Albany and Bunbury, and also to Kalgoorlie that will provide enhanced services. This is all for one simple reason - to provide to people an expanded range of health care and speciality services close to where they live so that they do not have to travel to Perth to receive treatment, unless of course it is of the highly complex nature that can only be provided from a state centre. I think everyone understands that intent. However, a lot more can be done to treat people locally, and that is the government’s determination with health care. Dr G.G. Jacobs: In the issue of Kalgoorlie becoming a regional resource centre, a lot more work will need to be done in the provision of services, particularly speciality services, for it to operate as a hub-and-spoke referral model. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I agree completely with that comment. It is not about providing new buildings and then expecting things to happen. It is a matter of providing new buildings that will house new services, and then recruiting specialist staff. We have heard from National Party members during the course of the last two days about how delighted they are that funding has now been made available for the employment of three part-time salaried medical officers at the Merredin District Hospital. That is something that people here in Geraldton know about: a few years ago, salaried doctors were not employed at the local hospital. Today we have funding for 11 salaried staff. I think when salaried staff are attracted to work in public hospitals, we can provide the best possible services, and often this is the case when the services are provided in conjunction with visiting medical

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3349 practitioners. I agree completely: it is not just about buildings, as it is also about the staff who are recruited to provide those services. I have already referred to the nature of the health reform under way. This legislation is an important underpinning factor for health reform in Western Australia; that is, it provides the framework for the practice of nursing and midwifery. We have already allocated $3.7 billion - that is, $3 700 million - to be spent on capital works on our public hospitals in the next 10 years. The vast bulk of that will in fact be spent in the next five years with the new Fiona Stanley hospital, with $740 million allocated to cover the southern suburbs of Perth, a new children’s hospital; a new women’s hospital; a brand-new hospital in Midland opposite the railway station in the heart of Midland serving the eastern suburbs; effectively a new hospital in Rockingham - it will grow from the current 80 beds up to 300 beds for Rockingham - the regional resource centres throughout regional Western Australia; as well as building new hospital facilities in country towns that I have already spoken about. All of that will be a massive change to the way in which health care is delivered. All of it has one objective; that is, to improve the quality of health care for all Western Australians. Dr G.G. Jacobs: The press today reported that there is still some doubt about the issue of King Edward Memorial Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, and where they will be located and how they will work. Can you just make clear what your stand is on that? Mr J.A. McGINTY: The Reid report, when it was published in March 2004, said that the women’s hospital and at the children’s hospital should be rebuilt and co-located with a tertiary hospital; in other words, the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Dr K.D. Hames: The other option was the Fiona Stanley site. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I think I short-circuited that a little, but in practical terms it needs to be the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. The report said they should be established in conjunction with a tertiary hospital, so Fiona Stanley was a possibility. The article in the paper today announced the disbandment of the Women’s and Children’s Health Service, with the women’s component of that now being part of the North Metropolitan Area Health Service, but still providing a statewide service, particularly through services such as the statewide obstetrics support unit. That is beneficial from a number of points of view, but there are two main benefits. The first is that we will be building a new women’s hospital on the site of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. It helps with the planning and integration of the services to be able to have them as part of a single organisation overseeing the drawing up of plans for the entire site, rather than as a separate entity trying to have input into it. The second benefit comes at a clinical level. Gynaecology, as members know, is essentially about surgery, and increasingly about cancer. Treatment for such conditions should occur in a tertiary hospital setting, or there should be the capacity for that to occur in a tertiary hospital, where an intensive care unit is available for the more serious cases. There are also a number of operating theatres, along with the range of services, including radiology and imaging, associated with a tertiary health care facility. Women needing gynaecological treatment will be the great winners out of the decision to relocate and rebuild the King Edward Memorial Hospital at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital site. The issue of Princess Margaret Hospital for Children is more complicated. The clinicians at Princess Margaret want to retain their own identity as a statewide children’s service. For that reason they have been more inclined to ask to be left alone. However, the growing view, particularly from discussions I have had in recent times with a range of clinicians from Princess Margaret, has been that the best option for them is to retain their independence but be co-located with the women’s hospital, particularly because of the overlapping interest in neonatology. To the extent that newborn babies are common to both Princess Margaret and King Edward hospitals, that level of cooperation can be enhanced. Otherwise, the Princess Margaret Hospital should be constructed on that site. If the government goes down the path of rebuilding Princess Margaret Hospital for Children at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital site, there will be some problems. Charles Gairdner is a limited site; it is constrained by surrounding residences. If we were to place women’s and children’s hospitals on that site, we would need to reduce the size of the general tertiary hospital facility. Where do we put the beds? Do we relocate them to Joondalup or bring in earlier the extra beds at the Fiona Stanley hospital? There is also the question of Fiona Stanley’s Institute for Child Health Research, which needs to go wherever Princess Margaret Hospital goes. Space needs also to be found for that on the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital site. Sir Charles Gairdner is not optimal in the sense that the Fiona Stanley site is. When the Fiona Stanley hospital is built, it will be on a railway, running through the southern suburbs and connecting every point of Perth with Mandurah. It is also on the freeway, and near the Royal Flying Doctor Service, which operates out of Jandakot Airport. It is an optimal site, right in the heart of the middle southern suburbs, for providing that service. Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital is not there. All these issues need to be resolved, and we are turning our minds to them. The Australian Medical Association and the clinicians at PMH came to me a number of months ago and asked me to rethink the idea of Princess Margaret Hospital going to the Royal Perth Hospital north block when that is vacated in 2011.

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Dr K.D. Hames: You might have noticed that the same option you are now considering was written in our plan, which was put out a year ago. It is not our plan, of course, because it came through Reid and the doctors. Nevertheless, it is an identical plan. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The issue, however, is whatever the best thing is for the decades ahead in Western Australia for the delivery of health services. It does not worry me where the idea came from. If it is a great idea, I will grab it and run with it. We should be able to resolve all those issues by July, which is now only a month and a half away. I hope then to be in a position to announce not only the maternity services plan but also the final piece of the jigsaw on the health reform plan, which is the issue of whether Princess Margaret Hospital goes to the north block at Royal Perth Hospital, or we can overcome the logistical issues associated with it moving to the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital site. I hope we will be able to come up with something that receives universal agreement from all the stakeholders, in particular the clinicians and nurses who work in the system. Then I hope that the Liberal Party will sign up to it as well, because it is in the long-term interest of Western Australia to have a plan that is above politics so that when we come to elections we no longer get what we have always had at election times - a party promising a hospital where it is not needed in the hope of winning a marginal seat. That is the worst way to plan health care for the future. I will go to the Liberal Party and say that everyone else agrees, and this is the plan for the future, and ask that the Liberal party sign up to it as well. I hope the opposition will be able to do that. Dr K.D. Hames: Let me tell you that it might, in fact, be the other way around. There is a potential alternative solution that I think might resolve the differences of opinion that we have. I have not raised that with anyone on this side yet. Mr J.A. McGINTY: The member should come and talk to me about it first. Dr K.D. Hames: We need certainty. I agree with the need for certainty, and we do not have that. Mr J.A. McGINTY: We need certainty, and we now have a once-in-a-century opportunity. Because of the booming economy we have the money to do it. The plan is 99 per cent there. All it needs is for the last piece of the jigsaw to be put in place. If we can then take that step further with the leadership that is currently being shown on this issue to obtain a consensus and then lock it all in place, everyone in the community will applaud all of us for having achieved that. The boom times will not last forever. We need to take the opportunity today. Our children and their grandchildren will thank us for what we can do, if we are able to do it. We have never been able to do it in the past. It has always been beset by political arguments and opportunism, which has always frustrated proper health reform. We are on the cusp of doing something truly great with health reform in Western Australia. It is hard, and it will be very disruptive, but if we can look into the longer term and all agree, that would be a very good way forward. Mr T.K. Waldron: Are the six regional resource centres part of that overall plan? Mr J.A. McGINTY: Absolutely. Mr T.K. Waldron: We support those six resource centres. As I said in the estimates hearing, you must also include that plan and plan for those inland regional towns such as Katanning, Narrogin, Merredin and Moora, with its new hospital, to have a specific role so that they can deliver to those outer areas. Mr J.A. McGINTY: We need to be able to have hospitals feeding into larger hospitals on a regional basis and, if needed for complicated cancer surgery or things like that, referral up to Perth. We need to have far more people treated locally. I agree that health reform needs to take place at every level. We cannot adjust only one element of the health care system because that will throw everything out of kilter. That is why we are trying to adopt a global view of it all. Mr J. McGrath: I might not have been here, and I do not know whether you have broached the subject, but what is your view on the need for major cities to have an emergency hospital in the central business district? I guess I am referring to the future of Royal Perth Hospital. Mr J.A. McGINTY: An important aspect of emergency departments is accessibility. Frankly, that is the benefit of the proposed Fiona Stanley hospital. It will be close to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the freeway and the railway. It will be simple to access. The Royal Perth and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospitals are about four kilometres apart. While we are talking about the eastern corridor, we hope to have many more emergency cases for the eastern suburbs taken to the new Swan District Hospital in Midland, which will be very accessible. It is also the gateway into Perth for many people from the wheatbelt. I hope that as a result of the significant upgrade in both the size and quality of services offered, many more people will be treated in the general hospitals rather in the tertiary hospitals. It has been estimated that approximately 80 per cent of people who go into tertiary hospitals do not need the tertiary services. It will be a rationalisation of the services as they come along. Mr Acting Speaker, as you can no doubt tell, I could speak for the rest of the day on this issue, but in light of the time -

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Mr P.B. Watson: We would love to hear you, minister. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am sure the member would. However, given the hour, it is better to bring this matter to a conclusion by way of a vote. Question put and passed. Bill read a second time. ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE - GERALDTON AND THE MID-WEST

