Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD)

THIRTY-NINTH PARLIAMENT FIRST SESSION 2013

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

Thursday, 18 April 2013

Legislative Assembly

Thursday, 18 April 2013

THE SPEAKER (Mr M.W. Sutherland) took the chair at 9.00 am, and read prayers. SALTER POINT — DEVELOPMENT APPROVALS Petition MR J.E. McGRATH (South Perth — Parliamentary Secretary) [9.01 am]: I have a petition signed by 46 residents from my electorate of South Perth that is couched in the following terms — To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled. We, the undersigned, say that several developments have been approved recently in the Salter Point area that residents believe do not meet streetscape character or significant view provisions in the current Town Planning Scheme. The undersigned request that the City of South Perth be asked to engage with the Salter Point foreshore community to develop policies that address community concerns about changing streetscapes and loss of significant views and amenity in the area. Now we ask the Legislative Assembly to instruct the Department of Planning to suspend all development approvals in the area bounded by the Canning River, Sulman Avenue and Hope Avenue until the intent of the development regulations as originally established in the scheme 3 subdivision plan, the special nature of the district and the respect and reasonable wishes of all residents are taken into account. The petition has been certified as complying with standing orders. [See petition 2.] PAPERS TABLED Papers were tabled and ordered to lie upon the table of the house. KARNET PRISON FARM — FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY Statement by Minister for Corrective Services MR J.M. FRANCIS (Jandakot — Minister for Corrective Services) [9.03 am]: I rise to inform the house that on Friday, 12 April 2013 I had the pleasure of attending the fiftieth anniversary celebrations at Karnet Prison Farm in Serpentine–Jarrahdale, and may I say that I was delighted with what I saw. The opening of Karnet on 29 March 1963 was a significant step forward in corrective services and signalled a shift in emphasis from punishment to rehabilitation. Karnet recognised that the needs of convicted alcoholics and young first-time offenders were different from those of other prisoners, and for the first time recognised the importance of giving offenders the chance to make amends and to rehabilitate to maximise their chances of successful reintegration into the community. Since the early days, when manual labour was key to Karnet’s development, basic education and health services have now been replaced by a sophisticated raft of programs. Today’s prisoners have access to individually tailored medical, psychiatric, educational, vocational and life-skills training programs. I am told that 14 prisoners at Karnet Prison Farm are undertaking tertiary studies, while others are completing one or more traineeships from an impressive list of 24 available traineeships at Karnet; from certificates in conservation and land management to those in bread making and fine furniture production. Additionally, Karnet offenders can complete TAFE courses focusing on literacy, numeracy and computer skills. I must make mention of Karnet’s impact towards the self-sustainability of the entire Western Australian prison system. Already this financial year the Karnet primary industries, which include the abattoir, bakery, dairy, poultry, farm operations, garden and vegetable preparation, have produced a notional value of more than $5 million in produce, or about 66 per cent of the prison system’s primary production for this financial year. Equally impressive is the registered herd of Holstein dairy cows that supply 1.2 million litres of milk to the prison system each year. In addition, the fruit and vegetable production, the bakery and kitchens and the industry workshops all continue to contribute to making cost savings for the department. However, although the industries are saving money, they are also providing invaluable training to offenders, giving them life and employment skills that will serve them well upon their release. Over the past 50 years Karnet has maintained an impressive positive relationship with the community. I would like to acknowledge the Bureau of Meteorology, local schools, the Shire of Serpentine–Jarrahdale and the

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Jarrahdale Heritage Society as invaluable partners in many projects in the area. I must also extend my thanks to the Department of Environment and Conservation and Western Australia Police for their support over the years, and to the business partners—Alcoa, Bis Industries, IGA and Bendigo Community Bank—whose generous financial sponsorship has assisted in making Karnet what it is today for the benefit of prisoners, their families and the community. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all the contributors to Karnet Prison Farm over the past 50 years for making Karnet the facility it is today—an impressive jewel in the crown of the Western Australian prison system. MENTAL HEALTH COURT DIVERSION AND SUPPORT SERVICE Statement by Parliamentary Secretary MS A.R. MITCHELL (Kingsley — Parliamentary Secretary) [9.06 am]: I would like to inform the house that the first mental health court diversion and support service in Western Australia has now commenced operations. Although people involved with the criminal justice system represent a small minority of Western Australians, people with mental illness are greatly overrepresented in courts and prisons. It is estimated that around 74 per cent of people in prison have some form of mental health problem, in comparison with just one- fifth of the general population. This new program will provide specialist support to people with mental illness who intersect with the criminal justice system, and represents an important opportunity to divert people to mental health services and supports. This program is a $6.7 million state government initiative, which is jointly led by the Department of the Attorney General and the Mental Health Commission. On 18 March the specialist court within the Perth Magistrates Court commenced operation. The START Court, or Specialist Treatment and Referral Team Court, supports adults with a mental illness by diverting them into individual treatment and support plans. The START team includes specialist mental health clinicians, who can connect an individual with the treatment and support in that person’s own community that will benefit them the most. By establishing or reconnecting an individual with services in their own community we are providing a long-term support base that can help the person manage their mental health and make positive changes in their life. In the first three weeks of operation, 72 individuals appeared in the START Court. The specialist clinical support team was able to interact with 33 individuals to determine whether mental health was a current concern and also to carry out seven more detailed assessments. On 8 April a specialist clinical team commenced in the Perth Children’s Court to support young people with a mental illness. A clinical psychologist heads a small team of mental health specialists who can assess young people appearing in the Perth Children’s Court and develop individualised care plans. The children’s program has a strong focus on early intervention to provide support to address mental health issues that may be contributing to a child’s offending. This includes working with their family and beyond that to their school and other areas to provide positive networks. For both the adult and children’s programs, where appropriate, a non-government organisation will provide community-based supports tailored to the needs of an individual through their personal care plan. The mental health court diversion and support program is a pilot project, initially metropolitan focused, that will be evaluated to determine its success and how best to continue into the future. BURST WATER MAINS — WELLINGTON STREET, PERTH Statement by Minister for Water MR D.T. REDMAN (Warren–Blackwood — Minister for Water) [9.08 am]: In the past two weeks residents and businesses in central and West Perth have suffered considerable inconvenience because of burst water mains on Wellington Street. I would like to update the house on the measures that the government and the Water Corporation are taking to minimise the impact on commuters and residents in the area and the wider Perth community. A water main along Wellington Street, between Havelock and Sutherland Streets, has broken three times over the past two weeks. I regret the inconvenience caused to water customers and also to road users in the area. There has been limited impact on water supply; however, I acknowledge that there has been major disruption and delays caused to road users. Whenever the Water Corporation gets more than a single burst in an area, it does a detailed investigation to understand the extent of the problem and the best way to fix it. Water Corp has taken samples from each of the broken sections and is running a range of different tests to understand what has caused these two breaks. The Water Corporation’s major water main pipelines are expected to last around 100 years. The pipeline along Wellington Street was laid around 50 years ago and would not be expected to need replacing for many years. Even though we do not know the cause of the problem, it is clear there is a problem with this pipe. For that reason Water Corp has made the decision to replace it. Following the second pipe burst on Monday morning, Water Corp met with the City of Perth and Main Roads to resolve the situation. Work to completely replace the pipe could start as early as Monday. Immediately following

148 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] the third pipe burst just after 5.00 pm yesterday, a temporary pipe was put in place until the damaged pipe is replaced. Water Corp has done a fantastic job to put this temporary measure in place to ensure that local residents and business were not without water. Although we do not yet have the results of the technical analysis, the recovered section of the pipe shows significant premature ageing. Water Corp will be looking at where there are cast-iron pipes of a similar age and is examining options for checking the condition of those pipes. In 2011–12 the Water Corporation recorded 12 leaks and bursts for every 100 kilometres of main. This is well below the Water Corporation’s operating licence target of 20. It is the lowest figure in Australia compared with all other major water utilities, and has been on an improving trend over the past four years. The Water Corporation has apologised unreservedly to all affected customers, road users and Perth community members. ADDRESS-IN-REPLY Motion Resumed from 17 April on the following motion moved by Mrs G.J. Godfrey — That the following Address-in-Reply to His Excellency’s speech be agreed to — To His Excellency the Honourable Mr Malcolm James McCusker, Governor of the State of Western Australia. May it please your Excellency — We, the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the State of Western Australia in Parliament assembled, beg to express our loyalty to our most Gracious Sovereign, and to thank your Excellency for the speech you have been pleased to address to Parliament. MR I.M. BRITZA (Morley) [9.10 am]: I take great delight in participating in this Address-in-Reply debate. As I was forming my notes this morning, I wrote the heading “Success against the odds”. There is good reason for that. When Parliament rose in November last year, I immediately went into hospital for an invasive hip replacement operation. I did not realise how painful it would be. I had the operation on a Friday and as I lay in bed on the Sunday in a fair bit of pain and discomfort, my phone rang. I should have let it go, but I took the call. I was surprised to find that it was a reporter who was ringing me at 11 o’clock Sunday morning. The way in which I answered her call must have given her the clue that I was not in a good condition. She asked whether I was all right. I said no, and told her that I was recovering from a fairly severe operation. I asked her why she had phoned. She said, “Well, I just wanted your response, Ian, to the news we have just received that your party is letting you go because it doesn’t think you can win Morley and that it is going to concentrate on the seat of Maylands.” Well, that same pause was my exact response. I was flabbergasted and extremely disappointed. I just sat there. I will not share with members the response I gave the reporter. After the call, I sat in my bed for the next couple of days trying to get over what she had told me. I did not bother verifying it because further on I found out that it was true. Penny came to see me in hospital. I shared with her what had happened. I had prayed for a woman with backbone, so God gave me a Texan! A government member interjected. Mr I.M. BRITZA: No; she left her guns at home. I shared with her my dilemma. She said, “I will tell you a good old Texan statement, Ian, that you shouldn’t forget—that is, ‘Dance with the one that brung ya.’” After she left, I began to recall who had danced with me from the beginning and who believed I could retain the seat. Before I get to my class of 2008, I will mention two members who have been particularly supportive from the beginning. The first, who is on my right, is the member for Eyre. He has always been supportive. The other member, who is on my left, is the member for Bunbury, who gave an articulate presentation about what members need to do in their seat. I think maybe I was the only member who took notes. There may have been others, but I put into practice at least 90 per cent of what he said. All through the last term he gave me constant encouragement. My class of 2008 has been particularly supportive. It is true what was said the other day in that members tend to become strongly affiliated with those with whom they entered Parliament. Although my class had certainly heard about my seat and how I was to go, it remained supportive. I will concentrate briefly on two particular members. The first, the member for Jandakot, is not in the house at the moment. I am sure that most people will think that we are an unlikely duo, but we have become pretty close. His support has been absolutely unwavering. I appreciated his insight, which was absolutely wonderful and constant, especially throughout my campaign. The other member is the member for Wanneroo, who is in the house. He would ring me and I would ring him. His words of encouragement were extremely supportive. I thought of a couple of others that I will share with members. It is important to remember who believes in you when you perceive, rightly or wrongly, that you are isolated and on your own. I was not, but that is how I felt. Senator Michaelia Cash was extremely supportive and encouraging before I was given the seat— “given” is the right word, because the former member, John D’Orazio, gave me his preferences and that is how

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I won the seat. I have always acknowledged that. Indeed, I am not ashamed of that; rather, I am very grateful. Senator Michaelia Cash remained extremely supportive and encouraging throughout the last term. Former Prime Minister John Howard was also very supportive. The time I spent with him, the friendship we formed and his words of encouragement were all extremely important to me. When I showed him my re-election strategy, I asked whether there was anything he would add or take away from it in an attempt to take back my seat. He looked it over and said that he would not add or take away anything; rather, he said, I needed to go ahead and fulfil my strategy. He said, “There is probably one thing you need to do, which shouldn’t be too difficult for you, Ian”. I asked, “What is that, Sir”? He shook my hand, because I was leaving, and said, “Pastor your electorate.” I understood those words. Maybe no-one else understands, but I knew exactly what he meant. The other person was Peter Costello, with whom I formed an unusual friendship. Once again, he was extremely supportive. Given that he was removed from the situation, he could afford to be. The last person I will mention now lives in Texas and has a wife named Penny. We formed the most unusual relationship that has grown from strength to strength. I speak of Andrew Peacock, a former leader of the national Liberal Party. He has become a wonderful supporter and gave me a lot of instruction and encouragement as I formed a strategy for my campaign. When the campaign started, I was not out on the street because I was recovering from my operation. My five- year-old son, Samuel, would ask his mother every time he saw my opponent’s corflute, “Mummy, is that the man who wants to take daddy’s job?” My wife would say “He’s trying.” While those outside my electorate had given me no chance of being successful, those close to me were always confident of an excellent result. I was battling. I have wondered whether it is wise to mention these things, but I think it is because we all have a battle in an election no matter whether we are in front, behind or in the middle. I was battling because of the comments that referred to me as, for example, a “one-termer” from those who should have known better. I found those comments—and still find them—extremely disrespectful. Even if people think that, they should never say that to a person, especially when they are a colleague. I found it very difficult coming to terms with being told those things. I was not even regarded as an incumbent in the seat of Morley, which was another arrow to bear. My own party regarded my seat as a Labor seat, which hurt. I remember going to one function and seeing my seat covered in red. I remember that that did nothing for my self-confidence. However, a few strong-minded and strong-willed people said the complete opposite to what I was having to deal with. People from outside the electorate came on board and told me that I should battle the naysayers and believe in myself because they did. I spent a great deal of time doorknocking. I met with people on the ground, face to face, and I could tell the tide was turning. We also began to practise our office slogan, “Friend raise before you fundraise”. That is not an old slogan, but it is one we felt we ought to carry out. As soon as the boundaries changed, everyone was in accord and said that that was it, that everything belonged to Labor and that everything would change because it was now 0.8 per cent in Labor’s favour. They said I did not have a chance in you know where. Suddenly I had to battle that, but I knew how to deal with it because I knew how to deal with the cultural changes. Having lived in Nollamara, I knew there had been a change and so I began to speak to, and form friendships with, the different ethnic and cultural groups that all supported me with integrity, honour and genuine hope. Long before the election I met and developed friendships with people from the African, Chinese, Greek, Vietnamese, Italian and Armenian communities, to mention just a few. The Friday night before the election I was emotionally and physically drained from my hospitalisation and the constant electoral work that had to be done at whatever cost. However, on election day I was completely at peace with whatever the outcome would be. We had an outstanding outcome that was not foreseen by anyone except our most ardent supporters. We received a 15 per cent swing towards us and now hold the seat by 5.5 per cent, which is simply marvellous. The true character of a person can be seen in how they respond to defeat. My opponent showed by his reaction after the election why he did not deserve to be the member for Morley. He thought he had won it before the election day had even come. He was told that the seat was his. Even the media told him the seat was his, which made our win all the more sweet. He declared that even a drover’s dog could have won this seat, which was a poor reflection on the constituents of Morley and me, especially because no-one with a high public profile gave us a chance of being successful. In fact, some in the media even declared that my party had let me go and had not supported or assisted me at all in my electorate. Nothing could be further from the truth in this regard. Even though the party thought I would have difficulty retaining the seat, it gave me almost 100 per cent of everything that I presented to it, and I did that without pounding the table, using questionable language or threatening the party with a lack of parliamentary support. Thankyous are in order. First, I thank my electorate officer, Christine Gundrey, and my two research officers, Anna Kit Littler and Helen Johnson. They are my three angels, as I call them. It is good to be protected by three strong women. I have known Christine for over 30 years. The support in the electorate office is outstanding. We have over a 90 per cent success rate with every issue that comes into our office, and I am very proud of that. There is no doubt that whenever I say I will do something, “I” means “we”, because the staff do a lot of the work. I do not know what I would do without those girls. They are very important to me. I thank my campaign team: my chairman, Mark Whitehouse; Mark Pigeon, the president of our branch; and Jim Seth. I also thank Darryl Moore, the federal candidate for the seat of Perth, for his assistance, and Cam Sinclair. I give a special

