Wednesday 19/8/2015 Brief: PARLWA-WA1 Page: 13 Page 1 of 3 Section: General News Region: Australia Circulation: 104,774 Type: National Size: 1,497.00 sq.cms. Frequency: MTWTF

BARNETT’S SOCIAL LEGACY were glad. But in an extraordinary Colin has a genuine commitment The former turn of events Barnett was instead to social liberalism and some of his ‘economic geek’ drafted back to try to help the overspending is for things that will party avoid a political wipe-out be useful for a very long time,” is a champion of that awaited if they left the chair- Hassell says. the vulnerable sniffing , then oppo- In seven years Barnett has rad- sition leader, in charge. ically increased funding on disabil- PAIGE TAYLOR Barnett did better than that in ity services (up 122 per cent), child the September 2008 state election: protection (up 89 per cent) and he led the Liberals to a surprise vic- mental health (up by 53 per cent). tory. Suddenly he was a Premier He struck a $1.3bn native title deal whose party owed him a phenom- with the Noongar people of the enal debt, and the gratitude gave southwest and is rewriting the him enormous authority. book on Aboriginal incarceration, Barnett, the former head of the legislating some of the diversion- Chamber of Commerce and In- ary measures recommended by dustry of , em- the 1991 Royal Commission into Colin Barnett was nearing the end barked on a substantial program of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody but of what he calls “the gulag years” in capital works. It is less well known never fully implemented. opposition when he offered his that he used his authority for un- “That’s where all those mining party some candid feedback, while precedented spending on the so- royalties went,” Barnett told the publicly revealing a side of himself cial issues he cares about. students at the John Curtin Insti- that had been a source of conflict In an informal address to stu- tute. “They went into disability inside Liber- dents at the John Curtin Institute and mental health and other areas als for years. of Public Policy in this (of social need).” It was December 2007 and Bar- month, Barnett laid out what some nett thought he was retiring from are beginning to see as an emer- His critics likely would point the backbench of the West Austra- ging legacy on social policy, and out much of the spending that has lian parliament. He could not have one that defies his own description driven up debt to record levels has known he was just months away of himself as an “economic geek”. been on big-ticket items such as from becoming Premier. Barnett’s economic record has roads, schools, the new Perth Sta- “I’m disappointed that the Lib- been under sustained attack. The dium and waterfront development eral Party has been taken over by state’s budget deficit is forecast to . hardline right-wingers,” Barnett hit $2.7 billion next financial year Barnett prioritised a new child- told The Post, the suburban news- and state debt is predicted to climb ren’s hospital — built with one-off paper that covers his blue-ribbon beyond $36bn by 2018. royalty payments from Rio Tinto electorate of Cottesloe in a golden With no clear sign Western and BHP Billiton — ahead of the triangle of Perth real estate where Australia will win back its AAA football stadium. Overall, he says, Liberals rule. credit rating any time soon, the the works are necessary to mod- “The party has become inflex- Barnett government’s huge ernise a growing city. ible and has held a hard line on so- spending on the vulnerable and He has tied much of the spend- cial issues, and that has not worked the disadvantaged is looking like a ing in areas of social need to re- with 30-year-old voters.” bright spot. Even the most strident form, and that is partly how he has had just lost gov- critics of Barnett’s spending binges won over conservatives. ernment, as well as his own seat, are beginning to frame his leader- For example, the increase in when Barnett made the remarks. ship in those terms. funding for child protection coin- would soon make a State Liberal Party president cides with a new direction and historic apology to the Stolen Norman Moore, whose relation- many more children taken into Generations. ship with Barnett is known to be care. West Australian Chief Jus- ``We should be more moderate cool, praises his extraordinary in- tice Wayne Martin has described a on social issues. Saying sorry to vestment in the not-for-profit dis- hesitance to take Aboriginal child- Aboriginal people is part of that. ability sector. ren from their parents as an over- We should have said sorry long Influential former West Aus- reaction to the Stolen Gener- ago,” Barnett said. ations, but under Barnett the Senior Liberals say they were tralian Liberal leader Bill Hassell, state’s Department for Child Pro- not listening to Barnett by then. who has a habit of excoriating Bar- tection is slowly implementing He was leaving, after all, and the nett in the media, calls that invest- new strict rules that prioritise sta- most conservative among them ment inspired. “My view is that