Motion MR G. SNOOK (Moore) [3.22 pm]: I move - That this house condemns the Labor government for its failure to provide and maintain key road infrastructure around Geraldton and the mid-west. I could probably circumvent this motion substantially by having a private audience with the star member for Geraldton. He could then rise to the occasion, from the point of view of members on this side of the house, and convince the Premier and others that this motion should be supported. The opposition and the people of Geraldton acknowledge that the member for Geraldton is doing all right. However, he has a way to go to compete with the member for Albany. I think the member for Albany would acknowledge that also. Mr J.B. D’Orazio: I think it is the member for Collie-Wellington you’ve got to chase. Mr G. SNOOK: The member for Collie-Wellington has special dispensation. Although I have begun the debate on this motion in jest, it is a serious motion. I will refer to capital spending under the Labor government since it came to office in the 2000-01 state election. During that year, the Court coalition government spent a total of $509.576 million on capital works. Government spending on capital works has declined substantially over the ensuing years since the Labor government came to power. In 2001-02, the Labor government spent $354 million on capital works - Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: We must have done more with less, big time! Mr G. SNOOK: I am sure that the minister is aware of all these figures. In 2002-03, the amount the government spent on capital works decreased again to $300 million; in 2003-04, the government increased spending on its capital works program to almost $325 million; it was a good year in 2004-05, because the government increased spending on its capital works program to $390 million; in 2005-06, spending on capital works increased again to $397 million-odd dollars. It then went up again. There must be a reason for that. This year the government estimates it will spend $475 million. The point is that in real terms it is spending less than it was in the last year of the Court government, which is a fact; the figures show it. In its first year, the Labor government slashed capital works spending in Western Australia by $155 million. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: How did we produce all that infrastructure? Mr G. SNOOK: The minister will recollect that the Western Australian Local Government Association asked the minister what she was doing to it. The minister took $14 million out of rural road funding. These are WALGA’s figures. I was involved in local government at the time. WALGA estimated that $14 million was taken out of road funding. Mr A.J. Carpenter: What are the figures you are quoting? Mr G. SNOOK: These figures are for capital works expenditure under the Labor government. Mr J.C. Kobelke: Who extracted them and from where? Mr G. SNOOK: I have extracted them. It was quite a simple task to take them out of the budget papers. It is not me or the opposition but WALGA that has provided the figures on road spending. Mr A.J. Carpenter: Road spending? Mr G. SNOOK: Yes, road spending. We are talking about road infrastructure. That is what this motion is about. Mr A.J. Carpenter: There is more to capital works than roads. Mr G. SNOOK: This is what the motion is about. It is very important. The Premier and the Treasurer have acknowledged that the lifeblood of Western Australia’s V8 booming economy comes from the regional and rural areas. There is no question about that; that is fantastic. I am pointing out that in real terms, capital works expenditure on road funding has decreased. WALGA was in despair in the first year of the Labor government because of the decrease in road funding of $14 million. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: What is this absolute nonsense?

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Mr G. SNOOK: WALGA approached the minister. Everyone in local government was aware that in that year, funding for rural roads decreased by $14 million. That is a fact. In its second year, the Labor government spent $208 million, or 41 per cent, less compared with the last year of the Court government. By adding inflation and all the increases that are applied, it is possible to come up with a percentage of slippage. That is the real problem that we are faced with. Calculated on that basis, if the Labor government had spent the same amount each year as the coalition government spent in its last year in government, Main Roads would have received an additional $805 million over the past six years. The Gallop government, and now the Carpenter government, believes that the lifeblood of this economy is being driven by the regions and rural Western Australia. The figures for capital spending on our rural road infrastructure clearly underline the legacy that will be left for either a Labor government or a Liberal government in the future. Funding for roads in rural areas is declining rapidly. Main Roads WA figures indicate that the local rural road network in Western Australia covers about 125 000 kilometres and comprises about 88 per cent of the total state road network. Main Roads, in its own right, manages a network of about 17 800 kilometres of national highways and state roads, which have a replacement value of about $16 billion. We are looking at huge money. The point I am making is that we really have to get serious about reinvesting in the existing infrastructure and assets. I know that the government is trying to get traffic off the roads and back onto rail, and that is a great way to go, but if we do not speed up that process or do not maintain rural roads we will be confronted with a problem. I implore all members opposite not to fly home, but to hop in a car and drive down through the central midlands, through Carnamah and Moora, and have a look at the Mogumber-Bindoon road. Ms J.A. Radisich: And call into the Swan Valley on the way home. Mr G. SNOOK: That is an excellent idea. If members do as I suggest, they will recognise the problems we are faced with. I know many of my colleagues want to speak to the motion, but I will refer to a couple of other aspects. I guess if we take out the capital expenditure of the big ticket items that have been allocated in the 2006-07 budget, there is not a lot of money left for the smaller, remote communities and interconnecting roads. That is where the problem lies. The heavy produce that comes out of the agricultural and mining sectors is carried on these smaller local roads. The lime sand routes are used by not only lime sand carters, but also school bus drivers and other people who use them as interconnecting roads between towns and shires. They provide a vital east-west linkage. It has been estimated that up to 2010 about 400 000 tonnes of lime sands will be used. I estimate from the information that I have that currently between 100 000 and 200 000 tonnes is being used. The heavy haulage trucks carting that sand are having a disastrous impact on the local gravel roads. They are causing a lot of pain for local shires, such as Dandaragan, Coorow and Gingin. A little bit of work was done to finish that connection through Gingin, but the problem remains that the deposits of lime sand are further north and the routes to the eastern wheatbelt go through a lot of the central midland shires. A substantial increase in funding for roads used by trucks to cart lime sand is needed. I know the minister has said that there is some capacity within the budget to look at that, and I acknowledge that. However, I am only talking about a few pennies, not millions of dollars. I refer to some of the requirements for the Geraldton and mid-west region. Not long after the Premier’s appointment to the position of Premier he visited Geraldton. One of the questions that was in the media - I am like the Premier because I do not believe everything I read in the media - was about Indian Ocean Drive. The Premier said that the proposal was in the pipeline; however, everything had to be fitted in, other issues had to be considered and the priorities had to be right. Mr A.J. Carpenter: I had to take time to be briefed on all the projects. Mr G. SNOOK: I understand that. I am sure that the Premier’s first visit to Geraldton as a brand-new Premier highlighted one of the key issues on the minds of the people of Geraldton and the mid-west. I advise the Premier, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure and all members opposite that this road is of utmost importance to Geraldton, the mid-west and central coast regions. Actually, it is a unique road. I have a strong belief that when we invest in something, we need to be able to get a return - a good return from development and growth and a return on investment for the government, plus some social values. Indian Ocean Drive will do lots of those things, as well as drive the tourism economy. That is the reason I raised the question with the Minister for Tourism. We need to be able to recognise and capitalise on the exceptional opportunities from Geraldton down to Yanchep, along the central coast area. A whole feast of proponents is waiting. A study was done by an organisation called the Mid West Development Commission. It produced a report that was prepared a number of years ago by a consulting firm called Praxis Management Consultants. It carried out what was a conservative analysis. It cut back the estimates so that it would not be seen to be aiming too high and that its figures were not inflated. There are three areas from which a government gets its income from land development. For example, the conservative estimate for Indian Ocean Drive was that over a 10-year period the state government would receive $3 273 000 from land tax. From mortgage duty, over a nine or 10-year period, there would be almost a $2 million return from property development and those types of stamp duties - conveyance duty.

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Mr A.J. Carpenter: Over and above what would happen anyway. Mr G. SNOOK: This is what its estimates were, based on conservative figures. Conveyance duty is a big winner for the government and one that obviously the government would like to hang on to. A number of people in the community would like to see this duty reduced. Conveyance duty totalled nearly $29.8 million. This report was prepared in 2003, so it really is not current; however, the figures are relevant. Those figures were based on a construction cost for Indian Ocean Drive of $32 million. Of course, now with inflation the cost has spiralled to $60 million or more. The arguments for that road go beyond dollars and cents. For example, there are social and environmental gains. In terms of the taxpayers getting back something for this outlay, this road does exactly that. The government has to outlay money on many projects that are either social commitments or services to the community for which there is little return. It is accepted that that is the role that governments play. This road will pay for itself. It will create employment and other opportunities, which will be of great benefit to the Geraldton region. We have had many briefings from people and organisations in the community as well as the City of Geraldton, the Shire of Greenough, the Shire of Irwin and the Western Australian Chamber of Commerce. They have all placed completion of Indian Ocean Drive as one of their top priorities for solving that range of problems. I say to the Premier that it must be done. It cannot be left for the next six or seven years until 2011. Despite passing lanes being built on Brand Highway in that much needed area between the Cervantes turn-off and Gingin, heavy traffic has increased considerably as a result of all the resource developments in the mid-west. Although the member for Geraldton often travels by plane because it makes sense to do so, he will have driven that road many times. I do not know how many times I have driven along the road from Jurien Bay to Perth and back at all hours of the day and night. At times, the conditions on that road are absolutely atrocious. In wet conditions when road trains carrying minerals, and buses, caravans and trailers are using that road, the hazard is horrendous. Heaven forbid that we should be faced with the consequences of a horrific accident. I accept that that can happen on any road, so I will not go down the line of dramatising this issue; nonetheless, it is an exceptional case because of the great amount of heavy road-train traffic that mixes with a lot of tourism traffic. Almost every grey nomad travelling north uses that road. A number of years ago Main Roads estimated that of the 1 600 to 2 000 vehicles a day that travelled on the road at that time, about 800 to 1 000 vehicles a day would drive along the coast road if it were completed. Mr M.J. Cowper: There have been three fatalities in the mid-west so far this year. Mr G. SNOOK: I have experienced a number of near misses as I am sure have the member for Geraldton and other people in the Geraldton community who travel that road regularly. We can never engineer roads or legislate for the idiot factor. The fact remains that, out of sheer frustration, that percentage of people put at risk the lives of other motorists. I have seen people crossing over double white lines to pass two or three road trains that are head to tail on that 100 kilometre stretch between Bibby Road and the Gingin minesite. It is extremely dangerous. We are debating a situation in which safety should be the prime concern. We need to consider also the environmental benefits of Indian Ocean Drive. As you will well know, Mr Acting Speaker (Mr G. Woodhams), at present there is a 68-kilometre gap that contains the Nambung National Park and the Walyengarra Nature Reserve to the south near Wedge Island and a number of - I would not try to guess how many - motorists illegally access that section of road through the national park, the nature reserve and the naval and army training grounds. That impact on the environment could be avoided if a road was built to designate where people can travel and on which they can gain access to the beach areas. People have often said to me that construction of a road would ruin the environment. In my experience in local government, I have found that if people are directed to where they can travel and good signage is used to indicate where they should not go, they generally adhere to it. The construction of Indian Ocean Drive will regulate where people can and cannot go. The environment will benefit. Most importantly, it will add to the economic driver of the resource industry from which Geraldton is benefiting. There is no question that it will spur on the central coast and mid-west area. The amount of approximately $700 million worth of projects were estimated in this report. The future of most of them hangs on the construction of that road, which is the trigger that will prompt people to invest their dollars in the resort and subdivisional developments. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: They will do it anyhow. Mr G. SNOOK: Some of them are to a degree, but in all honesty - Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: Have you seen Jurien? Mr G. SNOOK: I happen to live there. It was good to see the minister in Jurien the other day. I think her eyes were opened when she saw the amount of growth there; she could see what was happening. The minister is not being reasonable. If she were being reasonable she would acknowledge that two major projects in Jurien worth hundreds of millions of dollars are waiting to be developed, but they will not start until the road is built. That is true. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan interjected.