150 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] thankyou to Donna Faragher, who once again continued to support me from her home. I also thank John Williams, the president of the Friends of Lightning Swamp. We never made our friendship or participation with the Friends of Lightning Swamp public because we felt strongly that we needed to show that we were genuine in wanting to help the Friends of Lightning Swamp instead of trying to make a political point. Once again, my party supported me to get finance to assist that group for what it needed to do, and we still need to help it. John Payne, the president of the Morley–Noranda Recreation Club, is an unusual man. He is very strong and became a wonderful personal supporter, and I thank him. I owe a lot to David Christison for our weekly meetings. A couple of our booths were set up on the Friday afternoon before the election and the people who attended them were there for most of the night, which was extraordinary. I got up at two o’clock in the morning to check out what everyone was doing and nearly every booth was attended. I thank those volunteers. I also thank the members of the Bayswater City Soccer Club, who were excellent, and the shopkeepers all over the Morley electorate who put my poster on their window to show their support. I thank the homeowners in Morley who allowed our corflute to be placed on their lawns, even when some people in the Bayswater council appeared hell- bent on thwarting our campaign strategy. I thank the several businessmen and women who tirelessly supported, encouraged and became financially involved in our campaign. I would love to share their names, but I did not seek their permission to do so. However, their personal and private support made an incalculable and immense difference to my belief in myself and what I could achieve for my electorate. In a final thankyou to the people I want to thank today, I thank the constituents who voted for me and said, in effect, “Let’s give Britza a go in his own right.” I thank them because they were hammered and given all sorts of reasons why they should not vote for me. Some people said one thing or another but I will keep that to myself. I believe those constituents made a wise and honourable choice in choosing a man who they believe will not take sides but will represent them honourably and fairly in this house. My humble thanks to them all. I look forward to seeing and meeting the vast majority of them and listening to what they have to say. I acknowledge my eldest son, Timothy, who came over to Western Australia from Sydney and was my driver for the complete election period while I was recovering from my operation. Thank you, son, for putting up with a very tense and focused father. I cannot go any further without extending and acknowledging my thankfulness for and genuine appreciation of my wife, Penny. When I was constantly dealing with the perceived lack of support from those I expected it from, she constantly spoke to me and simply declared, “Ian, if Morley doesn’t vote for you, they have simply lost a good man.” No truer word could have been spoken to me during this very stressful time and I am indebted to her for her support and encouragement and belief that I was the right man to represent Morley honourably and without prejudice. There are a few things that still need to be done in my electorate. I will mention three things in particular. We received $2 million in funding to renovate and repair the science rooms of Morley Senior High School. I am looking forward to seeing that done. We saw the complete renovation of the toilet block in our last term, which should have been done a long time ago. Nonetheless, Morley Senior High School has been very well looked after by this government and I am very grateful for that. The Noranda Hawks Junior Football Club extension is another issue. I am a loyal East Perth supporter. We are in the East Perth district but having to wear the Noranda Hawks shirt, which is the Hawthorn colours, takes quite a bit of strength. I wear the shirt with a great deal of confidence in my electorate. The Noranda Hawks have received funding for extensions to their club for not only the Hawks, but also the others that use the facilities. It is wonderful that the Premier himself announced that funding to them, which was excellent. I seek an extension. [Member’s time extended.] Mr I.M. BRITZA: The Premier also visited the Morley–Noranda Recreation Club and promised $800 000 for an extension to that club, for which the club was very grateful. It is a very deserving and outstanding club. I believe that it is one of the best bowling greens in the state. At least that is what its members say. Not being a bowling man, I take their word for it. Law and order remains a high priority. Drug houses are common and I am working to find out how the police deal with that. It appears that the houses are ignored, but I know that the police are aware of them. The residents have to deal with that, which is very difficult for them, especially when they are elderly. They must constantly deal with the fear of people visiting those homes high and stoned at all hours of the night and day. The aggravated break and entering is of even more concern. Breaking and entering is disastrous anyway, but when an aggravated assault occurs, that makes it even more disastrous. That is occurring not just in my electorate, but across the board. Domestic violence is very discouraging to me. I was brought up in a home in which I never heard my father raise his voice to my mother. It is difficult for me to hear about people perpetrating violence on their spouses, because I have never experienced or seen it. When the police tell me it is not only on the rise, but also specifically on the rise in my electorate, that is discouraging to me and is something I want to give attention to. The number of people coming into my office about local council issues has started to increase. I have to deal with three councils in my electorate. I am sure that the Minister for Local Government will find there are a lot of people like me. I know that at some point we need to either put the councils out of their misery or tell them what

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 151 is going to happen so that they know. I know it may be a really cheap shot to have a crack at the councils, but it is very difficult when they do not have all the facts and there are always two sides to a story. Issues from constituents about local councils are increasing and it is becoming very difficult to deal with councils. Lastly, there are seniors’ issues. I have a large number of seniors in my electorate. I spend a great deal of time with them. In fact, I have said it publicly and I say it in the house: many times I have asked particular seniors to explain to me what my government is doing! They seem to have a very good handle on it and also have good solutions. What I appreciate about seniors is that they do not criticise without giving a solution. That reminds me of constituents who have come into my office and threatened me with not giving me their vote. I have usually responded to that in one of two ways, because I do not enjoy that at all. I do not need that vote; I do not need that kind of response. As soon as they have threatened me, I have said, “You have one of two things that you can do right now. You can have me resolve your issue, but I need your word that you will not vote for me, or you can go to my staff and let them do it and I will stay right out of it altogether, but they are your two options.” That happened about six times. I have a feeling that from that point the word got out not to threaten me with not voting for me. Members do not need the vote of someone who threatens them. That is a dreadful way to try to get an answer to a problem. I do not believe that is the right way to do it. I know that there are many more issues to be placed on the record in Parliament, and in due course they will be publicly declared. But for now it is sweet to be back in Parliament and to be back in my own right, elected by an overwhelming majority of my electorate. That is a truly wonderful and exhilarating experience and one that I shall savour for just a little while yet. MRS M.H. ROBERTS (Midland) [9.31 am]: Firstly, Mr Speaker, I congratulate you on your elevation to the role of Speaker of this house and welcome you to it. I also congratulate the member for Kalgoorlie in her role as Deputy Speaker. It is great to once again see a woman in that role. I also congratulate the Acting Speakers and look forward to the work that they will do in this house. I also welcome the new members to this house. In particular, I am very pleased that on the Labor side of the house we have new members for Fremantle, Kimberley and Bassendean. I am confident that all three of those members will make an outstanding contribution in this house, and I certainly very much welcome them. I also congratulate the Premier and his government on winning the election. The Premier has made the point to this house, and I expect he will continue to do so, that his government received 58 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. I congratulate the Premier on that achievement. But I also counsel the Premier, as others of my colleagues have done, not to get too carried away with his own success. Fifty-eight per cent is not 100 per cent. This is not a one-party state, let alone a parliamentary despotism. The Premier seems to believe that the size of the vote gives him a mandate to do pretty much what he likes, when he likes and how he likes, and to take his time in delivering on his promises. I think it has reinforced his naturally dictatorial instincts. I remind the Premier and other members opposite that we received 42 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. I know that is a long way from 50 per cent, but that is why we are here and government members are sitting opposite. We have taken our beating and now we are in the business of honouring those who voted for us. Our 42 per cent may not be a majority, but it is still a lot of people and they, too, deserve a voice. It is the task of the opposition to ensure that the tyranny of the majority does not prevail; that the Premier and his government are made accountable for their actions, their policies and their decisions; and that the substantial minority of Western Australians who do not support this Premier, his team or his policies also have a strong and powerful voice. It is the government’s job to deliver for all of Western Australia, including my electorate. It is the government’s job to deliver for all Western Australians, whether or not they voted for the government. I contemplated during the week-long count that determined the result in my electorate that maybe the possibility existed that I had missed my opportunity for a valedictory speech to this house. It certainly gave me time to reflect on my achievements and my time in this house and, if I had missed that opportunity, what I might have said. But for a handful of votes, that could well have been the case. Like the members for Forrestfield, Joondalup and Perth who were denied that opportunity, I could have found myself in that same boat because of the narrowness of the result. With those thoughts, I thought perhaps it was about time I put on record some of those achievements in Midland; and, having done that, I will also outline my plans for the future and our needs in the Midland electorate. It is always harder, though, to deliver outcomes for the Midland electorate and the eastern region when the Liberals are in power. The Liberal heart is in the western suburbs; it is not in the east. Only Labor governments have a history of delivering to the eastern suburbs. The Liberal history in the eastern suburbs is one of lies, neglect and betrayal—a betrayal that continued under the first four years of the Barnett government. Although I will concentrate on more recent times, I note for the record that it was a Labor government that brought Landgate, under its former name of the Department of Land Administration, to Midland. It was the first move of a major government agency to an established metropolitan regional centre. I say “established” because Joondalup was certainly being developed at that stage and there were agencies and impetus happening in Joondalup. The Labor government gave a commitment to bring that major department to Midland. There were plenty of knockers who said that the government could not possibly move the office of land titles out of its central location in the city, but, thanks to the leadership and guidance of Labor members Gavan Troy and

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Kay Hallahan, it happened. A shopfront office for Landgate still exists in the city centre today, but the majority of workers are located in Midland. I note for the record that the demographics of the residential dwellings of the people who work at that agency have certainly changed, with the majority of them living to the east of our city. I think it is a model that could be followed with more agencies in Midland or, indeed, other suburban locations. It just makes sense not to pay the high city rents. In this day and age, it makes more sense than ever because with computer technology and modern-day communications, there is no need for most agencies to be in the heart of the CBD. When I looked to the Liberal years from 1993 to 1997, I saw that there was no greater betrayal by the Liberal Party of the Midland region than its betrayal on the Midland railway workshops. At the February 1993 election, the Liberal Party went with a commitment to expand the Midland railway workshops to “a centre of engineering excellence”. That is a direct quote from a press release. It was a commitment that took the Liberal Party very close to winning the Midland-based seat of Helena at that election. Yet, just a couple of months later, it announced the closure of the Midland railway workshops and, in 1994, just a year after being elected, the Liberal government closed the Midland railway workshops and put hundreds of people out of a job. It also sold off the historic carriages as part of a job lot of rolling stock. It had no plan for the site and it had it mothballed. Over five years later, it was an eerie place to visit because everything was left just as it was when the workers walked out on the last day. It was a Liberal lie. Not only did it not expand the workshops as it had promised at that election, but also it closed them down. It was a lie, just like the lie told at the last election that the Barnett government would build a railway line to Ellenbrook. The Premier tried to wheedle out of that one. First he tried to say that it was just a commitment by a local member that did not count, and then he said that it was a second-term promise. Now he says that he will not do it at all. I somehow doubt that he will take the same attitude to breaking his promises on the Cottesloe beachfront or other promises he made to his own electorate or to the western suburbs. For some governments, it seems to be a matter of core election promises and non­core promises. For this Premier, I think it is a matter of promises made for the west and promises made for the east. Perhaps he has his fingers crossed behind his back when he makes promises for the east. The other tactic employed by the Liberals in the eastern suburbs is to make us wait, and wait we did, for our schools. In 1997, as the newly elected member for Midland, I was shocked at the state of some of our local schools. Some members will recall that I was previously the member for Glendalough. There was simply no comparison between the state of the schools in each of those electorates. I was truly shocked at the state of the West Midland Primary School when I first visited it. I saw a lack of undercover areas, flooded areas and a lack of any cover for teachers and students walking between classrooms and a toilet block or other facilities at the school. It was old, dilapidated and run down. In fact, it was on the Liberal hit list for closure, just as it closed Leederville Primary School at the start of its term when Hon Norman Moore was the education minister. There were protests about that closure and there were also protests about the proposed closure of the then West Midland Primary School. Mr J.H.D. Day: Would you like to mention the period 1997 to 2001? Mrs M.H. ROBERTS: I am getting to that. It is interesting that the Leader of the House mentioned that period. Every year during that period I was told that Midvale Primary School would be rebuilt. Every year it was just one year off in the forward estimates, yet the Liberal Party did nothing to rebuild that school. Priority was given to other schools in other electorates ahead of that. Schools that were much further down the list and in far less need were given priority. Each year Midvale Primary School’s replacement slipped back further in the forward estimates. In about 2000, prior to us coming to government, the roof of that school looked as though it was ready to cave in. I thought that surely it would need to be rebuilt. The government replaced the roof. I was appalled to see the roof replaced on such a shoddy school that needed to be completely rebuilt. When I asked questions at the time, I was advised that the roof was made of a cheaper material, such as tin or some other material, and would last only five to 10 years, not 10 or 20 years. From 1997 to 2001 I negotiated with the then education minister on Koongamia Primary School and Bellevue Primary School. Bellevue Primary School was also a disgrace. It had very small spaces, it was very dilapidated and very old and it had no proper playing space. For over a year I tried to negotiate with the now Premier, the then education minister, to get Goodchild Oval incorporated as a playing space into the school and to have a plan to rebuild Bellevue Primary School. If I fast-track to 2001, within a couple of weeks of the Labor Party being elected, I approached the then education minister, Hon Alan Carpenter. He visited those schools in the electorate with me. He, too, was appalled. One of the staff members who came with us to visit the schools was almost physically sick after looking at a couple of the schools in my electorate, as they were in such poor condition. Alan Carpenter put his hand against one of the walls at Midvale Primary School and the wall caved in. He actually put his hand through the wall. I do not think he took any more convincing beyond that point. In the very first Gallop government budget, money was set aside for the new Clayton View Primary School in Koongamia, the new Woodbridge Primary School in what was then West Midland and a new school at Midvale. Those three schools were built and completed within our first term of government.

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Mr J.E. McGrath: In your electorate. Mrs M.H. ROBERTS: The only school that was built in my electorate by the Liberal government was the Moorditj Noongar Community College. Three sites were selected by the education department at that time. The Premier was the education minister and, frankly, the other electorates did not want it. Like the current Premier, I thought it was a good idea to try this model of school. I accepted it willingly into my electorate. During the Liberal government years from 1996 to 2001, I campaigned for things such as the opening of the Helena Street railway crossing and traffic lights at the intersection of Great Eastern Highway and Farrall Road. I also campaigned to move the Midland saleyards out of the Midland town centre. The Liberal government would not budge on any of those proposals. Our Labor government installed traffic lights and opened the Helena Street crossing to link the Midland town centre with the workshop site. I remember a ceremonial crossing in an old fire truck with Geoff Gallop in 2001 when we opened that Helena Street railway crossing. It was also our Labor government that made the decision to close the Midland saleyards and build new saleyards on a site that we selected in Muchea. There had been a campaign to do this for more than 10 years—a campaign that I was very much at the forefront of. This was not an easy decision. We discussed it for a number of years leading up to that. Numerous proposals were put forward. I enjoyed strong support from the then agriculture minister, Kim Chance, but I did not enjoy the support of state Treasury, which recommended against it to the former Liberal government and recommended against it to us, because it favoured a privatised model of saleyards. It did not favour the government funding and building government saleyards. It did not want public saleyards; it promoted private saleyards continuously to the Premier, the Treasurer and cabinet. Cabinet’s decision to move the saleyards was a win–win for the eastern region. The saleyards were no longer appropriate for an area being incorporated into the Midland CBD. For those who do not know where the saleyards were, they were immediately adjacent to the Midland railway workshops. After cabinet made that decision, Hon Kim Chance, the then agriculture minister, the late Jaye Radisich and I jointly announced that decision to the Midland community. Although the saleyards were completed by the Barnett government, the decision had already been taken. Prior to us losing the election in 2008, I as Minister for Housing and Works signed off on the preliminary site works contract for work to begin in Muchea. One of my biggest achievements in Midland was securing the redevelopment authority for Midland. I campaigned for that for some 18 months before the Court government acceded to that request. I had previously spent over two years on the board of the East Perth Redevelopment Authority. I also worked in the office of Hon Kay Hallahan when she was Minister for Planning and Minister for Local Government. Via my work there, I was also familiar with the Subiaco Redevelopment Authority and the work that had been done. I remind members that those redevelopment authorities were an initiative that followed the Hawke–Keating government’s Building Better Cities program. Better Cities provided money for established towns all around Australia and provided them with redevelopment moneys. [Member’s time extended.] Mrs M.H. ROBERTS: They were spearheaded by federal minister Brian Howe under that federal Labor initiative. It saw redevelopment authorities spring up all around the country and federal money given to those projects. At the December 1996 election, the Liberals had promised to support a university for Midland. It was deja vu again this year. They also promised the refurbishment of heritage buildings. For three years of that four-year term—that is seven of the eight—they did nothing at the Midland railway workshops. That is another example of their delaying tactics in the east. The workshops remain in mothballs. I raised the issue of a redevelopment authority because so much government land was there, and proposals were coming forward to do piecemeal developments. Eventually, after I raised grievances in this house and raised the issue in debate numerous times, the then government acceded to that, and under the then planning minister, Graham Kierath, and Premier Court, the Midland Redevelopment Authority was set up. It was set up with little money; it was just the cost of running the office and a capacity to borrow. It certainly let the government largely off the hook for its years of closure and neglect, because it was able to announce, at little cost, the redevelopment authority. I want to get to some plans for the future, so I will just list some of the achievements in Midland during my time as the member. They include the establishment of the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority and major police facilities such as the police communications facility and a police forensics facility, which was previously housed at police headquarters. The police traffic branch was moved from the old Perth Girls’ School site to Midland. Those police facilities alone amount to the expenditure of some hundreds of millions of dollars. There were four new primary schools and one new high school. There were significant upgrades and refurbishments at schools such as Guildford and Darlington Primary Schools. There was the massive upgrade to Middle Swan Road between West Swan Road and Great Northern Highway. There were more recent major roadworks such as the Roe Highway overpass at Great Eastern Highway, which was substantially funded by the federal

