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Assembly Thursday, 17 September 1998

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Assembly Thursday, 17 September 1998 WESTERN AUSTRALIA Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD) THIRTY-FIFTH PARLIAMENT SECOND SESSION 1998 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Thursday, 17 September 1998 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 17 September 1998 THE SPEAKER (Mr Strickland) took the Chair at 10.00 am, and read prayers. ARMADALE-KELMSCOTT MEMORIAL HOSPITAL Petition Ms MacTiernan presented the following petition bearing the signatures of 1 677 persons - To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled. We the undersigned residents of the South East Metropolitan area demand that the Government immediately abandons both its plans to sell the Armadale Kelmscott Memorial Hospital and to privatise the management of the Armadale Health Service. We demand the Government recognises these facilities belong to our community and that they have no mandate to sell them. We call on the Government to allocate the money necessary to redevelop our hospital as a publicly owned and operated centre providing for the people and not for profit. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will give this matter earnest consideration and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. [See petition No 51.] CRIME RATES Petition Mr Kobelke presented the following petition bearing the signatures of 24 persons - To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled. We, the undersigned are totally disgusted with the present Government as they are not bothering to address the crime rates in our suburbs. We now pay more rates and taxes, but still do NOT get any positive results from our Liberal Government. We want some action, not the useless promises that we get now. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will give this matter earnest consideration and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. [See petition No 52.] MILK, POTATOES AND EGGS MARKETING Petition DR TURNBULL (Collie) [10.04 am]: I present the following petition which follows a petition I presented a few weeks ago - To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled. We, the undersigned, call on the Treasurer, Richard Court, and the Minister for Primary Industry, Monty House, to present to the Australian Competition and Consumer Council a united case for the retention of the legislative powers for the orderly marketing of milk, potatoes and eggs in Western Australia. We make this call on the grounds that the "public benefit" will be best served if consumers can purchase good quality milk potatoes and eggs at stable prices primary producers and their families can maintain a viable income and so support the education, health services, employment and contract services of their country communities. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will give this matter earnest consideration and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 1630 [ASSEMBLY] The petition bears 20 signatures and I certify that it conforms to the standing orders of the Legislative Assembly. The SPEAKER: I direct that the petition be brought to the Table of the House. [See petition No 53.] COMMON LAW DAMAGE CLAIMS Petition Mr Kobelke presented the following petition bearing the signatures of 15 persons - To the Honourable the Speaker and members of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled. We, the undersigned express our total opposition to the move by the Court Government to deny injured workers the right to make claims for common law damaged for negligence through the "second gateway" in section 93D of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act. To abolish "second gateway" claims would: 1. deny many seriously injured workers the legal right to seek recompense through the common law, when they have suffered a loss due to the negligence of their employer. 2. remove an incentive for employers to improve health and safety in the workplace and thus lead to more accidents and injuries to Western Australian workers and 3. deny injured workers fair compensation for their loss and suffering so that insurance companies can make bigger profits. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that you will give this matter earnest consideration and your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. [See petition No 54.] WESTRAIL, SALE Standing Orders Suspension MS MacTIERNAN (Armadale) [10.07 am]: I move - That so much of the standing orders be suspended as is necessary to enable consideration forthwith of the following motion - That this House censures the Deputy Premier for misleading this House in claiming that the Government had not yet made a decision whether to sell all or part of Westrail's operation and accordingly calls upon the Deputy Premier to apologise. Government members interjected. Dr Gallop: This is very important. We had him yesterday and we have you today. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Ms MacTIERNAN: I note that this motion has been met with some frivolity by the Deputy Premier and his little henchmen on the other side of the Chamber. Mr Cowan: It is a joke. Several members interjected. Ms MacTIERNAN: It is interesting that the Government members have commented that we are two weeks away from a federal election and asked why are we concentrating on an issue like this? The federal election is germane to this issue. Members know that the National Party has aspirations to win the seat of Kalgoorlie. Points of Order Mr BARNETT: The motion before the House is that standing orders be suspended. I ask the member for Armadale to address the motion. [Thursday, 17 September 1998] 1631 Mrs ROBERTS: Further to the comments by the Leader of the House, I point out that that is exactly what the member for Armadale was addressing until she took an interjection from the Deputy Premier who is the subject of her motion. The SPEAKER: There is a point of order. The practice of the House since I have been here is that members who move a motion to suspend standing orders, while they are not supposed to go into the detail of the debate which they hope to bring on, have a reasonable opportunity to explain to the House the reason that the suspension should be allowed. A little bit of latitude is given, but the member for Armadale has wandered off into the federal election, which is a long way from the point at issue. Debate Resumed Ms MacTIERNAN: I appreciate your concern, Mr Speaker, but it goes very much to the question of intent. The federal election is not irrelevant to the discussion; it goes to the Deputy Premier's motivation for making the statements which lead us to conclude that this has not been just an exercise, a result of incompetence or a failure to concentrate at various Cabinet meetings, but a direct and deliberate attempt to mislead this place. A federal election will be held shortly and the National Party has aspirations for the seat of Kalgoorlie. The National Party is taking a hammering in the bush over its support for the proposal to sell Westrail. The Western Australian Farmers Federation - Point of Order Mr BARNETT: Mr Speaker - Dr Gallop: You are trying to stifle the debate. Mr BARNETT: I am not trying to stop the debate. Dr Gallop: Why don't you give us the half hour and be done with it? Mr BARNETT: This is a motion to suspend standing orders for the purpose of censuring the Deputy Premier of this State. It is up to the member opposite to make the case for supporting this motion to suspend standing orders. That is a fair request. Mr Ripper: He misled the House. Mr BARNETT: Not one thing has been said yet about why the motion will be moved, nor about why we should suspend standing orders. Let us hear that argument and the Government will consider it. The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House is correct. There should be a focus at this point on the reasons standing orders should be suspended. If in doing that, a member occasionally alludes to very good reasons, I will give a small amount of latitude as is the practice of the House. The motion before the House is to suspend standing orders. I am sure the member for Armadale will provide some reasons for members to support the motion to suspend standing orders. Debate Resumed Ms MacTIERNAN: I was not going to lecture the Parliament on the gravity of a member deliberately misleading this House. I presumed it was self-evident that if we believed in the dignity of this place and we wanted Parliament to have some authority and preserve this as a linchpin of our democratic system, we should understand the importance of a member, particularly a member of the Executive - a minister - not misleading this House and the public about the Government's intentions and actions. A fortnight ago, the Deputy Premier informed this House that the Government was still considering whether it would sell Westrail and whether or not any sale should be for all or part of the operation. In fact, that decision to sell Westrail and nominate the specific components of Westrail had already been made by the Government and had already been subject to numerous announcements. Mr House: When? Ms MacTIERNAN: At a Cabinet decision in late July. Mr House: That is nonsense. Ms MacTIERNAN: Because the Government is not prepared to table the precise text of the cabinet decision, we must make inferences from the very public statements. Mr House: Now we will censure a Deputy Premier on inferences. Ms MacTIERNAN: Inferences from the verbal and written statements.
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