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Mr G. SNOOK: I can tell the minister that it is true. We can argue all day on that point. I live in Jurien and I do not know how many times the minister has been there. That was probably her first visit. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: No, of course it wasn’t. Mr G. SNOOK: How many times has the minister visited Jurien Bay? Several members interjected. Mr G. SNOOK: The minister knows that the key to triggering developments that will enable benefits to flow along the coast is Indian Ocean Drive. However, she has told me a thousand times in response to requests and letters that we must hang on and wait awhile because there are other priorities. That is not good enough. If the minister expects development to proceed anyway, why not acknowledge the safety hazard that is increasing daily on Brand Highway? In 1995, Main Roads identified nine passing lanes as being necessary between Eneabba and Gingin. They have not all been built. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: You spent $2.7 million in four years you were so concerned about it. Mr G. SNOOK: I will tell the minister what the coalition did towards Brand Highway. It built the Green Head to Jurien section - 22 to 23 kilometres of road - worth $6 million. After that, it built the Jurien to Cervantes section of road, and it is all part of Indian Ocean Drive. Those two sections have played a key role in reducing the traffic flow in that area. I have spoken to people in Geraldton who tell me - perhaps the member for Geraldton can verify this - that the travel time between Geraldton and the metropolitan area has increased substantially over the past three years. It now takes five hours. Mr S.R. Hill: It used to be four and a half. Mr G. SNOOK: Yes, but they get stuck behind road trains. Several members interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr G. Woodhams): Order! I am sure that members on both sides of the house, as well as the people in the gallery, are particularly interested in this debate. We would all be far better informed if members enabled the member to continue his speech. Mr G. SNOOK: Thank you, Mr Acting Speaker, for your protection. I think the Premier visited the ROC Oil Company Ltd facility that is coming on stream at Dongara on his journey back from the north of the state. Mr A.J. Carpenter: I opened it. Mr G. SNOOK: Perhaps the Premier could verify this for me: I am told that every hour a truck will leave the loading facility. If a truck leaves every hour and another truck is coming back in the other direction, 48 more road trains will be travelling up and down the state from that Brand Highway turn-off to the refinery at Kwinana and back. Mr A.J. Carpenter: That is full production. Mr G. SNOOK: That is right, but the traffic is building. Mr A.J. Carpenter: Yes, that is 20 per cent. Mr G. SNOOK: Yes, but it is coming. Mr A.J. Carpenter: I know. Mr G. SNOOK: The Mitchell Corporation tankers travel up and down that highway. From Iluka Resources at Gingin, mineral sands are being carted to Eneabba. In addition, wind farm turbine blades are being transported from Geraldton to Jurien Bay. Dr S.C. Thomas: They are stuck at the wharf at the moment. Mr G. SNOOK: They will be transported soon. The resources boom has meant a massive increase in haulage traffic. The state desperately needs all four, and possibly six, passing lanes between the Cervantes turn-off and Gingin. Main Roads has indicated that is it. I think the minister will get about two passing lanes for the $2.4 million. I think each passing lane costs about $1 million or so. Ms A.J.G. MacTiernan: We are doing two immediately in addition to the $2.4 million that we have already spent this year. Mr G. SNOOK: That is being done in this neck of the woods, and that is fine, but the $2.4 million will pay for only two, whereas the area needs another four. I believe this motion should be supported because the minister is not responding enough to the demands that are being placed on people’s safety and the capacity of this road to add to the state’s V8 economy and match what could be better still for the mid-west and Geraldton region. I would ask every single person in Geraldton what they think about driving on the Brand Highway. People are

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3355 now cutting in at the Cliff Head turn-off, going to the Jurien or Cervantes turn-off, and then going back out again, just to get a bit of relief on that section. That section is where all the passing lanes are. I will leave it at that, but I implore the house to give serious consideration to investing more in road infrastructure in the mid- west and central coast regions, and particularly in investing in the Brand Highway. Question without Notice - Paper Tabled The ACTING SPEAKER: Earlier today in question time, the Premier indicated that he would table a document which he was sent by Mr Ron Dullard from the Catholic Education Office. I present the document for tabling. [See paper 1547.] Debate Resumed MS K. HODSON-THOMAS (Carine) [3.53 pm]: I also support the motion moved by the member for Moore. It is an interesting motion that relates to road structure, which I have taken an interest in over a long period. I say that because Western Australia has an ageing road network. The coalition invested a lot of money; in fact, it made a $1.3 billion investment in road infrastructure. Members on the other side can say that we spent absolutely nothing. Mr J.N. Hyde: I will. Don’t take the whole 30 minutes. Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: The member for Perth should get up and make his own speech. I will correct some history today. We invested soundly and wisely in road infrastructure. When the Labor government came into power in 2001, it made a determination that the funding would go into the Perth to Mandurah railway. That is what we have seen. It was a different direction, and we accept that, but government members should not come into this place and suddenly say today in question time that this government has built six passing lanes. Yes, it did, but just prior to this regional Parliament. It was a bit of pork-barrelling for the local community. Mr P.B. Watson: You said you did not get anything, and now you are saying we are pork-barrelling. It cannot be both. Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: What about Indian Ocean Drive? The Labor Party made a commitment prior to the 2001 election to build Indian Ocean Drive. It has never happened. The policy changed all of a sudden. Government members can interject - Mr M.P. Whitely: Okay, then. Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: I am not taking any interjections. Mr J. McGrath: Say what you really think. Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: Say what I really think! Do not get me started. What I do not like in the nine years that I have been in politics is how people rewrite history. It is extraordinary. At least members should come into this place and give some semblance of the truth. Mr J.C. Kobelke: Do you say that to your own members? I hope you do. Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: I am saying it to all members. At least come in here and give the facts. Give credit where it is due. Even the Leader of the Opposition said it in a speech in this place. I am not sure whether it was today or yesterday. The member for Cottesloe did a lot for this region. We know it and government members should also recognise it. I want to get back to the motion and talk about Indian Ocean Drive, because it is imperative for this region and a vital link for getting tourists to the area. I spoke to a lady during afternoon tea today. She said that not enough tourists were attracted into the area. This is a great place. Who would not want to come here? I have heard from all members today and yesterday how much they love the place. I will refer to the member as Shane, because everybody else has in the time we have been here - Mr P.B. Watson: The soft bit is coming out! Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: That is something about me; the two shades of the member for Carine - highly passionate and also very compassionate. The member for Geraldton and the member for Greenough live in a great region. They want to look after their local communities. Road safety is an important issue. We heard the member for Moore speaking about the issue of getting people to and from this region on the Brand Highway. The Brand Highway needs some investment. The minister talked today about the six passing lanes, and I commend her for that. At least that is being done. However, this area needs more. The member for Geraldton knows it. Indian Ocean Drive needs to happen. The government needs to be building that infrastructure sooner rather than later. Mr P.B. Watson: Are you going to give the government credit for what it has done here?

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Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: Sure. I spoke yesterday in the debate on the Railway Discontinuance Bill. I stood and congratulated the minister for her foresight. We supported the legislation. It is great to see the railway tracks removed from the foreshore. A few members and I walked along the foreshore this morning. The government has done great things in the region, but Indian Ocean Drive is clearly critical. The funding needs to be put into the budget sooner rather than later. The minister has talked about commencing the road in 2007-08, but that is much too long a time. Mr A.D. McRae: How do you think it will change people’s destination choices? Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: I think people will make choices because they want to take a coastal route. If the member for Riverton, the new Minister for Disability Services and Citizenship and Multicultural Interests, wanted to travel to Geraldton from Perth, what would he do? Would he travel on the Brand Highway or take the beautiful coastal route? Mr A.D. McRae: Of course I would take the Brand Highway now. Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: If there were a choice, what would he do? Mr A.D. McRae: It would depend on my destination; whether I wanted to go to Geraldton. Ms K. HODSON-THOMAS: Then the member might ask the Minister for Tourism to spend more money on destination marketing. I do not want to talk at great length here. I plead with the Premier to invest wisely in this area. I know he is doing that, but he should put money into this road infrastructure. I wanted to keep my comments brief. MS A.J.G. MacTIERNAN (Armadale - Minister for Planning and Infrastructure) [4.00 pm]: I thank the house for the opportunity to speak and once again to tell the story. We do not ever pretend that in five years we can solve every problem that the mid-west has had, but to suggest that we should be condemned for our investment in infrastructure in this region is just laughable. We have heard the member for Moore talk about previous coalition government’s spending big on roads. The people of the mid-west would be asking, “Where are those roads?” I can tell those people that members opposite did spend big: their big projects were the Graham Farmer freeway, the duplication of the Narrows Bridge and the extension of the Kwinana Freeway. Mr Speaker, members opposite spent eight years building city roads. A couple of scraps came through to the country. Their excuse today for having spent only $2.7 million in four years on the Brand Highway was that nothing was happening up here. We rest our case! We have turned that situation around. This government has invested in the roads and the transport infrastructure in this region. We have invested, as we have said time and again, on a whole suite of projects that, when brought together, produce magnificent results for this region. We invested in the Mt Magnet-Leinster road to connect this area to the highly prospective greenstone belt. We invested in the southern transport corridor with the $92 million rail-road connector to the port. The government then invested $9 million in the Brand Highway. We have been upgrading roads like the Geraldton-Mullewa road over the past four to five years. We have brought together a whole suite of projects. The port enhancement involved an allocation of $103 million in the first instance, to which we have now added in excess of $48 million, to ensure that this region absolutely rocks. We have not solved all the problems; we do not claim to have done so, but we have made commitments. We have made a commitment to the southern transport corridor stage 2. All the money for that project is in this set of forward estimates. That road will be completed by 2009; that is a guarantee. We have also committed to the Lancelin-Cervantes road. Several members interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER (Mrs J. Hughes): Order, members! Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: We have set a starting date - Several members interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER: Order! The minister is on her feet. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: We have put $48 million in the forward estimates to get that road under way. We understand its importance. We know that we will be revising our budget each year, and if it is possible to bring that project forward and to complete it at an earlier time, we are committed to endeavouring to do so. The ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Members, the minister is not taking interjections. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: People can look at what was promised. Let us look at what happened during the last election campaign. We promised that we would do exactly what we are now doing with the southern transport corridor. We promised to invest in Indian Ocean Drive, and we gave time frames. We were absolutely honest with the people. We gave those time frames before the last election, but what did we find with members opposite? They said that they would build the Lancelin-Cervantes road in one year, but they put half the required funding into their forward estimates. They also said that they would build the Geraldton southern