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Labor government. There was a new fire station on Morrison Road in Midland; a new joint State Emergency Service and bush fire brigade facility at Bishop Street in Middle Swan, something that I campaigned on for years; the new Midland hospital to replace the ageing Swan District Hospital, one of the most significant commitments to our local area; a permanent and purpose-built facility for Midland Women’s Health Care Place, which provides a marvellous service for women and children in the Midland region and beyond; a million-dollar refurbishment of the old Midland Courthouse; and the list goes on. In the future, further and more projects need to be undertaken, some of them with a degree of urgency. I think none is more urgent than the Lloyd Street underpass. That needs to be progressed virtually immediately. It is absolutely essential that the level crossing is replaced with the underpass so that those on the town centre side of Midland can get to the new hospital. That underpass should be being constructed now, so in this Address-in- Reply speech, I would certainly urge the government to make that a top priority so that we do not have the spectacle of ambulances waiting at the rail crossing to get someone in an emergency medical situation to the new Midland hospital. That surely has to be a priority; otherwise, we run the risk of lives being lost and medical outcomes being worse than they might have been had an ambulance been able to get there more expeditiously. While I am on the topic of Lloyd Street, Lloyd Street needs to be extended. We need the extension through to Abernethy Road. This is something that has been in progress and argued for again for a long time now. The time has come. I had hoped that it would have been completed in the last four and a half years, but surely it has to be completed in the next four years. That extension is needed for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is a logical link from Lloyd Street through to Tonkin Highway, but it is also needed because of the development that has taken place, particularly in the Hazelmere region. Members may not be aware of the incredible expansion within the Hazelmere industrial estate in recent years. Truck movements and traffic in that region have increased astronomically. We have seen big trucking companies such as Linfox open premises in that area in recent years. It is the area that contains the major site for BGC. Other transport companies are also in that area. Many of those companies service the mining industries in the north, and there have been multimillion-dollar investments there. The truck movements in that area must have increased at least tenfold. This has put enormous pressure on local roads; it is causing enormous congestion. During the election, I met with some of the representatives of the companies in Hazelmere, particularly those that have trucks that need to get through to the major highways and exit the area. I will not have time today to detail those issues, but I signal that I will be raising them most earnestly with the Minister for Transport. At the moment powerlines need to be lifted, because when trucks go through, it is costing a lot of money and, more importantly, it is costing a lot of time. So, that needs to be done urgently. It is also having an impact on local residents. Residents in areas such as Helena Valley are finding it very difficult to negotiate the local roads with all the trucks—many of those roads do not even have proper shoulders on them. In particular, I want to highlight those who need to head towards the city from Helena Valley, down Helena Valley Road, in the direction of Bushmead Road and Stirling Crescent. The traffic there is not only congested, but also dangerous, and I am quite concerned that there is certainly the possibility of some very serious crashes, particularly between smaller vehicles and trucks. During the election there was also a focus on a university for Midland. I notice that the Premier did not commit an amount of money that would actually deliver a university for Midland. He said that the land is there, and I think the figure he quoted was about $23 million for Curtin University of Technology to take its medical school there. Curtin University has not made a commitment, but that is something that would certainly be welcomed. If, for whatever reason, this does not come to fruition, I do not think the Premier can use that as a cop-out or a reason not to progress, if not a university, certainly some major educational institution at the Midland railway workshops site. The Liberal Party has paid lip-service to this for decades; it always talks up a university. I note too, though, that the $23 million does not even come close to the $60 million that was promised to beautify the Scarborough and Cottesloe beachfront areas. My own view is that it is a bit of a con, but I will certainly make the offer that I will work most earnestly to get either the medical school or any other appropriate educational courses or institution to that site. Quite clearly, there is a big synergy with the new Midland hospital and, with the availability of land at the Midland railway workshops site, it would simply make sense to provide medical- related education at a nearby location. I also want to comment on the problems with services in the local area. Again, given the time constraints today, I will not be able to get to them all. However, bus services are a major problem in parts of my electorate. Yes, we are well served by having a train station in Midland, as we have been for 100 years, but the train station itself needs to be upgraded. It needs to be moved probably about 500 metres to the east so that it links in better with the hospital. That needs to be on the government’s agenda. The Premier has wandered out to my electorate numerous times this year. His latest pronouncement was that he agreed that the Midland train station needed replacing. If the Premier agrees with that, do it! The Premier was elected to government for four years; it is his job to get on and give us that new train station. We also need many more train carriages on the Midland line, which is hugely congested. We made a significant commitment to purchase more carriages had we been

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 155 elected—we were not; the Premier was. Again, that surely needs to be a priority. Areas such as Helena Valley and Jane Brook in my electorate are not within walking distance of Midland train station. They are poorly served by bus services. I again highlight the need there. Homeswest issues have come to an all-time high. I have never had, in all my time in Parliament, more homeless people come into my office, including women who sleep in cars with their children and other families who have had to move in with parents or other relatives in homes in which 10 to 12 people are crowded into a two- bedroom house because they have nowhere else to go. There are also people who sleep in backyard tents and caravans. This is a major problem. I also highlight that the so-called three strikes policy of Homeswest under this government is in tatters. I have never, ever had more people complain about problematic tenants and had a government and a minister do nothing about it. Finally, I raise the issue of the Guildford Hotel. It is a disgrace. I signal that as an issue I will take up very strongly with this government. Come September this year it will be five years since the hotel burnt down. I would like to see the private redevelopment, but I note that the Premier says that he is prepared to compulsorily acquire the old hotel site in Albany. If we do not get some action very shortly on the Guildford Hotel site, we will need to look at the compulsory acquisition of that, too, Mr Premier. MR R.H. COOK (Kwinana — Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [10.02 am]: Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I congratulate Mr Acting Speaker (Mr I.C. Blayney) on his elevation to that position, as indeed I congratulate the other Acting Speakers, as well as Mr Speaker himself and the Deputy Speaker, on their roles. I take this opportunity to welcome and congratulate those members of Parliament who have joined us for the first time. Running for Parliament is emotionally and physically a difficult time, but it is a very rewarding one. It is one that comes with significant obligations. It is also one that comes with a lot of opportunity. One piece of advice I would give all new members of Parliament above all others is: the opportunity to dine in the dining room is an opportunity that should be used sparingly! I think the member for Willagee confessed that in the first six months of being in this place, he put on about 20 kilograms. He has the frame to manage that sort of elevation in mass, but might I just say that the entrée-size servings are sufficient and the dessert trolley is to be avoided at all costs! Maintaining your physical and mental health in this place is very important. Many new members have come from professional environments in which professional behaviour is expected from peers. They will not find it here. This is a difficult place to work. Members will find themselves agog at the behaviour of their colleagues, and indeed disappointed at times I dare say, but rise above it. Members have an extraordinary opportunity to advocate on behalf of their communities. I welcome one and all. I particularly welcome three new members to our side of the house. I am particularly proud of the elevation of the members for Fremantle, Bassendean and Kimberley to this place. I commend the member for Kimberley on her speech yesterday, which I thought provided great insight and was a very timely reminder of the sorts of issues that we should hold uppermost in our minds. I also congratulate the Minister for Health on his reappointment to that portfolio. I note his disappointment at losing the title of Leader of the House. It is one to which he aspired greatly! Even though he wanted to give up the portfolio of tourism and hold on to the title of Leader of the House, that was not to be; yet he finds himself saddled with two difficult portfolios. Dr A.D. Buti: He took one for the team! Mr R.H. COOK: He took one for the team. He must have disappointed the Premier at some point to have his career dealt that blow! Dr K.D. Hames: I was waiting for you guys to say that I was sacked as Leader of the House! Mr R.H. COOK: The minister was sacked for lack of enthusiasm, perhaps! I congratulate the member for Kalamunda for taking on that role. I would like to thank the people in the electorate of Kwinana for the opportunity to serve them again. I have done so with not only their re-endorsement, but also an increased endorsement and swing in the seat of Kwinana. I know that swings toward were fairly rare on this side of the chamber at the last election, so I am particularly proud of the outcome we achieved. I am particularly proud of my campaign team. When I say “campaign team”, I include the members of my staff not because they are political animals but because campaigning or receiving community endorsement is a four-year project in this place. They pass judgement on the work done for the community throughout our time as members of Parliament. It requires a long time to cement the support needed to win a second term. I would particularly like to thank Barry and Jerroldine Gilbert, and Kath Gallop, life members who live in my electorate, for their ongoing guidance. I would also like to thank those people who approached me during the campaign to say, “We voted for someone else last time but we’ve seen the hard work you do in the community; we’re voting for you this time.” That is particularly gratifying. Winning the support of those who once decided on my candidacy in the negative is the most gratifying sign that I am playing a constructive role as the local member of Parliament.

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I want to reflect briefly on the last four years in this place. It was a time when I undertook two half-ironman triathlons. It was a time that I graduated with my MBA. It was a time when my son turned 18 and moved to the next part of his life. It was a time during which my daughter entered high school as a music theatre student at John Curtin College of the Arts and has continued to blossom and be someone whom I am equally proud of as I am of my son, Toby. It was a time that my partner, Carly, achieved some extraordinary career highlights, including as the curator of the National Indigenous Art Triennial, an internationally renowned exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. Her task was a very difficult one as the first visiting curator to that exhibition. I thought she carried out that task with extraordinary dignity and effectiveness, and with respect. It was a particularly difficult task given the problems associated with the staging of that exhibition, and doing so from Western Australia when the exhibition is in Canberra. I am very proud of my family and I am very pleased with the support they have provided me. As members, we have an extraordinary assembly of people behind us: partners, family, extended families and parents who provide us with guidance, much like a pit crew to a Formula One driver. We arrive home at ridiculous hours and leave at ridiculous hours, but continue to receive that support; I might add, member for Jandakot, that that support comes not only from our human family, but also from our four-legged family, because they provide, as science shows, an important release for high blood pressure! The member for Jandakot will be doing lots of patting of the pooch over the next four years to achieve that! I want to talk about some of the issues that impact upon my electorate, in particular the difficulties that confront industry in my sector. The Kwinana industrial strip is one of the most important economic hubs of Western Australia. It is a premier heavy industry area that plays a very important role in training and employing people who live in and around my electorate; 60 per cent of the people who work on the Kwinana industrial strip come from immediately around that area. If industry in that area sneezes, the people in my electorate catch a cold. That can be no truer than today. I am informed that over the last quarter alone, the industry—particularly those metal fabricating and engineering companies that so rely upon the health of the mining industry they serve—has suffered a 50 per cent drop-off in work. The big fabricators can control a lot of that lumpy business and cash flow, but it is the day-rate contractors—the small engineering companies that rely upon the smaller engineers—that get pulled on in times of increased activity that suffer the most in those circumstances. I am informed that the number of day-rate contractors has dropped by more than 4 000 in the last quarter alone. That has happened because we have seen a peak, I suppose, in some of the construction activity in the iron ore industry; we have certainly seen some reduction in activity in the goldmining industry. There has been the cancelling of the outer harbour by BHP in Port Hedland, and the scaling-back of a lot of the activity at FMG; all these things have an impact on the Kwinana industrial strip—these metal fabricators, engineering firms and mining services companies that rely upon a strong mining industry, and a strong local content in that mining industry, to maintain success in the area. It is not just important for the people who are employed today. The ongoing training and capacity-building of our manufacturing and engineering area is crucial in this area. Late last year I visited the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s group training facility in Hope Valley Road, which is a great facility that equips our young people coming out of the high schools in the Rockingham and Kwinana area with the skills they need to work in their chosen field. But if the opportunities to continue their skills and training are not there, they will leave the industry and become unskilled labour. They may fall out of employment altogether and become a drain on our community rather than a contributor to it. That is why it is important to have a long-term industry policy in this state that looks at the sustainability of our engineering sector. I heard the Premier lamenting on radio recently that there were no champions of industry in Western Australia; “Where are the champions of our industry?” he asked on radio. One of the key roles of government is to create a sustainable future for these sorts of industries so they have the opportunities to bid for jobs in the mining industry and have opportunities to provide major content for the mining projects. For instance, Roy Hill recently made an announcement about the development of its iron ore processing plant and 340 kilometres of railway line to its port facilities. What it actually stated was that it had selected South Korea’s second-largest builder for this $5.9 billion order. That is construction, with opportunities for engineering, that has simply been lost to our state. As these mining projects continue to modularise, larger components of projects will be brought into the state rather than them being constructed in Western Australia and providing Western Australian jobs from which Western Australian employees can benefit. This stuff will not happen naturally; the government must continue to put pressure on these companies to look for ways they can provide opportunities for these companies to bid in either the design, engineering or construction phase of these projects. They do not need a leg-up; they need the opportunity, and when all these large construction contracts are focused on London and Houston, the simple fact is that our design, engineering and fabrication firms are completely out of the loop and do not have the opportunities. They can be competitive, but they need the opportunity. I want to touch briefly on a couple of other issues that impact on my electorate of Kwinana. Of particular concern to me and my office is the number of constituents who continue to come through the door as a

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 157 consequence of the housing crisis. They continue to come in because they are unable to get housing in our community. One of the things we need to develop in Kwinana is crisis accommodation capacity, so that we can at least stop the gap of young people having to live in cars because they do not have a roof over their heads. My wife and I attended the local Anglican Church’s Christmas lunch last year, and it was disturbing to see the number of young families who came through the door for a Christmas lunch not because they could not afford it, but simply because they were living in their car; there was no way they could afford Christmas lunch and they did not have a house in which to eat it. We are constantly confronted by the number of people who need to be accommodated, and our public housing crisis will get worse unless we as a community work harder to increase the amount of available housing stock. A refuge or crisis accommodation centre in Kwinana is needed, but we need a lot more housing and rental housing stock in this area if we are to address that demand. Some of the schools in Kwinana—particularly North Parmelia Primary School, Orelia Primary School to a lesser extent and certainly Medina Primary School—are some of the early schools, which were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. These schools are now all coming to the end of their useful life. That is particularly the case for North Parmelia Primary School, which was, I guess, a victim of that 1960s and 1970s architecture and building style that has led to the buildings starting to become somewhat dilapidated. I must say that Medina Primary School, which was built in the early 1950s, was built like a double-brick dunny and could withstand a force 5 cyclone, I suspect—it is one of those older schools—but it, too, is starting to suffer, particularly with the quality of its roofing and the amount of asbestos in the buildings. Turning to the south of my electorate, we have the burgeoning area of Baldivis, which has grown exponentially over the past four years and continues to expand at an alarming rate. We need to increase the public transport capacity in that area, particularly to build the links to Warnbro railway station so that people in Baldivis can benefit from the Perth–Mandurah railway line. I want to see a sort of circle route that continues to extend the bus services up to The Chase in Baldivis and along Fifty Road, taking in the areas of Baldivis Primary School, Baldivis North and the new Chimes development at the end of Fifty Road to allow those lifestyle parks to once again be serviced by public bus services. One of the things that this government must address is the issue of congestion, particularly on our freeway system. Not a day goes by when people do not remark to me just how ridiculous the congestion on our streets is becoming. We must continue to invest in public transport and in road transport to ensure that we address the congestion problem. This was one of the issues we talked about at length during the election campaign. WA Labor had some good policies to address the public transport issues. The election has come and gone and WA has made its decision, but that challenge for this government remains and it is one that it cannot ignore. [Member’s time extended.] Mr R.H. COOK: I turn briefly to some of the issues with health. I am very pleased that I have once again responsibility for carrying the health portfolio issues on this side of the house. I am also pleased that I now have the portfolio of science to add to that. In particular, I am looking forward to the opportunity that provides for us to comment on the importance of medical research in this state and the role that medical science plays in continuing to provide capacity, strength and volume in our health system. As at the beginning of the last term, we are pleased to see the government continue to embrace the reforms of the Reid review. As many people have remarked, there are increasing areas of consensus in health policy between both sides of the house. Indeed, if we look at some of the national health reform agenda, particularly the functioning and operation of hospitals through the activity-based funding and the continued development of hospital infrastructure in Western Australia, we see that these things remain in line with Labor’s aspirations as discussed in the Reid review. It is good to see that the government will continue that program. The minister, of course, has the opportunity to oversee the opening of Fiona Stanley Hospital, which will bring significant challenges to him. These are challenges that the hospital system is already confronting. Opening that hospital with the staff, the resources and the services that it needs will be a particular challenge indeed. However, it is a fundamentally WA Labor initiative and it is one that we are very pleased that this minister is continuing to embrace. Since Parliament rose, two very big issues have confronted us in the health sector. One was the unanimous findings of the upper house committee inquiry into Peel Health Campus, which led to the Stokes inquiry into Peel, and the other was the revelations of a series of sentinel events at Northam Regional Hospital, which also led to an inquiry. We had our criticisms of the Peel Health Campus inquiry. We thought the terms of reference were too narrow. We thought the legal clout that Professor Stokes was able to bring to that process was too restricted. However, we were very pleased to see that at least we now have some outcome or end point for what has been a very unhappy and troubled Peel Health Campus. As Professor Stokes says, the fact that patient services or patient safety was not necessarily compromised by what went on at Peel Health Campus is a testament to the heroic work of the staff at that hospital, many of whom were dedicated more to their patients than to the medical teams to which they were assigned. I am very pleased that their efforts were recognised by Professor Stokes. I am even more pleased that Health Solutions has sold the operating contract for that hospital