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bility for children over parents’ haps the exception of Victoria, are ers and the state opposition as a rights to reunification. a long way behind in building the landmark, and it was accepted in a In a move that brings Western capacity of not-for-profits to meet series of democratic votes earlier Australia into line with other the needs of those with disabilities. this year. But there are noisy de- states, parents who have lost their At the Cerebral Palsy Associ- tractors who do not want to give up children now have less time to win ation in Perth, the mother of a se- their native title; on his way to them back — just 12 months if the verely disabled girl named Beth early talks Barnett was picketed child is under three and two years told Barnett: “You have given me and abused as a “filthy white dog”. if the child is older than three. my life back.” She said she spent West Australian Labor’s indi- Barnett sees the changes as most days taking Beth to her ap- genous affairs spokesman Ben necessary but also regrettable. pointments all over Perth for ther- Wyatt says Barnett’s weakness as “It’s a very sad thing that six apy and treatment. Now the a financial manager has limited his years ago there were about 3100 Cerebral Palsy Centre would pro- ability to deliver on social policy, children in the care of the state. vide most of what her daughter pointing to the state’s dispute with Today there are 4500, a 40 per needed, and the mother could the Abbott government over who cent increase,” Barnett told the spend the time saved with her hus- should fund remote communities John Curtin Institute. band and their two other children. as an example. “And it’s not only the numbers One colleague describes Bar- Wyatt says essentially as a re- of children that the state has had to nett, tongue-in-cheek, as “a plant sult of the parlous state of Western take responsibility for, the com- from the other side”. Another says Australia’s economy, the state plexity of the conditions they face his deep compassion for the vul- could not afford to pick up the tab and their experience is so much nerable is useful for a party that for remote communities’ essential greater than it was even six years has lost ground to the Greens in and municipal services when the ago. And I don’t have an answer some of Prth’s wealthier suburbs. commonwealth walked away from its obligations. “Colin Bar- for that.” As Barnett tells it, his commit- nett has wanted to be seen as a Barnett and Child Protection ment to social issues grew in 1995 premier interested in social policy Ministerr Helen Morton have cabi- when then premier but has, I think, been undermined added education to his ministerial net onside. The state treasurer for by his traditionally paternalistic portfolios of resources and energy. the past 18 months, , approach to an often delicate area, It was during the next five years as the most fiscally conservative particularly in the space of Abor- education minister that Barnett member of the frontbench and a iginal affairs,” Wyatt says. says he was exposed to the saddest self-described scrooge working to Barnett has admitted his rhet- things he had ever seen and heard. right the state’s economy, has de- oric on Aboriginal communities At the John Curtin Institute ad- scribed the extra spending on child has been “bald”, but his response to dress, he recalled an eight-year- protection as essential. the death of a 22-year-old Aborigi- old rape victim who took solace in Barnett shocked almost every- nal woman in a remote police reading and a boy whose family one with his 2011 announcement lockup last year has been widely was so dysfunctional he wanted to that the non-government organis- acknowledged as compassionate stay at school for the Christmas ations that cared for the disabled and decisive. holidays. Then there were the dis- would get an additional $600 mil- Barnett flew to the Pilbara to advantaged children in a broken- lion across four years, that level of meet the family of the woman down wooden school south of extra funding to be maintained de- known for cultural reasons as Perth who were all aware that kids spite the faltering economy. “Miss Dhu” and, while there, he re- from nicer homes in the next sub- Barnett effectively boosted the versed a decision that had blocked urb had a new school full of com- budgets of the charitable groups by them from visiting the police cell puters and no rising damp. Barnett 25 per cent, enabling them to pro- they consider her tomb. decided on the spot he would build vide a better standard of care to “That will allow them to say them a new school, too — the type people with disabilities and much- goodbye to their daughter the of “hang it all” decision-making needed respite to families. right way … there is a need for a that set him on a collision course It is a continuation of the state’s greater level of sensitivity in situa- with Treasury. long devolvement of disability ser- tions such as this,’’ he said. “Perhaps that time as an edu- vices to the non-government sec- The scope of ensuing reforms cation minister softened me a little tor, which has become highly to divert Aboriginal people from bit. I got away from the rocks and skilled as a result. It is why West- lockups surprised even reform lob- the petroleum industry and dealt ern Australia’s disability scheme byists the WA Deaths in Custody in more of a social environment,” has been singled out repeatedly as Watch Committee. The commit- Barnett says. tee says he is the first premier in better than the National Disability Barnett has walked a difficult two decades to make a commit- Insurance Scheme. Barnett says path on Aboriginal affairs. His ment to reducing the number of these groups, not government, are $1.3bn land and cash deal to settle indigenous people in prison. where so much knowledge and native title with the Noongar peo- “The harsh facts are that 4 per passion lie. Other states, with per- ple was lauded by Aboriginal lead- ( )

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cent of the (WA) population are Aboriginal and 40 per cent of our prison population are Aboriginal,” ‘Colin has a Barnett said at the John Curtin In- genuine stitute. “That is unacceptable.” Given the scale of the chal- commitment to lenge, Barnett’s ambitious blue- social liberalism’ print — a raft of preventive and safety measures including men- BILL HASSELL tors for troubled juveniles and FORMER WA LIBERAL LEADER prison alternatives for low-level offenders — could become his most important legacy.

Clockwise from main picture, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett outside the almost finished Perth Children’s Hospital yesterday; opposition Aboriginal affairs spokesman Ben Wyatt describes Barnett’s approach as ‘paternalistic’; Barnett fulfils a promise to meet the family of ‘Miss Dhu’ in April; and Barnett embraces Aboriginal elder Cherry Hayward after the June signing of the Noongar people’s $1.3bn deal with the West Australian government PICTURES: COLIN MURTY

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