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3357 transport corridor stage 2, but did not put one cent in the estimates they had to present for independent assessment prior to the last election. They promised that road, but did not put a single cent into it. What is the difference between our government and a government of members opposite? We make realistic commitments. The ACTING SPEAKER: Order! I am having trouble listening to the minister with the noise from members to my left. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: We made commitments that we will deliver. Members opposite were in government for eight years and they had their foot on the hose. The ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Minister, please! I am having great difficult in hearing what you are saying, and I am sure that everybody in the gallery would like to hear as well. Members to my left should try to restrain themselves a little bit. I thank members. Mr D.F. Barron-Sullivan: We’re trying! The ACTING SPEAKER: Then members should restrain themselves a lot. Ms A.J. MacTIERNAN: This is the most ludicrous motion that I have ever seen from the opposition. As part of our strategic investment in infrastructure to turn Geraldton around, we have committed to a new stage of development, and the opposition condemns us for it! I am very pleased and proud to submit the government for judgment to the people of Geraldton. MR J.J.M. BOWLER (Murchison-Eyre - Minister for Resources and Assisting the Minister for State Development) [4.06 pm]: I will not speak about the entire process of the development of all the roads in the mid-west. I want to speak about one road that the member for Moore conveniently, I assume - maybe it was absent-mindedly - forgot to mention; that is, the Wiluna-Meekatharra road. Although it may not specifically be in the mid-west, that road comes right through the region and ends up at the port of Geraldton. Maybe the member for Moore forgot to mention this point: this year’s budget contains an allocation of $8.54 million for this road. I will quickly refer to the history of the road. Over 40 years ago, the then Liberal government pulled up the rail tracks that went into Wiluna from Meekatharra, but said to the people of Wiluna at the time, “Don’t worry; we’re taking away your railway but we will build you a new road.” That was 40 years ago. This government will start building that road. In fact, on Friday week, the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure - I hope to go with her - will be going to Wiluna to turn over the first sod on the construction of the seal of that road. It will cover only the first 15 kilometres between Wiluna and the Magellan lead mine, but it shows that once the government starts building a road and starts sealing a road, the government will complete the work. This is a very important road, and not just for the mid-west; it is also important for my electorate of Murchison-Eyre, for the Magellan mine, and for the people of Meekatharra and Wiluna. Mr B.J. Grylls: And important for the state. Mr J.J.M. BOWLER: And it is important for the state, Leader of the National Party. This is a very important road, member for Moore, and one that I am proud of. The member conveniently forgot to mention it in his budget figures. Finally, when talking about figures, members can pluck out any figures they want. However, there is a basic figure that must be looked at in this debate. When we came to government, 51 per cent of the state’s money being spent on roads in Western Australia was being spent in the metropolitan area. This year, of the state money being spent on roads, 67 per cent will be spent in the country. MR S.R. HILL (Geraldton) [4.08 pm]: Madam Acting Speaker - Mr G. Snook: Go on - announce it. Mr S.R. HILL: I announce the Indian Ocean Drive! Mr G. Snook: Yes! Mr S.R. HILL: I wish to speak briefly on the Indian Ocean Drive. The members for Greenough and Moore and I have been working on this issue for many months. The minister has indicated that 2007 is the commencement date. Several members interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Members, there is a limited amount of time for debate, and there is still another motion on the table. Please, can we get on with it. Mr S.R. HILL: The commencement date for Indian Ocean Drive is 2007, and I am imploring and encouraging the minister to bring the completion date forward. As the member for Moore said, there are dangerous traffic movements on the Brand Highway. I have driven the Brand Highway many times over many years, and I agree

3358 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] with the member for Moore that it is totally dangerous now. When behind a couple of road trains with a bit of water on the road, one cannot see to overtake those road trains. This is an important infrastructure project for the entire mid-west. As the minister said, 2007 is the commencement date. I will be pushing hard in my own party room to have that completion date brought forward. I know the residents of the mid-west, particularly in my electorate of Geraldton, are keen to see the completion date for that road come forward. We have completed stage 1 of the southern transport corridor. We are working on stage 2 in my own electorate, but one of the key road infrastructures, as the member for Moore has mentioned, is Indian Ocean Drive. I cannot agree with the motion to condemn the Labor government. Before being elected member for Geraldton in 2001, I was with the Ministry for Planning and Infrastructure for nearly 10 years. I remember working with Jamie Edwards and Phil Cooper. I think the previous mayor is in the gallery this afternoon. We worked on the Geraldton region plan. I remember that the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure of the day, Graham Kierath - for whom I have a lot of time - brought up the update of the Geraldton region plan, and the southern transport corridor was in that plan, but it was never funded. It was never built until we came into government and we built stage 2 - Mr B.J. Grylls: Nothing to do with that railway to Mandurah, is it? Mr S.R. HILL: No, it is nothing to do with that at all. To condemn the Labor government for the lack of infrastructure in the mid-west is just unbelievable. If the road networks into the Geraldton port - Mr G. Snook: Doesn’t Indian Ocean Drive count? Mr S.R. HILL: Indian Ocean Drive does count. The minister has said that 2007 will be the commencement date. If we can bring that completion date forward, we will bring it forward. I will keep lobbying the minister in my own party room to try to bring that completion date forward, but I cannot agree with the motion presented to the house today. MR T. BUSWELL (Vasse - Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [4.11 pm]: I have a couple of small points to contribute to this debate this afternoon. The member for Moore has cemented the date in my mind: June 2000. It was in June 2000 that the last significant work on Indian Ocean Drive was completed. That was the section that runs from Cervantes to Jurien. Since June 2000, which is only six years ago - almost one-and-a-half terms of Labor in government - there has not been a cent spent on Indian Ocean Drive. On the subject of coastal drives along what I still refer to as the Batavia Coast, but is now called, I believe, the Turquoise or Coral Coast, it was the coalition government that, when last in power, constructed the Kalbarri coastal access road. In my previous life, I quite often had reason to drive tour coaches along this stretch of Western Australian roads, and I can tell members that the roads are dangerous and that this type of road infrastructure is much needed. A couple of interesting studies confirm what I am saying. It is interesting to note that in late 2003-04, the state government’s own Tourism Commission - Tourism Western Australia - produced a report. One of its pages is headed “Iconic Gaps in Australia’s Coral Coast”. The report reads - As the key gateway for metropolitan Perth the completion of the Indian Ocean Drive between Lancelin and Cervantes is pivotal in unleashing the shorter trip potential of the southern parts of the region whilst significantly adding value for all self drive tourists. Those words are echoed in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia’s own submission to the State Infrastructure Strategy. This is a very impressive document, and there is a lot to be learnt by government and by both sides of politics about how this state should go about long-term sustainable infrastructure development. It lists a range of significant infrastructure projects that need to be considered in a framework, including south west regional linkages, the port, Burrup infrastructure, the goldfields freight hub, high-load corridors etc. It talks about tourism infrastructure, and the number one piece of significant tourism infrastructure that it identifies - Mr G. Snook: Guess what? Mr T. BUSWELL: Tell us, member for Moore. Mr G. Snook: Indian Ocean Drive. Mr T. BUSWELL: Indian Ocean Drive. That is right. There it is. Time after time over the past six years, organisations in this state, including Tourism Western Australia, have identified the significance and importance of Indian Ocean Drive. Yet over six years and six budgets, all the government can tell us, the people of the mid- west, the tourism operators and the other people who will benefit from having 34 per cent less traffic on Brand Highway, is that the year after this will be the year in which the first sod will be turned on stage - what? - of Indian Ocean Drive. There is no date given for completion. It is all well and good to start one end of a road without a commitment to complete the road. Mr J.J.M. Bowler: It would obviously be stage 1, wouldn’t it?

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Mr T. BUSWELL: I tell the member that I think it is occasionally interesting to listen in this chamber when some of the government backbenchers have an opportunity to expose themselves to the public here in Geraldton. Yesterday we had the member for Joondalup - I think it was the member for Joondalup; we rarely hear him - striding forward and saying, “I am from Joondalup, the gateway to Geraldton.” The problem is, he is at the gate but there is no road going anywhere from the gate. There is no road. Indian Ocean Drive is a critical road for the benefit of local residents and local industry. It is very interesting to note the tourism statistics for Geraldton and the broader Coral Coast region. Geraldton as a tourist destination is not performing as well as other areas on the Coral Coast, like Kalbarri, Coral Bay etc. Geraldton and the area between here and Perth are, by and large, missing out on the benefits of booming tourism in this area. There is absolutely no doubt that the construction of Indian Ocean Drive, six years in the waiting, would add to that boom. I want to conclude with a couple of quick remarks about the use of the government surplus. I note a motion on the book on which I am sure we will be talking very soon about the use of the government surplus; this $1.98 billion surplus the government has. People are right to criticise the Treasurer and the government for the cheap political stunt that is the attempt to apportion about $1.25 billion of that surplus to debt repayment on the Perth-Mandurah rail project. They are right to criticise it, because it is a stunt. It is a stunt because two years ago when the government repaid $800 million of public debt, it did not tie it to anything. The government has $2 billion of consolidated debt that it could have paid off, other than on that project. It did not pay it off. The reason it paid it off was this: when the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure next says she is having a budget adjustment or contingency rather than a budget blow-out on the Perth-Mandurah rail project, and we say it is an outrage, the government will say not to worry; it is paid off. There are political purposes behind the tying of those funds. That is why it happened. We know it, the public of Western Australia knows it, and I suspect that even the government knows it. Mr E.S. Ripper: We did identify that debt repayment. It was your failed Westrail freight privatisation. We had to pay off the debt left over from that. Mr T. BUSWELL: That is one component of three payments made. Mr E.S. Ripper: We have identified debt before. Mr T. BUSWELL: Here is the point: the repayment of debt with surplus funds is, in itself, not a bad thing. One point to consider is that it does not preclude further expenditure on regional Western Australia. However, there is an issue here, and the issue is that in the context - Several members interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER: Members! Can we not have conversations across the floor, please. We have a member on his feet. Mr T. BUSWELL: The issue is that in the context of infrastructure investment decisions made in this state, there is a range of criteria that should apply. I consider two criteria to be the most important. Firstly, to make sure that any project stands alone from a cost-benefit point of view. Whether that benefit is economic or social, it is imperative that a proper, thorough and rigorous cost-benefit analysis be conducted. Secondly, it is important to conduct an opportunity cost analysis. What does an opportunity cost analysis do? It recognises that if a dollar is spent on project A and project B, there will be a project that does not happen. It is important that all of these things are continually made a priority and attended to. I think the Treasurer is making a genuine endeavour to plan properly for the provision of infrastructure in this state. I honestly feel that. I think that when we sit down and look at it for the better long-term interests of Western Australia, we will all agree on a vast percentage of those projects, because most people elected to Parliament have the best long-term interests of this state at heart. There are sections that we will not agree on, because there are components of the government’s infrastructure expenditure to which the opposition feels the government does not attach the correct level of significance in this opportunity cost analysis. Mr E.S. Ripper: Can I ask you, since you believe in doing less with less: are there any pieces of infrastructure that you would not build? Mr T. BUSWELL: Unfortunately, I have just been given an instruction from my leader, so I shall move on. However, why is it that we differ in our assessment of what is important in Western Australia? It is because the opposition values regional Western Australia. When we put up the bumper board about where we intend to spend money, we would have a number of significant infrastructure projects in Western Australia ranked above where the government places them, because we value and view regional Western Australia in a different way from the government. They are the facts, and in due course that argument will be borne out. MR M.P. MURRAY (Collie-Wellington) [4.21 pm]: This is the first opportunity I have had to speak since the Parliament has been sitting in Geraldton. I thank the people of Geraldton for their hospitality. It has been great, and I expect to enjoy a bit more of it tonight after Parliament is over. People, especially those in the gallery, must realise that if this parliamentary sitting were being held in Bunbury we would have the same story coming