158 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] to Ramsay Health Care. Ramsay, as we know, does a very good job at Joondalup Health Campus. I think it is good to put that rather sad and sorry saga behind us. I want to speak briefly, if I may, about the issues associated with what has now become the modus operandi of the minister, which is to launch ad hoc inquiries into any health-related political problem that comes along. In particular, I want to talk about the issues around Northam Regional Hospital. I thought throwing the Chief Medical Officer into that field simply to achieve a political quick fix was a very unfortunate and potentially damaging way to proceed. I do not blame the minister for taking that course of action. He had to do something, particularly under the circumstances of the rising temperature around the political debate for Northam Regional Hospital. But I wonder whether we have to provide some better mechanism for patients to seek means of justice for what they see as being miscarriages of justice in their health outcomes. I want to see justice in our health system and a system that is driven by the needs of the consumer rather than by the desires of policy planners. I will be saying more about the Saulys family. Eddy and Leanne Saulys lost a wife and mother at Northam Regional Hospital under very difficult circumstances. I see the ongoing pain that they are experiencing. That pain is potentially being further exacerbated by the Geelhoed inquiry rather than remedied because Professor Geelhoed was forced to undertake a hurried investigation, which clearly has not provided the family with the comfort that it needs through knowing that justice has been served. Dr K.D. Hames: Nor was it designed to. That is why the coroner is doing the inquiry. Mr R.H. COOK: Indeed. Part of the problem is that the minister has gone in and done a political quick fix, but in some respects the minister has heightened — Dr K.D. Hames: That is just to stop any further opportunity — Mr R.H. COOK: The minister has heightened expectations and he has undermined — Dr K.D. Hames: I spoke to him and explained to him personally that there would be a coroner’s inquiry and — Mr R.H. COOK: May I say that Mr Saulys acknowledges that the Minister for Health created time for him. The minister did not have time set aside, but he created time for him and he heard him out. Dr K.D. Hames: He seriously needs to wait for the coroner’s inquiry. That is the source of finding out what happened and, if people did something wrong, what they did and what action should be taken. Mr R.H. COOK: Beware, as I said, of political quick fixes when we are dealing with difficult and complex issues, particularly those associated with the lives of patients and their loved ones who are left behind. I want to spend just my final five minutes discussing the Governor’s speech. People have often said to me that the moment we turn our backs, the moment we take the opportunity not to call behaviour or words for what they are, we are essentially supporting those words. I notice in the Governor’s speech he made the observation — Australia has one of the oldest democratic systems of government in the world, a system which was achieved without civil war or bloodshed, and which is the envy of many. I do not say that those words are particularly grievous in their brevity, but they are symptomatic of an attitude that perseveres in our community that blood was not shed during the growth of this colony. Until we as a society come to grips with the fact that many people died in the assertion of the new legal rights that the British colony enforced upon the original inhabitants of this area, we will continue to repeat the injustices that were done at the time. Whether we are talking about the Pinjarra massacre—the “Battle of Pinjarra”—led by Governor Stirling, the killing times in the Kimberley or the range of other massacres that took place, such as the Rufus River massacre, the Flying Foam massacres on the Burrup Peninsula or Skull Creek, near Laverton, the moment we turn our backs and pretend that those things do not exist, we will forever be a small-minded colony that continues to be based upon denial or ignorance. It is the same ignorance that the member for Tangney, Dennis Jensen, expressed when he responded to a member of the Aboriginal community through a tweet, saying, “Just get over it. There is nothing for you to be aggrieved of anymore.” But as we continue to persevere with these racist attitudes either through ignorance or deliberate attempt to paper over what is in some respects a very dark past, we will forever be that small-minded island colony down south. I do not judge people for being part of difficult times in which blood was shed in the past, but let us not pretend it did not exist. Let us in reconciliation understand that we have had a racist past. Let us move forward together, not denying the history of what occurred to others. We have to look no further than the copy of Prosh from yesterday, which made some incredible racial generalisations, and, potentially, vilifications, this from a group of people who are trying to do good through raising money for charity and who will potentially be our leaders of the future. On this particular occasion I take the opportunity to remind the government of our history. On this particular occasion I take the opportunity to remind this to the people responsible for this publication, which we all read in light-hearted tones because we understand its irreverence and the fact that it raises money for charity, but which can equally do much damage through the expression of ignorance or racist attitudes. Let us not sit back for one moment and not call these things for what they are, because it is important that we as a community stand as one against that

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 159 ignorance and those attitudes, and it is important that we as a community embrace our history, understand our history, make sure we move forward together and never take the opportunity to turn our backs on those sorts of comments and not call them for what they are. MR F.A. ALBAN (Swan Hills) [10.33 am]: Mr Acting Speaker (Mr I.C. Blayney), I commence by congratulating you on your appointment and also the appointment of all the other Acting Speakers, the Deputy Speaker and also our Speaker, the member for Mount Lawley, who like you and I, Mr Acting Speaker, is of the class of 2008. I am extremely honoured to have been re-elected by the people of Swan Hills as their representative to Parliament. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the many, many supporters over this six-month long election campaign for their help, including our campaign committee chaired by Lane Taylor, who was assisted by Shirley Wong, and included Janie Brown, Donna Dulemba, Trevor Hancock, Nikki Harwood, Justine Howard, Sue McDonald, Caroline Preuss, Elliot Smith, and Christopher Tan, as well as a special mention to Jocelyn Griffiths and Ben Morton’s team at Menzies House. Their help resulted in a successful campaign and victory in the diverse electorate of Swan Hills. We did not lose a single booth on primary votes in any one of the 15 booths. It is quite obvious that without the daily help and support of my wife Shauna, my family and the many close friends, our campaign to retain the seat of Swan Hills for the Liberal Party may have had a different result. We did not falter for one moment and our increased margin is a testament to their support. It may well have been helped along by the great line from the Leader of the Opposition, “We all know Frank.” Shauna was with me every step of the way from doorknocking to erecting large signs—I believe we had over 40 of them. All campaigns have highlights and memories; one that I would like to record for posterity was the erection of two large signs on the framework of the Brajkovich salvage yard signs. The Brajkovich family seeing us with signs thought it was a better idea, rather than having them on ground level, that we add them to their existing signs. Of course, we were without a ladder. We could have returned another day, but we were undeterred, and something you may understand, Mr Acting Speaker, there is always a practical solution for ex- farmers. Shauna stood on my shoulders—an act that Cirque du Soleil would have been very proud of! The signs went up, Shauna survived, and she hasn’t left me—yet! I would not suggest that Labor members try this. This term has seen the redistribution of the electorate and while I am sad to see both Ellenbrook and Lexia move to West Swan, I welcome Beechina, Chidlow, Gorrie, Malmalling, Mount Helena, Sawyers Valley and The Lakes to Swan Hills. I look forward to serving my electorate’s new constituents and the diversity these new boundaries bring. The term of 6 September 2008 to 9 March 2013 was a pivotal period for this electorate, as commitments by our Liberal–National government saw many enduring projects that will impact enormously on the safety and economic benefit of this electorate. The most obvious one is the Liberal–National government commitment to the Perth–Darwin highway as a priority. Seldom is there one single project in any electorate with the potential to change a region forever and to create such opportunities and benefits for the area it traverses. This is the potential of the Perth–Darwin highway. I am particularly pleased that this highway was noted in the Governor’s speech under the transport heading on the opening of the first session of the thirty-ninth Parliament of Western Australia. This highway will be the main artery to our mining wealth in the north and is essential not only for the economy of the state of Western Australia but also as an alternative access route for the many people in Swan Hills. This was particularly highlighted when fires in the Bullsbrook area closed the Great Northern Highway completely for some time, affecting many local residents. This local dream has taken some 20 years to become a reality. It is a highway that has wide-ranging benefits for the whole of the metropolitan area, but in particular for my constituents in the potential expansion of a large tract of land to the north of Ellenbrook and west of Bullsbrook. This commercial–industrial precinct is to be several times the size of Malaga and has an estimated capacity to employ up to 16 000 people. This benefit will extend beyond the employment of local residents; it will also have an additional revenue stream for the City of Swan and the ever-increasing needs for its expanding community services. This highway will remove a large volume of heavy truck traffic from Great Northern Highway and other local roads, which has had a negative impact on the Swan Valley farming and tourism precincts and the Bullsbrook township’s expansion aspirations. Our busy east–west route, Gnangara Road, will have an intersection upgrade and a total road upgrade is due in this term. Work is ongoing to improve all safety aspects of this road. We have had a number of improvements in our last term for education infrastructure, including the new Aveley and Malvern Springs Primary Schools, the expansion of years 11 and 12 at Ellenbrook Secondary College and the complete upgrade of Bullsbrook district K–12 school. Education facilities for our Swan Hills electorate will be further complemented and enhanced by the commitment of a new university planned for Midland. We will see vast improvements in health facilities for our electorate. The Midland Public Hospital when completed in 2015 will provide 307 public beds and a comprehensive range of clinical services enabling Swan Hills constituents access to health care closer to home. The recent commitment of the Great Eastern Highway upgrade from Greenmount to Mundaring will provide improved safety and access for many Swan Hills

160 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] constituents in the Mundaring shire to the Midland regional centre and to these new facilities. With these projects, our Liberal–National government has acknowledged both the importance and needs of the regional centre of Midland, which is well overdue. It is my belief that for many years now the resources and facilities of our rural hills communities such as Chidlow, Wooroloo, Mount Helena, Sawyers Valley, Glen Forrest and Mahogany Creek have not kept pace with our metropolitan suburbs. It is fitting that these small but important communities are finally supported to the equal of their suburban counterparts. It is also my belief that sport and recreation facilities are the cornerstone of our hills communities. With the support of the Premier, we have made a start with the Liberal–National government’s allocation of a $150 000 grant for the Mount Helena Football Club to upgrade its club rooms, along with a commitment of $3 million for the upgrade of the Mundaring sports centre, with undercover courts for basketball, hockey and netball, which are utilised by some 2 000 hills residents weekly. This will mean that these sports can be undertaken irrespective of the weather and be of a standard that will enable locals to compete in state competitions. Schools such as the Bullsbrook district K–12 school and Gidgegannup, Upper Swan and Sawyers Valley primary schools have already seen the installation of school zone LED speed limit signs and the safety that these provide to the community. In this term more schools in Swan Hills will be receiving this signage, commencing with Chidlow Primary School. There are now advanced warning lights at Yagan Bridge for the Great Northern Highway–West Swan Road intersection while Mundaring already has flashing warning lights, new safety barriers and pedestrian crossings in the township. Directional arrows for Stoneville Road and Mundaring Weir Road are planned for completion in approximately May–June of this year. Finally, the current term will see the completion of some outstanding projects for Swan Hills. There is always more to do. My commitment is to help sporting communities such as the Parkerville Equestrian Centre, the Mundaring Sporting Club, the Mundaring Tennis Club and similar other sports communities in Gidgegannup and Bullsbrook secure their future with appropriate upgrades to their facilities. The ongoing protection of the Swan Valley with its farming and tourism precincts will continue to be a priority for me. This term promises to be an exciting one for the electorate of Swan Hills, and I look forward to being able to assist my constituents fulfil some of their priorities. MS W.M. DUNCAN (Kalgoorlie — Deputy Speaker) [10.43 am]: May I first congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your election to your position and thank the house for the honour of being your Deputy Speaker. I thank the Governor for his speech on the opening of the thirty-ninth Parliament and congratulate the Premier and his team for their election to another term of Liberal–National government. I also congratulate all those new members who succeeded in winning a seat in this house and for the contribution they have already made through their inaugural speeches. It is very interesting to hear of everyone’s diverse background and the skills and experience they bring to our Parliament. I think I would be pretty safe in assuming that most, if not all, members present are not familiar with my first inaugural speech, so I will provide you with a bit of background on what brings me to this place. It is an absolute honour to be elected the member for Kalgoorlie as that town is the place of my birth. Kalgoorlie has produced many members of Parliament over the life of our democracy and I hope I acquit myself as well as those who have gone before me. My family are now into their fourth generation in the pastoral industry in the Goldfields. There is a great story of my grandfather, who was originally from Cornwall, setting down my grandmother, the daughter of a pharmacist in central London, on Menangina Station in 1926, when she asked where the house was. She was told there was not one. The incredible struggle they had carving out a new life for themselves as they faced the Great Depression, untimely death and dispossession, only to fight back so our family could continue on, is one that fills me with awe and great pride. My father and mother continued in the industry, and my siblings and I had the amazing upbringing that many view as typically Australian, but few experience. My early education was by correspondence and School of the Air. But the education I appreciated even more was what I received from the wonderful traditional Aboriginal people who lived there. Many times we went out with the ladies, and from them I learned some of the Wongi language, how to track, how to dig up and eat honey ants and bardi grubs, and how to tell whether a goanna egg had a developing lizard or a yolk inside just by the markings on the shell. With no high school nearby, I went to boarding school in Perth at age 11 and finished with an offer to study medicine at the University of Western Australia. However, a gap year as a Rotary exchange student in South Africa, where I saw human rights denied and a police state in action, made me decide to pull out of medicine and study politics and make a promise to myself that I would actively defend our wonderful democracy. My political life was not associated with any particular political party until I returned to regional WA, first to Kalgoorlie and the pastoral industry and then on to Esperance to expand into farming. As we struggled to rear our four beautiful kids, the neglect of regional services and the debilitating and demoralising effect of economic rationalist policies dreamt up in distant capital cities made me realise that we needed to take action before our regional towns and industries were left to wither and die. A defining moment was when a representative of the