3360 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] from the opposition about the roads in Bunbury, or the roads in Collie. It would be exactly the same story. That is why I take my hat off to the minister for her fairness in allocation of the budget. Several members interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER (Mrs J. Hughes): Order! I understand that we have had a very big two days. We have also had a very big five weeks, and everybody is getting tired, but can we please try to behave ourselves while we are here. Mr M.P. MURRAY: That is why I think this is one of the fairest allocations of road funding I have seen for quite some time. The amount of money that has been allocated, with commonwealth funding, amounts to nearly $1 billion, a remarkable sum. Of that sum, $376 million will go to new road construction and $194 million will go towards maintenance of the assets, which is just great. I do not have a great deal of time and I have quite a line-up of speakers behind me, but I will run through some of the figures. In the Gascoyne, $3.39 million has been allocated for ongoing construction and sealing of the Carnarvon to Mullewa road. That is in this region. It is not just the highway that members might use on a daily basis, it is bigger than that. We must look further. The sum of $225 million has been allocated for flood repairs on the North West Coastal Highway. In the goldfields-Esperance region, $2.9 million has been allocated to complete construction and sealing of the Magellan section of the Goldfields Highway between Wiluna and Meekatharra. In the great southern, about which the opposition has also been complaining, $4.5 million has been allocated for construction of the Mt Barker northern bypass on the Muirs Highway. Members of the opposition, including the member for Vasse, have been really thumping the government about the South Western Highway. A huge amount of money is being spent on that road, including $10 million for a bypass around Bridgetown. Further up the South Western Highway, we see the reconstruction of the stretch near Donnybrook, in the electorate of the member for Capel. This is something that has been wanted for a long time, and now it is being done. I am sure that people in the gallery have read about some of the problems we have had down there with a number of people being killed and injured. There has been reconstruction and sealing of the shoulders of the road between Donnybrook and Balingup. This had to be done. We cannot just single out one coastal road and say that that is the one we want built, because we are now in Geraldton, and we can become popular politicians for drawing attention to those things. I noticed on the way into Geraldton that roadworks are being done right now on the road from Dongara. I am sure Bunbury would love to have bypasses the same as those in Geraldton. Another group has been asking for $75 million to build a bypass in that area. We cannot do it all at once. The package that has been put out in this year’s budget is one of the best for many years, because it is fair. It deals with some of the problems on the Brand Highway, with an allocation of $2.4 million for that road. It does not go the whole way. We cannot spend $1 billion in just one area. We are talking about the whole of Western Australia. I must keep coming back to that, because I know the National Party is putting up another motion along those lines. I thank the minister for sharing the road funding around and for being fair and equitable across the state. Question to be Put On motion by Mr G. Woodhams, resolved - That the question be now put. Motion Resumed Question put and negatived. REGIONAL WESTERN AUSTRALIA - INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS Motion MR B.J. GRYLLS (Merredin - Leader of the National Party) [4.27 pm]: I move - That this house condemns the Labor government for its failure to recognise the infrastructure needs of regional Western Australia in the 2006-07 budget, given - (a) the majority of the state government’s record $2 billion surplus has been generated courtesy of the booming regional-based resources sector - but there is evidence that the regional economies have not benefited from this activity; and (b) the government has set aside $1.3 billion - 65 per cent - of the $2 billion budget surplus to pay off the Perth to Mandurah rail project at the expense of much needed investment in regional Western Australia, and calls on the state government to provide a significant funding boost to regional development in this state to fundamentally re-adjust the prospects for long-term sustainable growth in our regions. Today we have heard much about the mid-west and what a great region it is. I draw the attention of the house to the contribution by the Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training, and his visit to Dongara

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3361 today to see the dilapidated state of the demountable classrooms that house the growing number of schoolchildren. The minister came back into the Parliament today to make a special announcement to add to his contribution yesterday. He spoke about the sum of $68 964 to be allocated for maintenance for the Dongara District High School. I will take members back to the Legislative Council on Thursday, 26 May 2005 - just over a year ago. On that day in the Legislative Council, Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich said, in answer to a question asked by Hon Murray Criddle - Dongara District High School is to benefit from the government’s $65 million Fixing Our Schools program with a $68 964 allocation for maintenance. All we had today was a re-announcement of last year’s announcement. That money has not been spent. Twelve months ago, an allocation of $68 964 was made for maintenance to the Dongara District High School. The money has not been spent. I am sure that the Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training has been misled by his department, because he would not have the gall to come to the mid-west and re-announce a measure that was first announced a year ago. When people in the public gallery read on the front page of the newspaper about the 500 spin doctors putting out stories about this government’s contribution to regional Western Australia, they can now see that they cannot believe those new reports. No $68 964 has been spent on the Dongara District High School. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS: Does the member for Perth agree with announcing a policy twice but not actually spending anything? This is what happens time and time again. The students at the Dongara District High School have not benefited from any maintenance upgrades of the school. That is what the teachers and the parents of that school have told the member for Greenough, which is why he asked a question about it yesterday. I find it galling that the only money that has been spent on maintenance at the Dongara District High School by this government was a few dollars on the Dongara bakery. The only money the Department of Education and Training has spent on the Dongara District High School was spent on a carrot cake and a jubilee twist! The Premier must address this issue. Mr J.C. Kobelke: Which one do you characterise yourself as? Are you the carrot cake or the jubilee twist? Mr B.J. GRYLLS: The minister can laugh all he wants. However, this is what happens time and again. The government made an announcement 12 months ago to spend money on maintenance and yet it has not spent a dollar. The government has re-announced it in Geraldton today. Not one dollar has been spent on maintenance for that high school. The Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training should be very disappointed in his department officials who have sent him back into Parliament to re-announce an initiative that has already been announced. The Minister for Planning and Infrastructure talked about providing $2.4 million for the Brand Highway. Let us put that $2.4 million in the context of the state economy. The government has a budget surplus of just under $2 billion. It has allocated $2.4 million for the Brand Highway, as opposed to the $1.3 billion that has been used to pay off the Mandurah-Perth railway. The Indian Ocean Drive project could be brought forward right away if only a slightly less amount of money were used to pay off the Perth-Mandurah railway. However, that is not the focus of this government. It is because of the disappointment felt in Dongara, the disappointment caused due to the Brand Highway not being upgraded and the disappointment felt right across regional Western Australia that have led to articles in The West Australian of the sort we read today. Everyone is talking about the great mining boom and the great skills shortage in the state but the five young people interviewed in the paper will not partake in the skills shortage of the region because of the lack of supporting infrastructure. They know that if they go to Karratha they will not be able to rent a house because there are none available. They cannot buy a block of land because no blocks of land are available. People who want to see a doctor in the Nickol Bay Hospital must wait for two weeks and there is no opportunity to access childcare because 200 people are on the waiting list. That is what is happening in this current economy. Each member of Parliament must understand that when the National Party rises to talk about regional issues in Western Australia, it is based on these types of issues. We are very disappointed when we hear comments like those made by the Minister Assisting the Minister for Education and Training. We take his word on good faith. The question asked by the member for Greenough was about an outcome for Dongara. However, there was no outcome for Dongara. That is why everyone should be very careful about what they have heard from this government over the past two days. Issues that the government promises to address and that it says have been given consideration are not followed through on. Mr J.C. Kobelke: What about the port deepening? Mr B.J. GRYLLS: How can the community of Geraldton be happy - Mr J.C. Kobelke: They are ecstatic!