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 161 government of the day told an angry hall full of people in Esperance that if they did not like the price of power, they should move to Perth. If anyone was going to stand up for regional WA, it had to be the Nationals. However, at the time the Nationals were far from capable of taking on the task with the prospect of one vote, one value legislation causing commentators to predict that the party would be reduced to one member. History now shows that, contrary to popular belief, one vote, one value did not disenfranchise regional voters, it galvanised them. The leader of this resurgence was Brendon Grylls. I would like to pay tribute to his leadership and, in particular, his determination to stare down the naysayers and show by example that it is worthwhile taking risks to achieve a higher goal. Congratulations, Brendon, on your election to the seat of Pilbara—a defining moment for the Nationals and a demonstration that the Nationals is now a party capable of representing the vast array of interests that have one common thread: being part of regional WA. And congratulations to those who took on the task of filling in behind him and knuckling down to retain the seats in our traditional heartland. It was truly a team effort involving a great deal of hard work, a fair bit of self-sacrifice and some miracle working with pretty scarce resources. Part of the strategy was to try for the seat of Kalgoorlie, a seat the Nationals have never won before. When John Bowler and Brendon Grylls suggested I take it on, it did not take long for my husband, Ian, and I to decide that we were up for the challenge. The idea of returning to our roots was too tempting, although, I must say, I will sorely miss the wonderful people and places I have served in the Mining and Pastoral Region over the past four and a half years. The Kalgoorlie electorate is 632 816 square kilometres and stretches from the stunning historic city of Kalgoorlie–Boulder north, to my old stamping ground of Menzies and Kookynie, to Leonora, Leinster, Laverton and the incredible Ngaanyatjarra lands. Kalgoorlie–Boulder is a mature, cosmopolitan and diverse city of more than 30 000 people that is capable of doubling its size by 2050. Mining is the dominant industry in the electorate, with mining production worth more than $8.8 billion in 2010–11. The region is also well known for its pastoral industry, tourism, Aboriginal art and culture and the beautiful and unique Great Western Woodlands and, of course, the Lake Ballard statues. In fact, it was the amazing buildings that caught the eye of Brendon Grylls when I first took him to Kalgoorlie in around 2006. He remarked that we could see there was a boom there a century ago and asked why people were living in containers in the present boom towns of Karratha and Port Hedland. This is where the seed for the royalties for regions was sown. Since Paddy Hannan found gold in 1893, the mineral resources in the Goldfields–Esperance region have extended to include nickel, cobalt, zinc, copper, silver and, more recently, iron ore. For these mines to reach their full potential and for exploration and development to continue, we need to be mindful of the increasing costs the resource sector is facing. According to the Chamber of Minerals and Energy, the pressures are coming from many sources: project approval processes, duplication, time delays and complexity; imposed business costs, including the uncertainty of the changing taxation imposts of the minerals resource rent tax and the carbon pricing regime; productivity challenges, increasing labour costs and shortages; and increasing energy demand and costs. Over the past week we have seen a significant fall in the price of gold, which will bring many operations perilously close to their break-even point. Cost pressures have seen the cash cost of producing gold rise from under $400 an ounce in 2002 to nearly $1 000 an ounce in the last quarter of last year. These pressures must be taken into account in any review of the royalty regime, as it is important to maintain investor confidence in these uncertain times. Over the past four years the seat of Kalgoorlie has seen great benefit from royalties for regions, and much of the thanks for this must go to the former member for Kalgoorlie, John Bowler. John was elected in 2001 and found himself in 2008 as an Independent in a minority government. Very early in the piece he threw his hat in the ring with Brendon Grylls and negotiations took place for the formation of government and commitment to the policy of royalties for regions. As a condition of his support, John saw the $58 million upgrade to Kalgoorlie Hospital as one of the first projects to get off the ground under the Liberal–National government. Since that time nearly $100 million of royalties for regions funding has been committed to the region, with notable projects being the Ray Finlayson Sporting Complex, the Kalgoorlie Indigenous Visitors’ Hostel, $20 million towards new student accommodation at the WA School of Mines and $5 million for the detailed planning for the proposed transport hub in Kalgoorlie and strategic links to ports to the north and south. Funds have found their way into all corners of goldfields life, refurbishing, reinvigorating and renewing not only infrastructure and public amenities but also hope, a way of life and pride. Projects ranging from the caravan park in Menzies to the sporting complex in Leonora, the office complex in Warburton, through to playgroup and childcare centres, tourism strategies, disability support services and event promotion have all played their part in redressing the neglect of decades, but there is much more to do. The most important thing we must now remember as we go into the next phase of royalties for regions is that the policies are based on the mantra of local priorities and local decision making. This is what has given the people of regional WA hope, a sense of excitement and the courage to come out and say what is needed and where they

162 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] would like their community to go. We must be very careful as a government not to tread roughshod over this new strategic capability we have encouraged and nurtured in these long-neglected communities. I draw members’ attention to work done through the remoteFOCUS initiative, facilitated by Desert Knowledge Australia. The project was under the leadership of Fred Chaney, a man for whom I have a great deal of respect and who has spent decades considering the state of our nation and the neglect of our remote and regional areas. In his report “Fixing the hole in Australia’s Heartland: How Government needs to work in remote Australia” he notes that Australia is the most urbanised continent in the world, with more than 85 per cent of our population living within 50 kilometres of the coast. The report looks at how remote Australia is governed and perceives government, and had a particular focus on the Pilbara. I quote from the report — Royalties for Regions is a unilateral (that is, State) policy which addresses the traditional failure to provide financial resources to regions sufficient to meet their legitimate needs and aspirations. The next step is to ensure all governments and the different Pilbara communities are on the same page— declaring Loyalty to Regions—and this cannot be done unilaterally. A particular necessity is the incorporation of Aboriginal interests into this process through their established representative structures. What concerns me is the talk of changing the focus of royalties for regions to more general infrastructure such as roads and rail—taking decision making back to central control. The hopes and visions of those we have enticed out to give their point of view and set their priorities will be dashed; their trust betrayed. Is this loyalty to regions? Fred Chaney, in his personal reflection in the report, noted that when he went around regional Western Australia in 2007 seeking views on a human rights bill — What we found was more of a demand for economic and social rights than civil and political rights. People felt short changed and attitudes to government (not political parties but government generally) were uniformly in terms of ‘”them” not understanding “us”. He went on to say — I have also been a sometime participant and long time observer of honest attempts by governments to do better. The uniformity of failure to match results with good intentions makes it clear to me that failure is not a matter of partisan politics, of lack of good intentions, of just getting policy settings wrong, or of having the wrong people. There is a system failure here; the present instruments of government are not fit for use in remote Australia. He asked — … can Australia properly be a nation while there is this hole in our heartland? We think not. There is much more to do. It is imperative that those who live and work in the regions they love have a strong say in how the funding is prioritised. That is why when the Nationals committed $150 million to the Goldfields– Esperance strategic development plan, we did not specify how the funding should be spent. It is not for distant politicians to decide what is more important for the goldfields—is it more doctors or a drag strip? The Goldfields–Esperance Development Commission, Goldfields Voluntary Regional Organisation of Councils and Regional Development Australia have worked very closely with their communities and community organisations to identify priority projects for the expenditure of the $150 million that will enable the region to work towards the vision and strategies to meet not only their critical needs, but also their aspirations. Some of the key priorities found in the work done so far are for a community hub based on the new golf course in Kalgoorlie–Boulder; town centre revitalisations in Menzies and Laverton; seniors’ accommodation and multipurpose office accommodation for service providers in Leonora; sealing of the Outback Highway to improve access to Ngaanyatjarra lands; and upgrades to key infrastructure, such as Laverton Hospital and the Goldfields Art Centre. I turn to some of the priorities I see as part of my work as the new member for Kalgoorlie; things that will make a difference in the lives of the people of the goldfields and the Ngaanyatjarra lands. Of high priority is the severe general practitioner shortage in the goldfields. There is no doctor in Laverton or Kambalda and the City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder, given the size of its population, should have 40 general practitioners. However, by 30 January this year, the number had dropped to 23. One of the major problems is that local general practitioners are so overstretched that they do not have the capacity to supervise international medical graduates or new young doctors. Finding and recruiting doctors who have these capabilities is virtually impossible, yet there seems to be an unwillingness to accept that the system is broken. We need to look at new ways to meet the needs of people in regional areas. The royalties for region southern inland health initiative committed more than half a billion dollars in the southern half of the state. Major progress is being made in recruiting doctors and installing telehealth equipment and employing nurse practitioners. However, we are still not breaking the back of the general practitioner shortage. When Brendon Grylls suggested a nurse practitioner for Laverton, it was ruled out by the Australian Medical Association, which has also greeted new developments in telehealth with great reservation. It worries me that the Australian Medical Association is protecting the jobs its members do not want

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 163 to fill. It is time to rethink the provision of general practitioner services in the regions. The medical workforce is changing. Doctors, an increasing number of whom are female, require more family-friendly working hours. The small family medical practice is confronted with the need for expensive and hi-tech equipment, burdensome reporting arrangements and high insurance premiums. Many just want to be doctors, not small business owners. International medical graduates face a very difficult and often lonely road as they try to gain accreditation, and the burden on their supervising general practitioner is immense. We need to use nurse practitioners and telehealth. We also need facilities at which GPs can provide their services in a fully supported way whereby they receive a salary or remuneration for consultations without the burden of running a small business. Our upgraded regional hospitals must be used to train and supervise interns. [Member’s time extended.] Ms W.M. DUNCAN: Another area in which we can make a real difference with a bit of attention is in the provision of mobile health services into Indigenous and remote communities. We have already seen the success of the Western Desert kidney health project and the Royal Flying Doctor Service on-the-road program, which have been supported by substantial royalties for regions funding and have delivered primary health care and important health education and assessment through culturally appropriate mobile means. The Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre for Children’s Earbus mobile children’s ear clinics is another program that is making a difference. Studies show that 40 per cent of our Indigenous children acquire middle ear disease immediately after birth and that before the age of two one in three has a perforated eardrum. Research also shows that these children with hearing loss subsequently find education difficult, have a tendency to drop out or become socially disruptive and an increased likelihood of finding themselves captured by the justice system. The Earbus program is making a huge difference to these children and I would like to see it extended statewide. Many of the inaugural speeches in the chamber this week have touched on the issue of alcohol consumption and its misuse having a detrimental effect on our community. The goldfields have particularly been under the spotlight on this issue recently with a section 64 notice being issued to licensees and the subsequent application of liquor restrictions in the town. Alcohol consumption per capita in Kalgoorlie–Boulder is consistently around twice the state average at 21.21 litres, with rates of night-time assaults and acute alcohol-related hospitalisations substantially higher than the state average. The same can be said for drug possession, with a dramatic increase in the availability of cannabis in Indigenous communities and high amphetamine use across the community. The Office of Crime Prevention shows that alcohol was a factor in 61.3 per cent of assaults in Kalgoorlie–Boulder and the Office of Racing and Gaming notes that 80 per cent of disorderly conduct offences are alcohol related. I acknowledge the severity of these statistics but I maintain that we must focus on the people who are unable to drink responsibly rather than apply ad hoc restrictions that impact on the majority who are able to drink safely and sociably. If we want to make our regional cities places where people want to live, work and spend their leisure time, we must be careful not to impose onerous and inequitable restrictions that make people feel like second-class citizens. I would, however, support a statewide approach to this issue. Considerable work needs to be done to deal with excessive alcohol consumption in regional areas. Much more focus must be given to education, prevention, rehabilitation and policing. I have a particular concern about the prevalence of FASD—foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. We must get the message out that the only safe level of consumption during pregnancy is zero alcohol consumption. Many people think this problem is found only in Aboriginal communities, but that is not true. It is a community-wide problem, although there certainly are tragic concentrations of children afflicted with FASD in places like Fitzroy Valley, and I praise the women of that region for the groundbreaking work they have done in researching this disorder and its prevalence. The national inquiry into foetal alcohol spectrum disorder has made several recommendations, including rolling out a national FASD diagnostic and screening tool, placing warning labels on alcoholic beverages, public awareness campaigns and support and education for pregnant women, especially those with alcohol dependency. We must also push for FASD to be recognised as a disability so that those who are affected have access to support and services. It seems mandatory that at every election the issue of law and order is top of the list for attention and promises made by candidates and political parties. There is no doubt that we all have a right to live safely and securely in our homes free from threats of assault or loss of possessions. However, sometimes it is too easy to see incarceration as the solution. My colleague and well known Kalgoorlie–Boulder police officer, Hon Dave Grills, who is now the member for Mining and Pastoral Region, has often discussed this issue with me and pointed out that from his experience the vast majority of crimes are alcohol and drug related. That is perhaps where we should focus more of our resources rather than on providing more beds in jails. The member for North West Central touched on this issue last night, but I would like to add some weight to his arguments. I note that we have on the front bench of this government some people with strong credentials in economics, so I will quote from the cost–benefit analysis prepared by the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee, “An economic analysis for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders: prison vs residential treatment”. Here is a snapshot of some of the statistics captured in that analysis. In 2011, 81 per cent of Indigenous prisoners were convicted of

164 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] a non-violent offence, and 70 per cent of Indigenous prisoners convicted of a violent offence had been previously convicted. Around 68 per cent of Indigenous prisoners self-reported having used illicit drugs during the preceding 12 months. Based on data from New South Wales, Indigenous prisoners are also significantly more likely to be dependent on alcohol than non-Indigenous prisoners. Indigenous men were significantly more likely to report that they were intoxicated at the time of the offence for which they were incarcerated. Reoffending rates are high and incarceration is associated with poor health outcomes for prisoners, including a relatively higher risk of mortality post-release. The estimated annual average cost per prisoner per day in 2012– 13 is $315. In relation to diversion, in 2009–10, nearly three-quarters of residential treatment and rehabilitation services providing services to Indigenous clients had a waiting list, yet the outcomes from Drug Court participants, whether or not they completed the program successfully, were better than for the comparative group. Participants were less likely to be re-convicted of an offence, including offences against the person, as well as drug offences. The total average cost per client per day, including both operating and capital costs, is between $204 and $284. The analysis concludes that the total financial savings associated with diversion to community residential rehabilitation compared with prison are $111 458 per offender. Community residential treatment is also associated with better outcomes compared with prison, with lower recidivism rates and better health outcomes. In monetary terms, these non-financial benefits have been estimated at an additional $92 759 per offender. So I am asking that more government resources be directed to the diversion of offenders and more accessible drug and alcohol rehabilitation services. In particular, I draw attention to the excellent work being done by Goldfields Rehabilitation Services, which has already expanded thanks to a contribution from royalties for regions, but which now needs to expand further to meet the needs of the community. In particular, it needs accommodation for detoxification. This service is changing lives for the better and saving the state healthcare and law and order costs that would occur without rehabilitation. I would also particularly like to see the continuation and expansion of the excellent youth diversion work that is being carried out with support from royalties for regions, much of it under the excellent leadership of the former Minister for Corrective Services Hon Terry Redman. The youth justice program has been very successful, and the Honourable Wayne Martin, Chief Justice of Western Australia, commented that funding from the royalties for regions program has resulted in a very significant strengthening of juvenile justice programs and facilities in the Kimberley and Pilbara, including through the provision of supervised bail facilities, and similar facilities in Geraldton and Kalgoorlie have dramatically reduced the number of children from regional WA in detention in Perth. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms L.L. Baker): Could members in the house please take their discussions outside the house, particularly while we have someone on their feet giving their Address-in-Reply speech. Ms W.M. DUNCAN: I would not be here today without the incredible and humbling support of so many people and the encouragement and wise counsel of so many residents of the goldfields and, in particular, my dynamic and diverse campaign team. They came from all sides of the political spectrum and decided that Kalgoorlie needed a National in state Parliament. Without the leadership of Gary Brown and John Bowler, I would not have had that team. They did an amazing job, much of it without being asked. They are too numerous to list, but thanks must go to Don Hoddy, Beth Richardson and Terry Fleeton for their attention to detail. Graham Thomson, Paul Browning and Graeme Campbell were always there with strategic advice, and Sheryl and Greg Liddicoat, Anne Skinner, Jeff and Fay Jones, Gloria Moyle and Lisa Malicky were ever ready to put on the green Kermit team T-shirt and make an impromptu appearance if required. Bryce Greatorex looked after the dollars. Thanks also to Jemma Crook, Georgia Blazevic, Steve Kean, Alexis Johnson, Dave Grills and Tony Crook for their work, as well as Nola and Ziggy Wolski. Family members, of course, are the ones who keep you strong, back you when you are feeling unsure and go the extra mile. In fact, it was the extra thousands of miles that my wonderful husband, Ian, went with his brother Ross—three trips to the Ngaanyatjarra lands distributing material and then collecting not only mine but also everyone else’s after the election. To my amazing parents, John and Maxine Tonkin—John is in the gallery this morning—both of whom have Orders of Australia for their service to the goldfields, thank you for your love, support and example. And to my four beautiful kids—Kat, Anna, Elise and James—I am blessed to have your backing. You did not have to do it, but you made the Kermit shirts look stunning and you helped us man every polling booth in Kalgoorlie-Boulder with unpaid gorgeous young people. I want to conclude by thanking my Mining and Pastoral electorate staff, Margie Thomas-Close, Dorothy Henderson and Frances Archer. Your work is professional, efficient and above and beyond. You are my very dear friends and I am glad you will still be on the team with the successful election of Dave Grills. It is a great honour to be the member for Kalgoorlie, a real homecoming for me, and I look forward to the next four years working to reward the faith the people of Kalgoorlie have placed in me. [Applause.]