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Mr B.J. GRYLLS: They are not too ecstatic in Dongara. Government members should be ashamed. Mr J.C. Kobelke: They are ecstatic. I was there yesterday looking at the major new recreation centre for which we have provided $1.8 million. They are very happy with it. Mr B.J. GRYLLS: Why would the government announce the maintenance to the Dongara District High School twice? I do not have much time left to speak because of private members’ business. The National Party is calling for a fundamental readjustment in the way that money is spent on capital infrastructure in Western Australia. We have a great opportunity to diversify the population away from the metropolitan area and the tight coastal strip in the south west corner of the state and to drive the population right across the regions. Geraldton is starting to benefit from that. No-one will deny that. However, it must be about much more than Geraldton. We are calling on the state government to provide a significant funding boost for regional development in this state to fundamentally readjust the prospects for long-term sustainable growth in our regions. Currently local communities in the regions are severely under-resourced and are attempting to support multibillion dollar industries. Now is the time to ensure that all Western Australians benefit from this economic boom so that we can create sustainable economies across the state. On 11 May 2006, the state government was given a golden opportunity to make a significant difference to the lives of all Western Australians. The Labor government had an unprecedented $2 billion budget surplus to invest in our great state. That surplus was generated largely thanks to the booming regionally-based resources sector. These assets are in the regions; they are not in St Georges Terrace. How did the Labor government spend that surplus? In its wisdom, it decided to set aside $1.3 billion, or 65 per cent of the budget surplus, to pay off the debt associated with the Perth to Mandurah railway project. The National Party is happy to support responsible debt reduction and it is happy also to support restraint in government spending. However, the state government has achieved neither of those. On Tuesday, 15 May in state Parliament the Treasurer said - This government must build on the boom to support Western Australian growth once the heat goes out of our commodity markets. We are investing in the critical infrastructure that will assist our exporters get their products to international markets. If the Treasurer were serious about that statement and understood from where the wealth in the state is being generated, he would have ensured that significantly more of the 2006-07 budget was invested in regional infrastructure. The money was there. That is what everyone must understand. We are in a unique time in Western Australia’s history. We have the ability to invest substantially in the regions and to fundamentally readjust the state. No-one will deny that, unlike the eastern states of Australia, we are concentrating our population around Perth, which cannot be good for the rest of regional Western Australia. I wish to point out to the house today that other areas of Western Australia are developing at an unprecedented rate and are in need of massive investments by the government. These areas are not located on the coastal strip between Perth and Mandurah; they are in remote and rural areas such as Ravensthorpe in the south, Morawa in the mid-west and Karratha in the north. Just imagine what could be achieved in regional Western Australia if all, or just part, of the budget surplus had been allocated to additional projects and infrastructure in regional Western Australia. Most of it was spent on the railway. I will outline to the house an issue concerning Geraldton that was raised today. We believe that this government failed to understand some of the great challenges in the mid-west. We met with the Geraldton Fishermen’s Co- op. The Minister for Fisheries has decided to close the B zone of the crayfishing area, which is the northern zone of the crayfish area, between 15 January and 10 February. The closure of this zone is an effort to protect the very valuable stocks for the crayfish industry. However, the minister fails to understand that that period is the lead-up to the Chinese New Year, when there is a huge surge in demand for crayfish from Western Australia. The Chinese market is different from other markets. The Chinese demand live crayfish. What has happened? The government has decided to ban crayfishing in zone B between 15 January and 10 February when the demand for crayfish from this region is at its highest. Obviously the price would also be at its highest. Once again it is another fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of all industries to this region. We have heard a lot of talk about the iron ore industry, which no-one would deny is very exciting. I hope that the member for Geraldton will contact the Geraldton Fishermen’s Co-op and use his extensive influence in the government to speak with the Minister for Fisheries and allow the crayfishermen from this region to provide crayfish for the Chinese New Year demand. I turn now to mining and petroleum royalties. In any given year the state government used to be able to expect to collect on average more than $1 billion in mining and petroleum royalties. Today, the government expects to collect more than $2 billion in mining and petroleum royalties. These royalty payments form part of the government’s consolidated revenue and help to pay for public utilities and community development programs. In 2004-05, mining royalties paid to the state government amounted to $1.4 billion; in 2005-06, it is $2.038 billion; and in 2006-07 it is estimated to increase to $2.29 billion. The vast majority of these royalties are generated in regional Western Australia.

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Mr J.N. Hyde: Rubbish! Mr B.J. GRYLLS: Where is the dividend for regional Western Australia? The Nationals would argue that a portion of these royalties should be returned to regional Western Australia to ensure the continued development of services and infrastructure to support future wealth generation. This principle is not only a common business principle. It is also a principle that is used extensively by wealthy states such as New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria to argue for a larger slice of the federal budget, or a revamp of the Commonwealth Grants Commission’s funding process. However, the argument that the Treasurer takes to Canberra to try to get a greater share of federal government income for Western Australia falls down rapidly when he gets back to Western Australia, because the Treasurer then believes that all the money should be brought back to Perth and put in a pile in the metropolitan area, and it should then be drip-fed to the regions. The government made a promise to build a new Dongara district high school. However, it is not willing to deliver on that promise - not even a drip-feed. The government also made a promise to build a couple of new passing lanes on Brand Highway - a highway that is vital to the future growth of this region. While this principle is conveniently used by the state to seek additional funding from the commonwealth, this principle has never been applied to royalty payments to the state government by regionally-based resource companies. Massive infrastructure costs, both hard and soft, are associated with the establishment of the mining and petroleum industries in regional areas. State governments have typically been supportive in the provision of infrastructure and services to assist in the development of the resources sector, given its importance to the economy. However, government investment has not kept pace with the rapid expansion in the industry, leaving some communities unable to cope with the influx of workers. Over the past few days I have been talking to the principals of the schools in Geraldton. They have told me they are finding it very difficult to attract schoolteachers into Geraldton. It is difficult to believe that in the middle of this economic boom, and with all the opportunities that are available in Geraldton, the schools in Geraldton are finding it difficult to attract schoolteachers. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS: Eneabba Primary School has been advertising for a year 4 to 7 teacher for the past six months. It still has not found one. That school is still using a temporary teacher for the year 4 to 7 class. It is very disappointing for the community of Eneabba that, at a time when this state is experiencing this great economic boom, it cannot attract a teacher to the town. Why is that so? It may have something to do with the old asbestos three by one house that the Government Employees Housing Authority is providing for teachers in that town. That may be part of the reason that the town of Eneabba cannot attract teachers. At a time when this state is able to afford to provide that type of infrastructure more than it has ever been able to afford it in the past, that money is not being spent. I will finish with some comments on the regional investment fund. How much funding do members think has been allocated to the regional infrastructure fund in 2006-07, at a time when the state’s economy is booming, and when the surplus, and the flow of royalties from regional Western Australia into the government’s coffers, has never been larger? The answer is: nothing! It is the same as the amount of funding that has been spent on maintenance at Dongara District High School - nothing! Over $2 billion will be collected in royalties from the mining and regional areas this financial year. However, nothing has been allocated to the regional infrastructure fund this year. Mr J.N. Hyde: That is not right, you economic ignoramus! The ACTING SPEAKER (Mrs J. Hughes): Order, members! Mr B.J. GRYLLS: Members need to understand that the member for Perth sits in the same cabinet that allows Dongara District High School - Ms J.A. Radisich: He is not in cabinet! Mr B.J. GRYLLS: The member for Perth sits in the same caucus that has allowed what has occurred at Dongara District High School to occur. The National Party will continue to argue for a fair distribution of the state’s wealth into regional Western Australia. We have a unique opportunity. I challenge all members on this side of the Parliament: let us not have more examples like Dongara District High School, where the minister makes the announcement, and puts some carrot cake and some jubilee twists on the table, while the regions that are trying to add to the great wealth of this state are continuing to be dudded. Who are they being dudded by? They are being dudded by the Labor Party. Mr E.S. RIPPER (Belmont - Treasurer) [4.45 pm]: Here we have it! The gunna-dos in the National Party are at it again! We have had experience with the National Party. The National Party was in power in this state. The National Party could not persuade the government of which it was a part to come up with the funding for the southern transport corridor. The National Party could not persuade the government of which it was a part to come up with authority for the expansion of the Geraldton port. We have experience of another government in

3364 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] this country in which the Nationals are in power. That is the federal government. The federal government spends $300 per capita on infrastructure, whereas the Western Australian government spends $2 000 per capita on infrastructure. Therefore, the record of the National Party puts the lie to its protestations this afternoon. The Nationals may appear to be Dobermans in opposition, but in government they are poodles. One of the reasons that the Nationals, when they are part of a government, cannot deliver an infrastructure program is that when they were last part of a government, that government could not deliver surpluses. That government delivered five budget deficits out of eight. It had no surpluses to fund an infrastructure program - which is what we do with our surpluses. The Nationals go on and on about the royalties, but they do not tell us that 90 per cent of those royalties are redistributed by the commonwealth government to other states by cutting our share of commonwealth grants. By the end of the forward estimates period, we will be losing $700 million a year in commonwealth grants as a result of that royalty-Commonwealth Grants Commission effect. The Nationals think that is a source of money that is available for infrastructure programs. However, it is not available for infrastructure programs in Western Australia. It is available for infrastructure programs in Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. We are gutted in this state, because we lose the royalties, courtesy of the commonwealth government. The Nationals in opposition are big on what they are gunna do, but they are very quiet on what they may cut. Do the Nationals believe that the total $18 billion infrastructure program should be larger, or do they want to cut some of the existing infrastructure program in order to fund their pet projects? If the Nationals believe that the total $18 billion infrastructure program over four years should be larger, they need to say how they will finance it. The Nationals will either need to run large surpluses to finance a larger infrastructure program, or they will need to borrow a lot more money. The Nationals do not have credibility. They are not prepared to say how they will finance their infrastructure program. They are not prepared to make the choices that would be necessary if they are to redirect investment from one lot of infrastructure to another. I have asked the Department of Treasury and Finance for an analysis of the expenditure that has been undertaken on the infrastructure program in the regions. In a $5 billion capital works program, about $3 billion cannot be attributed to particular regions, because it is spent, for example, on roads that run through many different regions or electorates, or as part of statewide programs. However, it can provide an analysis of the location of 2.2 billion of the $5 billion infrastructure program. Forty per cent, or $903 million, of that infrastructure program goes to non-metropolitan regions. That is $248 million more than in the last year, or a 37.9 per cent increase. The big criticism that the Nationals make about the budget is that we have not increased expenditure on infrastructure programs in the regions. The Department of Treasury and Finance analysis shows there has been a 37.9 per cent increase. The National Party absolutely lacks credibility. The people of Geraldton have seen what the National Party cannot do when it is in government. The people of Geraldton should not believe what the National Party says on infrastructure. The National Party cannot deliver on those infrastructure programs. MR T.G. STEPHENS (Central Kimberley-Pilbara) [4.49 pm]: The federal government’s stripping away of $4 billion in excess of that which it delivers to this state is something that the Nationals should be ashamed of. An example of this is regional Western Australia’s loss of jobs in a town such as Port Hedland through the closure of the hot-briquetted iron plant. In the face of tragedy and loss of life, the Beaconsfield community, by way of comparison, got the national government’s focus for $8 million. What does a regional community in Western Australia get in the face of tragedy? Port Hedland got absolutely nothing from the national government. Members opposite belong to parties that form the coalition government. At a state level, our government stepped up to the plate and contributed by tackling the issues which the community faced. How can the Nationals bring forward a debate like this in a community such as Geraldton? If a town such as Geraldton has been dudded, I would say all towns in Western Australia would like to be dudded in the same way. Things have never been better for Geraldton, as a result of the hard work done by a Labor team comprising stunning representatives from regional Western Australia. We do deliver. These people are more than the “gunnas” in the National Party. Debate interrupted, pursuant to standing orders. COUNTRY FOOTBALL Statement by Member for Wagin MR T.K. WALDRON (Wagin) [4.51 pm]: Today I would like to acknowledge the importance and great contribution of country football to communities across country Western Australia, including a strong contribution in Geraldton and the mid-west. I also acknowledge the support and great contribution of the many other sports which, along with football, are so important to our rural communities. For well over 100 years, our great Australian game has played a key role in the social fabric of our country communities. Along with the strong physical and mental health benefits that the game of football provides, perhaps the most important part is that footy provides a social centre for people to come to, be entertained, socialise, let off a bit of steam, relax and have fun. Great inter-town rivalries have been built around football over many years. These are healthy rivalries that are put aside for association and state competition.

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I would like to acknowledge the huge role that volunteers play in the running of football and other sports in country WA. Their role is vital to the ongoing success of our country communities and that role should never be underestimated. I would like to especially acknowledge the great role that women, and in particular women’s committees, have played. It has been enormous. I would also like to stress the strong leadership role that the West Australian Country Football League has played, and congratulate the WA Country Football League president, Ken Baxter, and the CEO, Cameron Knapton, who along with the 23-plus country football leagues, have enabled country football to meet its challenges and play its key role. I would like to recognise the great footballers from the Great Northern Football League, including Steve McCann, Kevin Worthington, Kevin Mazzuchelli, Chris Mainwaring, Murray Wrensted, Brad Tunbridge, Jim Sewell, Daniel Chick, Paul Hasleby, Andrew Lockyer, Patrick Ryder, Josh Kennedy and, of course, Kevin Clune, the “Carnamah Kid”. GERALDTON’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE ARTS Statement by Member for Perth MR J.N. HYDE (Perth) [4.53 pm]: I would like to pay tribute to the people of Geraldton who have been involved in the arts. Geraldton has always batted above its weight in the arts. Our greatest writer, Julian Randolph Stow, was born here. There was also Xavier Herbert; great actors such as Ernie Dingo; John Kinsella, who did most of his wonderful writing here in Geraldton; and Nene Gare, who wrote that wonderful novel The Fringe Dwellers. I would like to read a small section from Randolph Stow’s poem Dust. This was written in August after we had had the first really big rains out past Moonyoonooka - Bushwalkers’ Clubs boiled their billies with humility in chimneys where orchids and treesnakes luxuriantly intertwined. A photographer came from The West Australian, and ten teenage reportresses. Teachers of botany overflowed to the garden. Indeed, trains were run from Yalgoo and Oodnadatta. But the neighbours slept behind sealed doors, with feather dusters beside their beds. We have had other great things in Geraldton such as FROTH, Friends of the Town Hall, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when we stopped the Goths, the Vandals and the coalition from demolishing our beautiful town hall building. On stage here I may have performed in Lock up Your Daughters but I was also in God and The Sea and I went from Geraldton and ended up in New Orleans opera playing a lead spear carrier. Anyone from Geraldton can do it. REGIONAL PARLIAMENT Statement by Member for Serpentine-Jarrahdale MR A.J. SIMPSON (Serpentine-Jarrahdale) [4.55 pm]: I would like to put on the record my support for the regional Parliament. Sometimes I think it is difficult to justify the cost of running our Parliament and I am sure all members would agree that sometimes it seems as though it is less than productive. I know that on top of our usual costs, the regional sitting of Parliament has cost taxpayers even more. However, I think this sitting has not been a total waste. I am a very strong believer in democracy, and giving everyone a chance to have their say is a very important part of the Australian way. We all like to have opinions and some of us like to have our say. Unfortunately, Labor’s one vote, one value legislation is about to decrease people’s ability to see their local member. I am truly disappointed by that outcome. I gave notice today of a motion calling on the Parliament to introduce new technology to help West Australia, particularly regional areas, to lobby the Parliament more effectively through e-petitioning. I hope the government will support my motion and take note of my intent. Finally I would like to thank the people of Geraldton, not only for hosting us but especially for coming out in such strong numbers and participating in a great part of democracy. COUNTRY FOOTBALL Statement by Member for Collie-Wellington MR M.P. MURRAY (Collie-Wellington) [4.56 pm]: Country football has made a valuable contribution, as has already been said today, so I am running second best here. It contributes to the physical and social wellbeing of country towns. I wish to pay tribute today to the volunteers who underpin country football, whether presidents, secretaries, coaches, trainers or team players. This valuable contribution tends to be taken for granted. The mid- west football competition provides a channel for a wide range of young players to progress to higher levels. A fine example, of course, is Chris Mainwaring, the AFL Eagles premiership player. There have been many others. The AFL accepts these players but gives very little back in my view, considering the huge transfer fees

3366 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] clubs command today. Sure, it runs coaching clinics in Geraldton, but there is nothing to help the country clubs in the way of financial backing to keep them viable. Country football is the cradle of football. Should country clubs and competitions go under, the whole game would suffer. With the AFL reaping the benefits of lucrative television rights, there should be a trickle-down effect to nourish the game at grassroots level. One cannot expect these wonderful volunteers not only to run junior and senior football clubs but also fundraise to provide buildings, clubrooms and the like for their players. I implore the AFL to reconsider its policy on rewarding country football clubs for the provision of players for its competition. Finally, I again thank the volunteers of country football clubs. ASSAULTS AGAINST POLICE OFFICERS Statement by Member for Hillarys MR R.F. JOHNSON (Hillarys) [4.57 pm]: I think it is appropriate to acknowledge the tremendous work that the Geraldton police service personnel have carried out during the parliamentary sitting here. I want to pay tribute to all our police services throughout Western Australia. I am very disappointed today that the Minister for Police and Emergency Services has announced amendments to legislation whereby anybody who commits a violent attack on a police officer will face a maximum sentence that will be increased from 10 years to 14 years’ imprisonment. It sounds great but it does not work because I do not know anybody who has received the 10 years maximum penalty for a violent attack on a police officer. Increasing it to 14 years does nothing for our very valued police officers throughout Western Australia. Several members interjected. Mr R.F. JOHNSON: We normally do not have interruptions during private members’ statements but we do not get that courtesy from members opposite. I want to inform the chamber that on a date fairly soon the opposition will bring in legislation to protect our police officers to ensure that those people who make violent attacks on police officers will go to jail. If they draw blood or break bones and send police officers to hospital, the perpetrators will go to jail. They certainly will not do so under the government’s legislation. FIRE SERVICE MEDALS Statement by Member for Swan Hills MS J.A. RADISICH (Swan Hills) [4.59 pm]: It was a pleasure for me recently to attend the Hills Forest Discovery Centre in my electorate to present national fire service medals to Perth hills district staff of the Department of Conservation and Land Management. The 17 staff who were presented with medals represent more than 507 years’ worth of service and experience in fire suppression and fire management duties. The national fire medals are awarded to people who demonstrate dedication, skill and commitment to fire management and protection. The medals are given to CALM officers who have protected human life and upheld community values. To be eligible, people require great skill, dedication and a long-term commitment to the cause, and they will have risked their personal safety. Personal safety risks and their effects cannot be quantified. However, the CALM officers who were awarded the national service medals have given selflessly in the interests of community safety and welfare. I am pleased to put on the record the recipients of the medals from our local district. The third clasp recipient was Barry Rhodes, who is an overseer with 51 years of service. The second clasp recipients were Douglas Giles, who has served for 39 years, and John Postans, who has 38 years of service. The first clasp recipients were Peter Burton, who has 30 years of service and is still serving; John Chapman, who has 30 years of service and is still serving; Keith Tresidder, who has 30 years of service and is still serving; Jamie Ridley; Tom Niven; Steven Strachan; Greg Standing; Steven Thomas; John Woodward; and Jim Maher. The medal recipients were Phillip Bastian; Mike Meinema, the district manager, who has 24 years of service and is still serving; Trevor Farmer; and Ralph Staines. I congratulate them all for their effort and contribution to the community. GERALDTON REGIONAL PARLIAMENT Closing Statements MR A.J. CARPENTER (Willagee - Premier) [5.01 pm]: On behalf of everyone on the government side, and I am sure I speak for everyone in the chamber, I say that it has been a great pleasure to be here in Geraldton, not just for the parliamentary sittings, but also for the days preceding them. During that time we have met with a range of community and business groups, local community groups, local governments and so on. I make special mention of the Geraldton City Council and its wonderful mayor, Vickie Petersen; the Queens Park Theatre staff; and the Greenough shire council and its president, John Sewell, for their great assistance and support. I pay tribute to the Relay for Life caterers, who have provided morning and afternoon tea during our sitting in Geraldton. They are volunteers, and they will donate funds raised during this parliamentary sitting to fighting cancer, which I think is a magnificent contribution. [Applause.]