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 165

MR M.P. MURRAY (Collie–Preston) [11.12 am]: I congratulate all members of Parliament today on their victory at the last election. To the absent Speaker and the Acting Speakers, congratulations on your appointments. On the night of 9 March, after the polls were closed, there were scenes of merriment in a small part of Collie that I have not seen before. There were people singing and dancing in the streets. They were singing to the music of “Locomotion” with the words changed to “Do the ‘Jaimee Motion’”. Somehow I think they were wrong. They danced in front of my supporters’ houses. They went up and down the street tooting their horns. They thought they had won but they forgot that there were ballot papers to be counted. They forgot that while an old dog can bark, he can still bite. He was still barking. To add insult to injury, they rang me at eight o’clock. The Liberal campaign team insulted me by ringing me and asking me to concede. My counters, who have been in the game for quite some time and were not so immature, had me 60 votes in front and the Liberals wanted me to concede! It just shows us how immature and how self-inflated the Liberal Party was. It spent $250 000 trying to remove me. It did not work. People asked how I felt when the count was so close over the week. I said that it was not as close as the one before that. In 2001, the difference was 34 votes. When I went to bed on the Saturday night in 2001, I was 80 votes in front. On 9 March I was only 60 votes in front. I was still confident. One can always win if one has done the work. I believe that that is how I won the job—by working on the ground and not being a fairy dropping in from the sky, not a person who had been away for 10 years and claiming to be a Collie person and working for the infamous Troy Buswell. I am sure that helped the Liberal Party candidate’s chances a great deal. I am sure she learnt a lot but I do not think it was all about politics. She may have learnt something she does not want to tell us about. But how insulting to be rung and asked to concede when you are in front. I have never heard of such a thing in politics in all my life. It means they did not understand the boxes. They did not know that at every booth I had a scrutineer who was ringing the figures through, and they were the correct figures—not because they had seen on the television that there was an eight per cent swing in some areas. It is about knowing your electorate—advice that I give to anyone who is in this room; anyone. If you do not know where the votes are coming from, you should not be in the game. It means that you have not been close enough to the issues. But, again, it was the speech and the Facebook sites that had “tears of joy for winner”. I was not on Facebook, so I am not quite sure how that happened. But there was another young lady who was on Facebook and who had tears of joy on winning. Retractions did not come my way, which is a little disappointing. There was blame on other sites from the candidate—other people were blamed. That should not be the case. If you are the leader of the pack, you cop it as you give it, and that was not really the case there. During the week there was further fun and games, when accusations were made about me going around and pulling down signs. I am that old now that I cannot even get over the fence, let alone pull the signs down! But, yes, some games were played within the town of Collie between both parties. I am not going to say that I was party to that because I was not, and I certainly make that very clear here. However, overall, I think it was quite a fair and clean campaign on both sides, but, in the end, there can be only one winner. But when you spend as much money as the Liberal Party did in that election, it makes me sad that we are heading down the American path; that is, it is about how much money you have got and how much you can put out there, when quite possibly some of the kids around my area could have used that money to get a bed for the night. The way we are headed in the future with WA politics worries me. Money, and money alone, should not be how the game is played. When we look at it, you cannot even get a start in American politics to get a run at the presidential job unless you have around $40 million. Let us not go down that track; let us have some caps put in so that we do not have to be out there spending the next four years worrying where we are going to get the money to have the next election, let alone worrying about what we should be doing for the electorate. That is something that I am very, very strong on. There are some people along the way I must mention. As I said, it goes way back. In 2001 when I was elected by that small margin, it was something that I was not ready for. I was not ready to be in Parliament, and it took some time to get my feet on the ground. Coming from working in the underground mines, then working in the workshops just weeks before, and taking six weeks’ holiday before the election, I certainly was not prepared to come here. I will always remember being introduced to the Parliament and coming around here. I did not realise there were two sets of steps in the building, because it was only the second time I had been here. I thought that the toilets were on the top floor and not on the bottom floor. It was very uncomfortable for me for a few days before I found my way around. But, from then on, I believe it is my staff and the people who have worked with me who have allowed me to succeed in a marginal seat that, at the best, in previous times, had a margin of 0.9 per cent. My first election was with a margin of 0.004 per cent. Then the boundaries changed again and it went to a margin of 0.2 per cent. After some other changes, it went to a margin of 0.8 per cent. Then, lo and behold, I had a huge win and I went to a margin of 9.7 per cent—a safe seat—for a fortnight. When they changed the boundaries again, I went back to a margin of 0.9 per cent. So, to people who think that it is only the political party that will get you across the line, I say no, it is not; it is about having good staff and hard workers, and also taking time out and working very hard yourself.

166 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013]

I must say that after the election victory there was nothing sweeter than visiting the aged-care units and seeing a former member, Mr Tom Jones, who is now 89 years of age. He spent 21 years in this Parliament. He was a great advocate for the coal industry. It was a learning process for me how he worked the ground. Tom is having a few problems with age, but his eyes still twinkled when the reporter asked him what he thought—he said, “Bloody good!” That was a special moment in my political life. When we went to the mobile polling booths to vote and they handed out the tickets, Tom said, “I don’t want one of them.” That was his refusal to take a Liberal Party ticket! The spark was still there. It is a really great memory. It is something I have a great photo of, which will go on my wall. I thank the supporters and the many booth workers. It was very interesting to hear the National Party talk about unpaid booth workers. This year I did not—and have never, ever—use paid booth workers. I have a great story to tell about a Liberal Party paid booth worker who turned up at one of my booths and said, “I’m here to work at the booth.” He is obviously not very politically savvy—we put a T-shirt on him and worked him. Two hours later he realised he was supposed to be on the other side! Thanks to that person for the couple of hours’ work for nothing; it was really great. He was a bit red-faced. I do not know whether he got his pay docked at all. Those sorts of things make it all worthwhile; also when people come back in and watch the count and talk about it. I give special thanks to my staff members Laurel Dhu, Dee O’Brien, Tom Palmer, Amber Vidotto, Nola Green, Pam Anderson and Donna Davies, who, over the years, have worked hard to connect with the community and put up with the stresses and demands that I have put on them. It was really pleasing to see the polling results from booths in the southern part of Collie. It is a pretty tough area. A lot of people there are doing it tough, but they voted 84 per cent towards me—not, I believe, towards the Labor Party but towards the work my staff have done for them. That is just sheer testimony to what happens if you work with the community. To all those guys that worked in the office, thank you very much. To Sally Talbot, Roy Skaife, David Skaife, Harrisan Burrows and all the Young Labor team, thank you. To Steve McCartney, John Kearney, Brett King and members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, in particular the guys on the job at Griffin Coal and Premier Coal, thank you very much for not only your support but also your financial support. Without that we could not have gone anywhere near what was spent by the Liberal Party. To Gary Wood from the Collie Coal Miners Industrial Union of Workers, along with Greg Busson and Cheryl Sanders and the leadership group and members of the union, your support was much appreciated and certainly contributed to the win because we have seen what happened to the vote in Collie. Lee Edmondson and Dave Kelly and the United Voice leadership group, thank you very much, and thanks for your assistance in many ways. The other unions I must mention are the Maritime Union of Australia, the Civil Service Association, the Australian Workers’ Union, the Transport Workers’ Union of Australia, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union and the WA Prison Officers’ Union. They all supported me, some in a personal sense involving standing at a booth, or by coming around to give me a pat on the back and saying, “Keep at it; keep working away”. Thank you very much for that support. There are not that many Liberals in here now, but I can guess what they would say about me and my colleague from Albany: that we are just “union party hacks”. I believe that in our capitalist world we must have unions to look after the workers and the poorer paid people, otherwise we will have the American system where we will live on an indirect tax, called tips, as they do in that country. I do not want to see us go down that line. We have withstood the financial disasters that have affected the rest of the world, and yet people still say unions should be pushed out of the system; I say we still need them. The other thing I wanted to say is that if I am a so-called union hack, why am I standing here today representing a marginal seat? It is about working with the less fortunate people to assist them to get up off the bottom so they can function in society without getting into a lot of trouble or coming down with depression or those sorts of things. Union support is needed in many, many workplaces. If it is not needed, fine, but, by gee, a lot of people do not know where to turn and certainly do not have the money for lawyers and the like if problems arise. To my local branch members, who, as ever, were willing to lick stamps, deliver flyers and have posters in their yards—anything it takes to win an election. Special thanks to Gary and Evelyn Benton. Gary is the branch secretary; he is a great worker and a great friend, who, during tough times in elections, has always been positive, willing to work, and willing to give me a pat on the back and say, “Let’s get out and get at ’em.” To all the voters who ticked the right boxes, thanks, with special mention to my home town of Collie. The vote for the Australian Labor Party was sensational and really showed who the true local was, with some of the booths reporting more than 80 per cent of the vote. I do not think there are too many people in a marginal seat who could brag that some booths were 80 per cent. A special thanks to my family; over the years they have put up with much, I can tell you! Thanks to my wife, Anna, and children, Melissa, Heidi, Bree and Jerrie, along with my son-in-law John; Karl is a friend of theirs who worked very hard in the background. Any politician knows that we miss many family occasions, especially if we are in a marginal seat. I now have two two-year-old granddaughters who absolutely give me hell and already are showing me what to do with the new-type phones. They are the love of my life at the moment when I

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 167 am able to be there, but I am sure that will wear out a little when they start to say, “Poppy, what have you got in your pocket; is it $1 or is it $10?” because that is how the other kids have gone. It has been great to see them grow up, but I must apologise for missing some of their special moments. A special thanks to Raj Selvendra, who was also helpful in the background, along with Tom Pacey whose advice over the last week or two of the campaign was outstanding. But I must also thank the Premier for intruding on people’s personal space with a recorded message in the electorate. My phone nearly rang off the hook and was jammed, such was the number of people who rang to record disgust at such an intrusion. This recorded message in the last week of the election was not taken to very kindly by the electorate, but it provided me with vital votes from unexpected sources. I can only wonder whether the recorded message came from an Indian call centre; we can only guess about that, but knowing that the Premier does things on the cheap, I assume it would have done. Thanks must also go to the police minister, Hon Liza Harvey, for her firm stance in refusing to accept that people south of Bunbury in areas such as Capel, Dardanup and Dalyellup should have the same policing standards as those north of Bunbury in places such as Australind, Yarloop, Harvey and Waroona. Minister Harvey’s refusal to listen to the concerns of the grassroots of the electorate worked in my favour and salvaged vital votes—thank you, minister, for those vital votes! Also, thanks to former Minister for Agriculture and Food Hon Terry Redman for his support of an abattoir in the stunning tourist area of Ferguson Valley, next door to the lovely village of Burekup. The abattoir had plans to slaughter 100 000 cattle a year, along with the processing of pigs, goats, sheep and chooks—great idea, but wrong place. So, thanks to them. [Member’s time extended.] Mr M.P. MURRAY: Because of boundary changes, I have represented the towns of Boddington, Waroona, Preston Beach, Yarloop, Myalup, Harvey, Binningup, Brunswick, Collie, Burekup, Eaton, Millbridge, Dardanup, Boyanup, Dalyellup, Capel, Donnybrook twice, Boyup Brook, Tonebridge, Balingup and many more smaller settlements. Members can see that I have had north and south boundary changes over time, and I have made many friends and many enemies along the way, but I have always listened to people; whether I agreed with them is another issue. I heard what the member for Kalgoorlie said about royalties for regions, and it is the shortest-kept election promise of all times. Despite all the political advertising saying royalties for regions would be kept, it took only hours for the Premier to say he was changing the format to include general budget items such as roads, hospitals, schools and the like. That is just a betrayal of country people, but what betrayed me more was the absolute silence from the National Party. Self-interest—that is what it was about. National Party members did not want to lose their cars and their healthy pay packets, so they shut up and allowed the Premier to do it. There was not one word until the member for Kalgoorlie’s maiden speech in this place today, and I congratulate her on that. That was really good. In the last week, we have heard about the Premier not being able to nail down major jobs such as Browse and Oakajee, but another one has dropped off—that is, the Perdaman urea plant in Collie. The Premier has just gone quiet on that and let it go. It is a vital structure that we need in the south west to give people construction jobs. Small businesses in the south west are really struggling. People have moved out because the construction work is in the north. We need a major job such as the Perdaman plant down there to allow people to stay in their homes, not move away from their families, and work in the region. I have not seen a great deal of support come from the Premier along those lines and we will take him to task at another time. It is easy to make election promises but it is just as easy to break them. In the previous four and a half years of this Liberal–National government, it reneged on $100 million worth of work in the south west. I have let the side down a little by not keeping the government to task on that. Believe me, in this four-year term my greatest job is to make sure government members honour all the promises that their side has put. That will be something that I really, really will make sure happens. In fact, if the Premier is not careful and does not do those jobs, he might convince me to stand again! I am sure that I would probably break Billy McNee’s record as being one of the oldest in the house. Moving to another subject, very quickly, in March 12 months ago, I was fortunate enough to take a trip to London with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to go to a seminar that involves all the commonwealth countries that wish to be there. It is a tremendous occasion. I would now like to use this place to suggest very strongly that all new members get the opportunity in their first year to go to London into the heart of democracy. Standing in the Great Hall where people were still petitioning, as people did 1 000 years ago, was something special to me. It was something special for a kid who grew up in the bush, a mechanic by trade, to stand there and understand the history that was put through. I walked through the tunnels underneath and looked up through a crack and saw the Tower with Big Ben at the top. The history there really, really affected the way I thought. To go into the House of Commons and the House of Lords, have a look around and watch how the House of Commons worked was special. But of course, there is always an upside; drinks at 10 Downing Street,

168 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] with a thumb in the air and a finger up—like I am doing—and thinking, “Wow! This is pretty flash.” But seriously, I think we should send our new members of Parliament there to get, smell and breathe what it was like and how it has evolved from those days. It is really, really good. Mr D.A. Templeman: Whips should go there! Mr R.F. Johnson: I’ll be at the delegation, if you like! Mr M.P. MURRAY: There are plenty of offers to lead people around, I am sure! Anyway, I thought that was a good idea and I put that in my report. In the 12 years I have been in this place, it was a sensational time to go there, see that work and have it explained to me. We even sat and watched the Speaker of the time. They said, “Look, he’s just moved his eyebrow; he’s told someone up the back to shut up or whatever.” Certainly, the way question time was conducted was quite different from what we do here. A huge amount of supplementary questions were asked after that. That is one of my special requests of Parliament. Again, I must thank the many people who have helped me over time. It has been a sensational ride, I can say, at least. I must admit on the Tuesday after the election, my wife and I sat out the back and discussed finances and where I was going and I went down to the Centrelink office to get some forms because I thought I would go on the dole the next week. All those things we had to do on the Tuesday, but at the back of my mind I knew that there was something wrong with the count. I asked my helpers to find out whether there was a box missing. There was something not right in the pre-poll votes. This is about knowing my electorate. Of course, a box of pre-poll votes was not in the main count; it had been forgotten about. The votes were posted and brought me from 120-odd behind to about 80 in front, and I managed to stay and hang on to 56 votes. Never take anything for granted in this place. Emotions go up and down. I certainly understand my opposition candidates’ emotions because before my first term I thought, “I will never win this bloody thing”. Now I am here after all the jobs have been given out and Parliament has just started; it took that long to count it. It is a special moment. I am very privileged to be in this place. When we look back, we realise that sometimes we get blasé about things. Nothing was brought more sharply into focus for me than when I transgressed on a couple of occasions and had a drink too many—officially two too many—and people pointed out to me that this is where we make the laws and do not go breaking the laws! It was a learning process. My wife gave me some very stern advice and said, “One more and there’s one thing for sure—you’re retired!” In saying that, in the two days that we discussed our retirement she reckoned that was quite good and maybe we should have also done that. The support that has come from home and the Collie people especially has been exceptional. We hear that in Collie we all have four bums and two heads and these sorts of things, but it is a close community. It is a community that does not have class warfare. It is a community that looks after its own. I can name numerous people who have had problems and the community comes in behind and supports them. Just recently the community supported the family of a young boy when a television fell on him. The community moved in there and picked up the tab and worked very hard for those people. The seat of Collie is not only Collie; it also includes Dalyellup and Eaton, which are the emerging areas down the bottom. That will change the make-up of the seat in the future. It has just been special that the Collie people have supported me so much. I would now like to move an amendment. Amendment to Motion Mr M.P. MURRAY: I move — That the following words be added to the motion — but regrets to inform His Excellency that the Barnett government has mismanaged infrastructure, in particular in the water portfolio MR M. McGOWAN (Rockingham — Leader of the Opposition) [11.38 am]: I rise to speak to the amendment moved by the member for Collie–Preston to the Address-in-Reply. Naturally, this amendment relates to the core infrastructure that it is the requirement of government to provide to the people of Western Australia, and in particular it relates to the efficient and effective provision of water. The issue we want to particularly concentrate on is what has been happening around Perth over the past fortnight in relation to burst water mains causing immense disruption to commuters and residents in the inner city area. Those commuters are, of course, from all over the state and the Perth metropolitan area. They have suffered because of the failure to properly maintain core infrastructure in Perth, which has been apparent in the last fortnight. Over the last two weeks, on three separate occasions—9 April, 15 April and, indeed, yesterday, 17 April—a water main in West Perth has burst, which has caused immense dislocation to commuters around the city and immense problems for people who want to go to or get home from work in our city area. These are the things that happen when governments underfund the basic, core infrastructure that provides basic services for people in the metropolitan area. This has been disruptive for people in our city. What is more, it is expensive to repair. This morning I went out and had a look at it. I walked up to West Perth and had a look at it, which is something I advise the minister to do. Maybe he should go out and actually have a look at the problem there. What one sees is a hole in the road where water