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Mr A.J. CARPENTER: There have been many highlights in coming to Geraldton. For many of us, the highlight has been to see this place uplifted in a way that was almost inconceivable five or six years ago. Yesterday I had the privilege of opening the new $49 million Geraldton Health Campus. It is a state-of-the-art facility to service the entire region. As a result of the opening of the new campus, Geraldton is the first major regional centre to have a regional health network under the state government’s major health reforms. I congratulate the Minister for Health on the reforms that he is introducing in Geraldton. We have also announced while we have been in Geraldton the allocation of $105 000 to the Shire of Greenough to assist in the restoration of the historic Maley’s Bridge, which was a point of contention when we arrived in the city; $1.9 million towards the construction of a $3.8 million wind farm at Kalbarri; and $250 000 to help the Shires of Carnamah, Coorow, Mingenew, Morawa, Mullewa, Three Springs and Perenjori establish a wildflower regional local government. I thank the local member for Geraldton, Shane Hill, and his office staff for their support. Best of all, we have got a sense of the people, the spirit and the place, and a sense of the history that has created this place. I will start close to home with a bit of surprising history about our very own member for Perth, who was a former resident of Geraldton. It turns out that his name is written in the local record books. I am talking about John Hyde, the son of the great John Hyde from the Geelong Football Club and the Claremont Football Club, who was one of the greatest players the Australian Football League has ever seen. His own son booted nine out of 11 goals here in one game as a ruckman before he shrank. That game was between Brigades and Rovers. The following week he was sorted out by the even greater Gus Mourish, and that was effectively the end of his career. There is a sense of history when we mention some of the leading country football players such as Charlie Comeagain, and the Comeagain family from Mullewa, who are legendary in country football, not to mention that the member for Perth set Chris Mainwaring on the path to fame when he had the courage to drop him and then to trade him. Chris’s mother took him out of the club and placed him in another club, and off they went, and Brigades never forgave the member for Perth. His name is still black in that town. We have learnt about George Alexander Houston, the former mayor of Geraldton and the man who was called “Keg Legs” Houston. He led the town in 1929 and 1930. He owned the Freemasons Hotel. He was a great contributor to the spirit of this city. We have come across many other people here. I will rattle off a few names. Relisha Dingo and Deanne Nandi are from the incredible netball academy. Imam Abdul Qudus is from the Muslim community. What a wonderful contribution he made to our ceremony yesterday at the hospital. I make mention of the brilliant staff at the Holland Street School for children with disabilities, which I visited yesterday; people such as Lindsay Carslake, who is sitting here and who has travelled for one and a half hours from his home just to be here today; Francis Kelly, who is in the audience also; the great school principals in this region such as John Lewis, Kevin Pilkington and Robyn Spouse. I mention Faye and Ken Prosser. Faye was caught on tape and appeared on the news last night kissing me. She is the proprietor of the Coffee and Kisses Cafe. I mention her daughter Catherine Strawbridge. They have made a great contribution. They have come all the way from South Australia to live here because this is now a go-ahead place. John Barnard, an old constituent of mine, is now at The Geraldton Guardian. Natalie and Brian at the Freemasons Hotel put up with us the other night. They were very interested in our stories about the ghost of Auntie Mary. There is some very interesting history. I make mention of all those wonderful people. I also mention Waradjil, who goes by the name of Maxine Gregory and who is a great Yamatji artist here, and Yvonne Radcliffe. These are the sorts of people who make this community magnificent. We come here, speak to them, learn about them and help to contribute. However, they are among the people who make this such a great place to come to now. The spirit of this place is unrecognisable compared with what it was previously. Everyone who has been in this theatre and everyone who is a part of this community should be congratulated. I will dedicate the last two seconds to the local member, Shane Hill. What a star and what a great contributor he is. I thank him very much for his help. I also thank the Leader of the Liberal Party, the Leader of the National Party, all their members and the two Independents for what I believe has been a wonderfully successful time. Thank you. [Applause.] MR P.D. OMODEI (Warren-Blackwood - Leader of the Opposition) [5.06 pm]: I join with the Premier to firstly thank the people of Geraldton, Greenough and the mid-west for their very warm hospitality in welcoming the Parliament, which has come all the way from the city to their great community. There is no doubt that this is a historic sitting or showcasing of the Parliament here in Geraldton. It has been good for us. It has given us the opportunity to sharpen our focus on the issues in the community and the challenges facing the mid-west region. Similar to government members, we have been briefed on the whole spectrum, from health and education to law and order, industry and infrastructure. I compliment the City of Geraldton and the Shire of Greenough on their New City: New Vision strategy. In particular, I thank Her Worship Vickie Petersen, the mayor of Geraldton, and John Sewell, the president of the Shire of Greenough. I wish them well on the amalgamation of the city and the shire. I recall that it was not long ago when I was minister that we recommended the amalgamation. At that time, the community was not ready

3368 [ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] for it, and in a poll it rejected that amalgamation. With the tremendous growth in this area, the time has now come for the two local governments to join. There is a great, sustainable future for this community. The issues that we have identified have existed for some time, including the southern transport corridor stage 2 and Indian Ocean Drive. Members heard the debate on that today. I know that our own member for Moore, Gary Snook, headed a focus group comprising people from Geraldton, Greenough, Irwin, Carnamah, Coorow, Dandaragan and Gingin. They met all and sundry to try to get Indian Ocean Drive fast-tracked by the federal government, the state minister and so on. It is a very important project for this area. It will take a lot of traffic off Brand Highway. Coupled with some passing lanes and bypasses, it will certainly make this place accessible in a far quicker and safer way. We also note with interest the developments at the port. We will monitor them with great interest. Certainly, Oakajee poses a great challenge for the whole community. We will certainly watch with interest the issues relating to the railway line, the port, the gas connection and electricity. With all the development that is taking place, there is an opportunity to plan for the future, and for the government, industry, the community and the regions to have a shared vision and shared objectives and to work together. This sitting coincided with the opening of the regional hospital, which I believe is outstanding. We witnessed in the south west the co-location of the old St John of God Hospital and the Bunbury Regional Hospital when the opposition was in government. It is very important that we do not forget the hinterland towns and district hospitals and that we ensure they are not adversely affected by the opening of the regional hospital. It is a wonderful concept to have all aspects of health care in one place in a regional centre, and we support that strongly. However, it should not be at the expense of communities like Dongara, Chapman Valley, Northampton and Mullewa. We saw an example of that in the past. We must keep our eyes open to ensure that that does not happen here. We must ensure that Geraldton has an excellent, vibrant health campus, but not let resources fall away in the outer areas. We must resist the temptation when we come to the regions as a Parliament to use the occasion for party political purposes. We have seen the government make every post a winner here in the run-up to the sitting of the Parliament. The member for Geraldton has benefited from this regional visit, even today with the announcement on Maley’s Bridge, which was not on the agenda yesterday - and good luck to him. He deserves it as the local member. He must ensure that he extracts every possible ounce of funding that he can out of the government while he is the member. As I said yesterday, the opposition wants the Geraldton seat to be very marginal. That is no reflection on the sitting member. It is important that we do not trivialise the debate. We have seen the best and the worst of Parliament in this session. We have tried to play to the audience, perhaps a little too much on occasions. If people are disappointed by that, we apologise. However, we certainly did not want to detract from what happens in Parliament. I thank the Premier for being the Premier and for his generous inclusion of the Liberal Party and National Party. We do appreciate that. We wish the community of Geraldton all the very best in the future. [Applause.] MR B.J. GRYLLS (Merredin - Leader of the National Party) [5.12 pm]: On behalf of the National Party, I thank the community of Geraldton and Greenough, and the hinterland to the mid-west, for the opportunity to share with them this great experience in Geraldton. I know the member for Greenough has looked forward to showcasing this region to us, his colleagues, and we look forward to spending more time this week and into the future in this great part of Western Australia. I thank also the parliamentary staff for their effort in coming here and putting together the chamber. It is difficult for them to be away from their homes, but they have done a great job. We really have showcased Parliament. I thank the people who have managed to find time to come here to watch Parliament at work. It has been very representative. Sometimes we have good debates where everybody agrees a lot of the time, and sometimes we have very strong disagreements, and that is what Parliament should be about. There is a tinge of sadness, though, about this regional sitting of Parliament because, as a result of the electoral reform, the Western Australian Electoral Commission will start to redraw the boundaries for Western Australia in the coming months. No longer will there be a member for Geraldton and a member for Greenough. The great results those members have been able to achieve through their work will no longer be possible. There will be only one member of Parliament from this part of Western Australia. That fundamental change to politics in Western Australia, where six seats will be taken from regional Western Australia and six seats increased in metropolitan Perth, will not be good for the fundamentals I have talked about, with a growing Western Australian economy. On behalf of the National Party, I thank everybody. However, those in country Western Australia have a tough road ahead to have their voice heard in Parliament post-electoral reform. [Applause.] THE SPEAKER (Mr F. Riebeling): Members, it falls to the Speaker to make the final address in this regional Parliament. I thank the people of Geraldton and the mid-west for their support of this regional Parliament. I, too, think it was sensational how much pride the two local members, Shane Hill and Grant Woodhams, showed

[ASSEMBLY - Wednesday, 31 May 2006] 3369 in their electorates and in this particular region in all functions they attended. I congratulate both members for that outstanding performance. I consider that this sitting has been an outstanding success. This does not occur without a great deal of assistance from a wide range of people and organisations. The following people need special mention: Peter McHugh, the head of the Legislative Assembly; John Mandy; Kirsten Robinson and the rest of the Legislative Assembly staff; Russell Bremner; Peter Pascoe; Rolf Goff; Ken Craig; the Hansard reporters, both here and in Perth, because the staff in Perth are producing the Hansard document; and Jane Gray of the education unit - I hope most members of Parliament witnessed our outreach workers and the education system in progress. I am sure the children of Geraldton have enjoyed the experience of visiting this regional Parliament. One of the great things about regional Parliaments is being able to showcase to the children, especially, their Parliament in action. I thank also Vickie Petersen, the Mayor of the City of Geraldton, and John Sewell, shire president of the Shire of Greenough, for their leadership and for ensuring their administrations were supportive of this regional parliamentary sitting. I thank the Geraldton City Council and its staff. My staff have asked me to especially recognise three people from the Queens Park Theatre: Brian Robartson, Brad Worth and Aaron Willcot. Without the assistance of those three gentlemen, this sitting would have been much more difficult to put on. We genuinely thank them for their expert advice. I thank also the council staff from the Shire of Greenough. Just to show how we tried to utilise local companies where possible to both maximise effect and reduce the cost for Parliament, the following companies were used in this regional sitting: Geraldton Party Hire; Geraldton Carpet Factory; Blockwork Creative Programs and Event Management; Dalgleish Catering; Relay for Life caterers, which is run by Joanne Diss and which is the company the Premier mentioned that raises funds for the fight against cancer; the Geraldton branch of the Western Australian Museum; Chapman Valley Wines; McDonalds Wholesalers, supplying Neverfail Springwater; Geraldton Hire and Scaffolding Services; K9 Electrical Services; M.L. Communications; Midwest Business Services; Hi-Lite Security; and Skywest. Of course, members of the Western Australian police service were used extensively in security, especially those from the Geraldton Police Station, the dog squad and the protective services unit. I acknowledge also Allied Pickfords’ Geraldton depot, Mid West Photo-Graphics and Batavia Coast Removals. It can be seen from that list that Parliament endeavoured to utilise as many local people as possible, and that adds to the event itself. It is pleasing that at this regional sitting we saw 1 700 students through our education system, which is up several hundred on the Albany experience. At times it looked as though there were not as many visitors as there were in Albany; however, this is a much bigger auditorium than the one we sat in in Albany. I assure members that a great number of people have come through. I think this regional sitting of Parliament has been a success, and I thank all members for both their tolerance in putting up with conditions we do not normally endure, and doing so in the best manner, which has meant that the people of this region have seen their Parliament in action and in a good light. I thank all members. [Applause.] ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE On motion by Mr J.C. Kobelke (Leader of the House), resolved - That the house at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 13 June 2006, at 2.00 pm at Parliament House, Perth. House adjourned at 5.18 pm ______