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 169 has erupted out of the burst water main. What one also notices is the massive amount of reworking that has gone on with that road to cater for this problem, now on three separate occasions in the last fortnight. This is the most resurfaced road in Western Australia. It has had to be resurfaced on three separate occasions in the last fortnight at a lot of cost to the taxpayers of this state to ensure that this piece of road remains functional. Yet again there is a hole in the road because of a burst main that this minister has not ensured has been properly and appropriately repaired in the time that he has had this portfolio. It is the core responsibility of state government to ensure that core infrastructure is repaired and made good for the people of the state so that they do not suffer the sort of disruption that has gone on here. I want to put this in a bit of context. We have also learnt that burst water mains are happening elsewhere around the city. Indeed, it has been an issue in High Wycombe. People have been complaining about a burst water main on the corner of Kalamunda Road and Abernethy Road that has been leaking so much since November 2012 that it has created a lake alongside the road. A wetland has been created alongside the road because of a leaking water main that has not been repaired, going back to November last year! What we have also learnt as a consequence of this is that, according to the Water Corporation, over the last year 21.6 billion litres of water has been lost through burst water mains and leakages. To put that in context, the Kwinana desalination plant produces 45 billion litres of water a year. Virtually half of the production of the Kwinana desalination plant is being lost through burst water mains and leakages, according to the Water Corporation’s own figures. The year before last the figure was 18 billion litres, so it is increasing on a yearly basis. We are seeing those sorts of losses. When the minister stands up and says that WA is the nation’s best, as I heard him say this morning, what we actually find is that in terms of the amount of water being lost, WA is the second worst in the country. Western Australia, which as we all know is the wealthiest state in the commonwealth, should be the best at everything. What we are seeing are lakes being created out in High Wycombe, people’s lives being disrupted in West Perth and massive amounts of water being lost as a consequence of government failures in this state, yet the minister will not even go and have a look at the problem himself in West Perth. It is just around the corner. You can walk there. The minister can even get his government driver to take him there. It is only two blocks away. It is not that hard. Mr B.S. Wyatt: He can float there. Mr M. McGOWAN: You can virtually float there, as the member for Victoria Park, as is his wont, pithily said. We have found that in the past four years this government has taken more than $1.5 billion in dividends from the Water Corporation. In 2011–12 the dividend it took out of the Water Corporation was $396 million. In the same period—the past four years that this government has been in office—it increased the total water charges on the average family by 53.8 per cent; 53.8 per cent and a huge dividend take at the same time ripped out of the Water Corporation. In 2008–09, the last year of the Labor government, the average family was paying $401 a year; now it is paying $617 a year. That is way above the inflation rate, which is around three per cent. It is a massive increase in the fees paid by ordinary families around the state in that period, a massive increase in the dividends ripped out and a massive increase in the water lost because of government failures to keep its core infrastructure in the condition in which it should be kept. We therefore see incidents like those that have occurred in West Perth on three occasions in the past fortnight. We see incidents like that occurring in High Wycombe, where artificial lakes have been created over recent months because of the loss of that sort of amount of water. We also see half of the production of the Kwinana desalination plant lost by these leakages and water mains bursts on this government’s watch. It is also shocking to see the figures that were brought to light by the member for Cockburn who asked a question on notice on 7 August last year of the then Minister for Water. He asked how much was being spent on maintenance and repairs of those pipes that we rely upon to deliver water around our metropolitan area. This is the answer provided by the government — In the years 2009/2011, the Water Corporation’s expenditure on replacement or refurbishment of water mains and pipes that were in poor condition is in the order of: 2009 — Wait for it — $16.5 million 2010 $17.5 million 2011 $17.5 million This is the statewide figure. On an annual basis the government is putting up the cost of water to families around this state by whopping amounts. At the same time it is taking out $400 million plus or thereabouts in some years in dividends and putting in $17 million a year for the refurbishment of water mains and pipes that are in poor condition. Is it any wonder that we see events like we have seen in West Perth when those sorts of things are

170 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] taking place—a massive draw on consumers, massive dividends ripped out of the Water Corporation and a pittance put back into expenditure on water mains and pipes that are in poor condition? They are the facts that have occurred, and the people who are suffering are those commuters and residents of our city who have to endure those sorts of disruptions. It is incumbent on the government to come clean as well about what exactly has gone on with water infrastructure in West Perth. When was it put in place? Was it put in place in the 1940s? The government needs to be honest about exactly when that infrastructure was put in place. It has said certain things about it being 50 years old. Is it significantly older than that? What sort of maintenance was put in place? What sorts of surveys were done to ensure it was in good condition so that these events would not occur? What did the government do when it found out on the first occasion that water had erupted from the road in Wellington Street, West Perth a fortnight ago? What did the government do to ensure it did not happen again? What did the government do to ensure it did not happen again when it happened on the second occasion? And now on the third occasion what has the government done? Has it actually had a look at the problem? Has the government talked to the workers down there? Or is it always up to the opposition to do those basic things that should be done by people in this place, as I did this morning when I went down there and spoke to those people and had a look at the problem? This is a failure of the core business of government by this minister and this government. They brush it off and treat it lightly, but bear this in mind—I talked to the Premier yesterday about his hubris—the more these core problems that afflict people in the community are ignored, the more the community will get angry with the government and hold it to account. Water is one of those things that is a state government responsibility. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure it is provided efficiently and effectively, and to ensure that we do not have these incidents as have occurred in High Wycombe and West Perth occurring in the future. MR D.J. KELLY (Bassendean) [11.51 am]: People could just brush this incident off and say it is just a burst water main and that these things happen. This is actually an important issue. This government hurt people with a 53 per cent increase in water charges during its first term. People have suffered in Western Australia because of that increase. Some of the people I spoke about yesterday in my first speech, the low income earners in Western Australia, have felt real financial pain because of those water charge increases along with increases in the gas and electricity charges. Having put the water charges up so significantly during its last term, this government needs to at least ensure that in return people get decent service from their Water Corporation and what has happened in West Perth and High Wycombe in recent weeks is certainly not decent service. When that water main went in West Perth the first time, we said nothing and that maybe it is the case that these things just happen. When it went a second time we said, “Well, you’d better make sure that you’ve had a good look at this pipe and make sure that the disruption that has been caused does not happen again.” Now it has happened a third time. The government cannot just say that it is a burst pipe and these things happen. The Water Corporation has had two looks at this pipe and it should have made a proper evaluation and determined what needed to happen to ensure it does not happen again. The minister might say that it is the Water Corp’s fault. It is not the Water Corp’s fault; the Water Corp works under the financial constraints of this government. We would have thought that with the 53 per cent increase in water charges the Water Corp would be in good shape in this regard. Instead, the government has taken $1.5 billion out in dividends over the last four years and we hear from the people who actually do the work that that work is being done under more pressure than ever. This work used to be done by staff directly employed by the Water Corp; it was the Liberal Party that privatised this maintenance work. A new company took over in February last year and it has now assumed responsibility for this maintenance. We hear from the people actually doing the work that that work is being undertaken under more and more pressure. This work, like anything else, benefits from having long-term, experienced staff doing the work. When someone comes across an incident, if they have been working there for a while, they know how it is done, they have seen it before and they can get the job done quickly. We hear that the current company has lost a lot of its experienced staff to the point that it now relies on external contractors to come in and do the work. So they are not Water Corp staff; they are not staff employed by the company that won the contract; they are again one step removed. They are contractors who come in and fill in and we hear that quite often that work is not done to the correct standard and so the permanent staff then often have to go back and redo what has already been redone. We cannot blame the pipe. It is only 50 years old; it should have had much more life in it. We cannot say that it is the workers’ fault for the maintenance that has been done. We have to look at what system has been put in place by this government to ensure that this work is done properly, and that is where we say this government is failing. Up go the charges, out come the dividends and clearly the quality of the work looks as though it is going down. So the poor person who was sent out today, last week and, I think, a bit before that, has given an unreserved apology on behalf of the Water Corporation for the disruption. Is it not time the minister in this house gave an unreserved apology to the people of Western Australia for the mismanagement caused by this government? MR D.T. REDMAN (Warren–Blackwood — Minister for Water) [11.54 am]: Thank you for the chance to respond to an issue raised by the opposition, which is clearly a current issue. As it is the first time the member for Bassendean, having made his inaugural speech, has taken up a point, I welcome him to this house and look forward to the, no doubt, ensuing debates we will have on the issues of water.

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A range of issues have been raised here. I will give the house an appreciation of what has happened on Wellington Street. Over two weeks there were three breaks of a pipe that is about 150 millimetres in diameter. It is a cast-iron pipe that has been in the ground for 50 years, which, against all benchmarks, is about half what should be the life of those pipelines. The lifetime should be about 100 years. It has been in the ground for 50 years. It has been buried and, given the nature of pipes of that diameter, they are not dug up and regularly assessed. When breaks occur, rightly so, the Water Corporation has processes in place to assess the nature of the breaks and to see whether there is evidence of anything more systemic. The Water Corp has done that and samples are being tested, and the soil around the pipe is still being tested; a formal response has not come back on them. Once the second break occurred, however, a process indicated that something was a bit untoward and the Water Corp needed to make decisions around it. Once that second break occurred, the visual evidence of the pipe showed premature ageing. A decision was taken by the Water Corp on the morning before the third break occurred to replace that stretch of pipeline along Wellington Street, and rightly so. There was evidence of premature ageing and it was an issue that caused significant concern to the commuting public, as well as the people who are serviced by that pipeline. That decision was made and it is in place now. I am told that the first works will commence as early as next Monday to replace that pipe. Circumstances around that pipe breakage still have not been resolved. One is: why did we reach this situation with a pipe that was in the ground when members opposite were in government; in fact, right back to when I was born? That could occur for a number of reasons. The Water Corp people are even taking soil samples. I think the Leader of the Opposition asked: why have they not come to a conclusion about what has happened? Some of the chemistry around that soil may be affecting that pipe. It takes time to get the results back. Quite rightly, the decision has been made to replace that pipeline. I am sure that decision will give the public some confidence that there is not a systemic issue. I am very surprised that the member for Bassendean in almost the first public statement he has made in the media on this issue raised the old chestnut of privatisation. The alliance maintenance arrangements have been in place since 1995. That means that right through the eight years members opposite were in government they accepted and signed off on that maintenance. Several members interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms L.L. Baker): Members! Mr D.T. REDMAN: Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker. Throughout the eight years members opposite were in government, they signed off on and supported the alliance arrangements that were in place. Those arrangements have been very effective in managing the maintenance of the pipes and pumps in the Perth water supply system for a long, long time. Indeed, in the past 12 months the Water Corporation’s Perth water pipe system has had a measure of about 12 leaks and bursts over 100 kilometres. Against any other state’s benchmark, that is outstanding service. I am surprised that the first issue the opposition raised was one of privatisation rather than what I was looking forward to—a level of calculated, measured, intellectual debate about the use of government in managing these services. The other point raised by the Leader of the Opposition is that the government is seemingly sucking cash out of the Water Corporation and using it as a cash cow to support government coffers, which is affecting maintenance issues. I make one point patently clear: the pipe in Wellington Street has been in the ground for 50 years and there was no reason to check it unless a leak occurred. When that leak occurred, we assessed it, and now we are making a decision to replace it. It has nothing to do with a maintenance arrangement, privatisation or whatever other issues the opposition raised. The key figure in the relationship between the Water Corporation and government coffers, as the Leader of the Opposition knows, is the net accruals to government figure, which basically balances out all the ins and outs, including the community service obligations that are paid by government into Water Corp for the non-profitable services it delivers, plus taking off the dividends it pays in taxes and the like. The opposition is claiming that this government is sucking money out of the Water Corporation, but, in 2011–12, the net accrual to government was $169 million. In 2007–08 — Mr F.M. Logan interjected. Mr D.T. REDMAN: Was the member for Cockburn the water minister in 2007–08? Mr F.M. Logan: No, I was not. Mr D.T. REDMAN: That is right! Is the member saying, “Don’t blame me?” I will find someone to blame in a second. In 2007–08 — Several members interjected.

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The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms L.L. Baker): Minister, I remind you that if you invite an exchange, things are likely to get a bit hectic. Members, I will call you to order for interjections. Please be quiet and let the minister finish. Mr D.T. REDMAN: In 2011–12, the net accruals to government were $169 million. In 2007–08, during the Labor Party’s time in government, the net accruals were $217 million. To claim that this government is using the Water Corporation as a cash cow is patently wrong. The numbers do not match up. The opposition knows better than that. I expect a hell of a lot more from the member for Bassendean when he takes up these arguments. The Leader of the Opposition also referred to leakage figures. National benchmarks are reported on and used as a guide to benchmark our performance against other states. It is very important to know that, in doing this measuring, apples must be measured against apples. The opposition should check its information. It has got things wrong. We do not support the amendment. I do support what the Water Corporation has done in the situation of Wellington Street. I did apologise to the public outside this house at 10.30 am. I apologised, as the minister, for the inconvenience that has been caused to the commuting public—and rightly I should have done so. It was really important that I give the public confidence that this government is putting processes in place to ensure that the problem does not happen again. The Water Corporation is replacing the pipeline—it is starting as early as next Monday—and I have asked it to be expeditious. MR F.M. LOGAN (Cockburn) [12.03 pm]: I appreciate the answer just given by the water minister, which he said with such confidence. Indeed, he spoke with absolute confidence that everything that had just come out of his mouth is correct and is actually happening. Let us go back to the answers that the former water minister gave in this house in only August last year about maintenance on pipelines. I will go to the question I put to the then minister, because it goes directly to the pipeline failure in Wellington Street. Members should remember what the minister has just told this house. On 7 August last year, I asked — (b) does the Water Corporation have a predictive maintenance program or regime in place for its mains and pipes which calculates those most likely to fail … The answer was yes; and, despite what we just heard from the minister, it had nothing to do with soil sampling. The answer states — The prediction of which water mains and pipes are most likely to fail is undertaken using a risk model. The information gathered through the inspection program is used to fine-tune the risk model and develop estimates of future replacement funding requirements. The wording at the end is — The program in its current format has been in place since 2009. Unlike what the minister just told the house, a model of inspection and risk assessment of those pipes most likely to fail is in place. It has nothing to do with soil sampling; it is an inspection program and a predictive risk modelling program. Mr D.T. Redman: You’re confused about the engineering. Mr F.M. LOGAN: No, I am not. Not at all. I know a little bit more about engineering and predictive maintenance than the minister. What he just told the house, in a very confident and untrue manner, is that there is no inspection and they are not regularly assessed. His words were, “They are not regularly assessed”. That is not what the Liberal–National government told this house about water mains and pipes in only August last year. It is the complete opposite. Those pipes that are most likely to fail are obviously the oldest. What did the minister just tell the house? He told us that the pipe is 50 years old, is one of the oldest pipes in the system and that they are not regularly assessed, according to the minister, but they are according to Water Corp, the company the minister runs. What is true? Is the minister right or are the answers given by his government — Mr D.T. Redman: Can you allow me an interjection to respond? Mr F.M. LOGAN: I know that the minister does not like this because he has been caught out, but he just has to sit there and cop it. I would like to know whether the minister has just misled the house about his description of the failure of this pipeline, because we are not talking about years ago, we are talking about only last August when his government said something completely different from what he just told the house. That requires the minister to either immediately correct the record or we will move a motion against him for misleading the house. I put it to the house there are three possible reasons for the failure of the pipeline. Firstly, the pipe clearly has not been properly assessed, otherwise its failures would have been picked up; secondly, that the predictive maintenance model that has been in place and was put in place under the term of this government does not work; and, thirdly, the failure of this pipeline is the result of the extension of the privatisation of maintenance, which again occurred under this government. The contract for maintenance has just been replaced and given to

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Transfield–Degrémont, and that contract is significantly different from the contracts that were in place before the Transfield–Degrémont contract was signed off. The difference between the two systems of contract is that under the current model of contracting more people who used to work for Water Corp now work for and are directed by Transfield–Degrémont. The very people who are involved in the predictive maintenance—the part to which I refer—are the ones who have gone over to Transfield–Degrémont, and that is where the problem might lie. That is not something the minister has addressed in this house. The minister has form on privatisation; he has form on failure. He is responsible for the privatisation of the Rangeview Remand Centre and the chaos that has been caused as a result. Children have been locked in an adult prison. Why? It is because this minister privatised Rangeview. He has form on privatisation. Mr D.T. Redman: That old chestnut! Mr F.M. LOGAN: It is not a chestnut; it happened only last year. By privatising Rangeview, the minister has gone from causing absolute chaos in the corrective services area, which the new minister is trying to sort out, and not very well, to flooding half of Perth! He has form. Unbelievable! Several members interjected. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members, thank you; I am having trouble hearing the member on his feet. Mr F.M. LOGAN: I think the points I have made are quite clear. The minister has misled the house and he needs to address the points he made earlier to the house. There are three reasons why that pipeline failed, and I have outlined those reasons. The minister needs to address those reasons. Finally, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde — Dr M.D. Nahan: Are we supposed to believe that you read Oscar Wilde? The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. The member for Cockburn is on his feet. He is the only member I wish to hear from at the moment. Mr F.M. LOGAN: To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to have one burst water main is a misfortune, to have a second is carelessness, and to have a third is outright incompetence! Division Amendment put and a division called for. Bells rung and the house divided. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members, while the tellers are counting, I request that, given the numbers in the house, nobody stand in the central aisles during a division. If members are voting on one side, they need to be out of the central corridor. Division Resumed The division, with the Deputy Speaker casting her vote with the noes, resulted as follows — Ayes (17)

Ms L.L. Baker Mr D.J. Kelly Mr J.R. Quigley Mr B.S. Wyatt Dr A.D. Buti Mr F.M. Logan Ms M.M. Quirk Mr D.A. Templeman (Teller) Mr R.H. Cook Mr M. McGowan Mrs M.H. Roberts Ms J.M. Freeman Mr M.P. Murray Mr C.J. Tallentire Mr W.J. Johnston Mr P. Papalia Mr P.B. Watson

Noes (33)

Mr P. Abetz Ms W.M. Duncan Dr G.G. Jacobs Mr D.C Nalder Mr F.A. Alban Ms E. Evangel Mr R.F. Johnson Mr J. Norberger Mr I.C. Blayney Mr J.M. Francis Mr S.K. L’Estrange Mr D.T. Redman Mr I.M. Britza Mrs G.J. Godfrey Mr R.S. Love Mr A.J. Simpson Mr T.R. Buswell Mr B.J. Grylls Mr J.E. McGrath Mr M.H. Taylor Mr G.M. Castrilli Dr K.D. Hames Mr P.T. Miles Mr A. Krsticevic (Teller) Mr V.A. Catania Mrs L.M. Harvey Ms A.R. Mitchell Mr M.J. Cowper Mr C.D. Hatton Mr N.W. Morton Mr J.H.D. Day Mr A.P. Jacob Dr M.D. Nahan

Pairs

Ms S.F. McGurk Mr C.J. Barnett Ms R. Saffioti Mr W.R. Marmion Mr P.C. Tinley Ms M.J. Davies Ms J. Farrer Mr T.K. Waldron

Amendment thus negatived.

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Motion Resumed MR C.J. TALLENTIRE (Gosnells) [12.18 pm]: I would like to begin my response to the Address-in-Reply by acknowledging and congratulating all the new members—I was able to carefully listen to the contributions from the members for Fremantle, Kimberley and Bassendean—and welcoming them to this place. Having gone through an election, as all members have done, many things stick in one’s mind. One of the most important things is the contribution of those who support us and who want to help us on our campaign journey. I was incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful campaign team around me. I want to acknowledge the roles that they played. The people who were most precious to me, giving me their assistance throughout the campaign, even during times when things were getting tough, and who made remarkable contributions include people such as Peter Whitelaw, who did such a great job helping me right throughout with letterboxing and being a booth captain. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members, there are too many conversations happening around the chamber; thank you. I am having difficulty hearing the member for Gosnells. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank Salim Youssef and his wife, Amal Youssef; Tanasija Marjanovic and his wife, Lubica; Michael Ayling; Eve Omacini; Nuala Piper; Pierre Yang; Vibi Ahnstom; Di Meakins; and, indeed, the rest of the Gosnells– Thornlie branch of the WA Labor Party. And I neglected to mention Marcia Maher as well. They made fabulous contributions—contributions that came from their hearts because they believed in the Labor cause; they believed in what we were standing for. They understood the quality of our policy commitments. They could see that they were the policies that would really lead to improvements in the lives of the people in the Gosnells electorate. Some of the things that we were calling for were increases in the number of police in our area, improvements to police numbers, and investment in schools. We had a commitment to a $30 million upgrade of Thornlie Senior High School. We were committed to ensuring that there was a rapid rollout of the electronic school zone signs to all schools in the electorate. We have been committed to an improvement plan in the centre of Gosnells for an area known as Lissiman Street, and making sure that that improvement takes place. We were committed to ensuring that the Nicholson Road–Yale Road–Garden Street roundabout was improved to a standard that had slip-roads around it and also some traffic control lights to smooth the flow of traffic around a roundabout that becomes incredibly congested. We committed also to the construction of an extension of the Thornlie train line through to the Mandurah line. We committed to that and it is something that people really became enthusiastic and excited about. I have no doubt that people voting in the Gosnells electorate knew very well that this was going to be a major boost to our area, a major improvement to our quality of life, because it would give us an alternative to using the car to get around and to sitting in traffic jams. The Metronet plan and the stations that it was going to deliver to our area were heartily endorsed by the people of Gosnells. People were very excited about the idea of a station at Nicholson Road and at Ranford Road. I believe that those things really captured people’s imagination and helped contribute to my re-election to this place. I note that our opponent, the Liberal Party, made certain commitments to the electorate as well. I am very keen to ensure that over the next four years the Liberal Party is held to account on the delivery of those commitments that it made to the people of the Gosnells electorate. It is absolutely essential that it delivers on these things, and I am going to list a few of them. The Liberal Party committed to improving lighting at the Gosnells train station and to closed-circuit television for the Gosnells and Thornlie train stations; that is additional to the CCTV that is already there. The Liberal Party committed to improving that so it extends out to the bus stands. It committed to a uniformed police youth engagement officer to be permanently on site at the Gosnells Police and Community Youth Centre. It is absolutely essential that we have that presence there. That is the sort of mentoring presence that the youth who are at the PCYC really appreciate. It is the thing that helps break down that sense of us and them between young people and police. It gives them the confidence to trust in one of our most important institutions in this state: our police service. That is a commitment that the Liberal Party made. Another commitment was community consultation on this area known as Lissiman Street, where we know that we have an antisocial behaviour problem. We also have a high level of criminality that emanates from this area. People have been crying out for this area to be improved, for it to be developed, so we have got to the point of an improvement plan. But the next phase in the development of an improvement plan is a whole lot of community consultation, and the commitment made was for that consultation to start midyear, so I look forward to seeing that. Further, there is the permanent retention of the Gosnells Police Station. I look forward to seeing that absolutely set in stone, and improved upon, in fact, because commitments were made around improving that police station and providing additional capacity. I will come to that point in a moment. The Liberal Party also committed to the rollout of electronic school zone signs. A program is also being talked about called kids culture, which would provide up to $200 a year to enable children in Gosnells and Thornlie to be involved in cultural activities similar to the program that assists children’s involvement in sporting activities. It is a very important initiative and one that I want to see delivered.

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Up to $3 million was committed to a child and parent centre at Gosnells Primary School. That is to be built between 2014 and 2016. Southern River College and Thornlie Senior High School, and possibly other schools, will be assisted with their independent public school bids by experienced principals. These are commitments that were made which I will be keen to see implemented. A very important environmental asset to the electorate of Gosnells is the Canning River foreshore. A commitment was made to a $5.36 million program for the improvement of water quality and nutrient control. There are serious problems along the river with water quality and nutrient control. There are also problems with weed infestation. For that, the Liberal Party made a commitment to build a $3 million wetland on the Southern River that would control the flow of nutrients into the river. I am also keen to ensure that that is implemented. I mentioned policing and the Gosnells Police Station. There was a $3.7 million commitment to deploy mobile policing facilities in Gosnells plus an extra $4 million for targeted patrols in Gosnells over four years. I am very keen to see that that is also delivered. These commitments were made by the Liberal Party. I have got copies of them here; I made sure I downloaded them. I will be able to present those to the media and ensure that there is continual discussion and demand for these things, and that they are not forgotten about now that the election is out of the way. We will make sure people remember these things and continue to ask for them. There is talk about an additional detective and police officers as well as a share of a $12.5 million capacity upgrade for the Gosnells and Canning Vale Police Stations. There will be 50 police officer regional operations groups south of the river. The venue for that is yet to be confirmed, but $34 million was committed over four years targeting high-volume trouble spots—we assume in the Gosnells area because we have trouble spots there. They are some of the things that have been committed to and that I am very keen to see implemented. Another issue that was raised with me when talking to constituents during the course of the election campaign was a sense of neglect. People felt that we were being forgotten about, that the south eastern corridor was not receiving the attention that we really deserve. I explained to people that yes, we have had four years of a Barnett Liberal government and that we were not receiving the treatment that I believe we deserve. People had this sense that we were not being seen as equals with other Western Australians and that we are being left behind. I tried to explain why it is that we are not seen as equals worthy of the same sort of service provision and infrastructure investment as other Western Australians. I can only ponder why it is that some in the Liberal Party see people in Gosnells as not being the same, even though we have a general view in this place that we should all be treated as equals. I was struck by the fact, when listening to the oaths that members make when we are sworn into this place, that 21 members opposite swore their highest oath of allegiance not to the people of Western Australia but to a monarch who resides in another country. I think that shows a view amongst those opposite—at least 21 of them—that we are not all equal; that there are some people who have, by birthright, an access or entitlement to other things. I do not want to get into a whole debate about the virtues of a republic versus a constitutional monarchy — Mrs L.M. Harvey: That is a long bow to draw. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE: — but it does, Minister for Police, give us an indication of how people view the rights of some versus the rights of others. If you sit on that side of the chamber and swear an oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and successors and you do that ahead of swearing your allegiance to the people of Western Australia, I think it indicates that you believe that that person and her heirs and successors are somehow above those Western Australians. Several members interjected. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE: That is a reality that you need to come to terms with, and 21 of you made that choice. Mr A.P. Jacob: So did a number of yours. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE: Only one person on our side—well spotted!—and I have actually tackled that person; I believe it was an administrative error on the form that was sent in. Twenty-one of your side were adamant that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and successors were the people to whom you should be swearing your ultimate oath of allegiance. Mrs L.M. Harvey: You’d think you would get it right if it was an administrative error. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE: I will move on, because I want to say a number of other things and turn to matters relating to my new portfolio responsibilities and express how honoured I am to be the opposition’s shadow Minister for Environment and spokesperson for climate change and lands. It is a very exciting portfolio area, and I will go into it in some detail. Before doing that, I would like to pay tribute to the work of Keiran McNamara, the former director general of the Department of Environment and Conservation, and acknowledge his passing. I first met Keiran I think back in 1999, when he was the director of nature conservation in the then Department of Conservation and Land Management. I well recall that he was looking at some of the work I had been involved in via the annual report

176 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] of the Department of Environmental Protection and said, “Look at those land clearing figures; how come they don’t quite tally up with what we have over here?” At his director level he was looking at that level of detail. I remember being very proud that in that financial year—I think it must have been the financial year ended 1999—Keiran was able to spot that we had managed to constrain land clearing in Western Australia, approved through a notice of intent to clear process that was done under the Soil and Land Conservation Act, to 179 hectares. Keiran’s question was: “How come I am seeing a lot more land clearing than 179 hectares?” But the discrepancy was due to clearing associated with other approvals processes. So, in his diligent way, he was able to spot that. I will return to this issue of legislation that seeks to protect native vegetation in this state. But that is an indication of the level of diligence that Keiran McNamara always practised in his work. He went on, of course, to become director general of the department, and I think with Hon Dr Judy Edwards’ encouragement he became a great believer in community engagement in the operation of his agency. He was able to see that by working with the many community groups that exist in the environment sphere, some very good results can be obtained with the support of the community. Keiran came to understand that. I also want to pay tribute to my predecessor, Hon Sally Talbot, and the excellent work she did in this portfolio area. I acknowledge the intellect she brought to so many aspects, particularly around the development of container deposit legislation. I am sure the minister is aware of the bill that we presented in this place a couple of years ago—it was presented by Hon Eric Ripper—and the detail in that. If the minister needs a blueprint on how to implement a Western Australian container deposit scheme, he has it there. It really is very carefully thought out. I believe that in June the minister will get some sort of sense whether it is realistic to seek a national container deposit scheme. We have been waiting for that for a very long time. My sense is that there will always be a reason for a national scheme to not go ahead, but the blueprint for a state-based scheme, with the financial modelling and legislative framework that goes with it, is all there. That will be a very exciting development. Depending on the detail of the legislation in that area of container deposits that the minister eventually provides to us, the minister can look to our support, but obviously we will need to see the detail. I want to turn to a broader issue. [Member’s time extended.] Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE: One thing I think that Western Australians really do look to these days is a preservation of environmental safeguards. People do not want to see any weakening of the environmental standards that we currently have. I am aware that the government will come under pressure from certain groups to streamline assessment processes. Yes, in part and at times there is scope for that streamlining to be a reality and for those changes to be made, but be careful, minister, that that does not lead to a weakening of those environmental safeguards. I am particularly concerned by some comments that the Premier made to ABC Rural reporter Belinda Varischetti on 8 April. He was talking about the very topical issue of what we can do to help support farmers in the eastern wheatbelt. If I have time, I would like to talk more about the issues and challenges that they face and how we can assist them. That is a complex issue. But it was worrying—this did not get into the headlines, but I saw it in the transcript—that the Premier, according to my notes, made the comment — Clearing: that can be quite controversial but again I think we need to trust farmers to manage their properties and manage them well. Different interpretations could be put on that, but to me it suggests that the Premier’s thinking is that we could actually give farmers some exemption from the need to apply for a clearing permit. I think that would be very damaging. It would be an erosion of those environmental safeguards that I was speaking of, and that would be most unfortunate. I do need to stress here that the vast, vast majority of landholders and farmers in this state thoroughly understand the importance of protecting native vegetation and manage their land in an intelligent way, making sure that we preserve environmental values, so that we do not have situations in which someone clears land high up in a catchment that then leads to the erosion of soil on, or the salinisation of, a property lower down in a catchment. Unfortunately, that is our history. I would love to know what the latest figures on this are. It was only 10 years ago, when Hon Hendy Cowan had brought into effect the State Salinity Council, when we had projections of one-third of the wheatbelt going to salinity. That frightening figure was the work of the State Salinity Council that then became the Natural Resource Management Council. I would like an update on those projections. I would love to think that the rate of salinisation has been halted, partly through those farmers being involved in good land management. I think the reality as well, though, is that the rate of salinisation has reduced because of a decline in rainfall. The amount of rainwater coming into catchments has dramatically reduced, causing its own set of problems, which has meant that the water that rises lower down in the catchments is not the same volume that we had before, so there have been changes there. But I return to this point: we need to make sure that we preserve those environmental safeguards. The Premier is a landholder. I am not sure whereabouts in the Toodyay catchment area his property is, but I would love to think that he is able to make observations from that property to see the importance of looking at land management on a catchment scale. If people at the top of a catchment are just looking for their own personal self-interest to clear land and they are not considering the impacts further down, we are missing the

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 177 point. That is why we need these safeguards and this thorough system. We need these checks in the system so that if there are no environmental or land degradation consequences and someone is not going to send their neighbour’s paddock saline, we may be able to clear things. If people think that their present financial woes—for example, cases out in the eastern wheatbelt—will go away if they clear an extra 50 or 100 hectares and that will turn around the financial viability of their property, they should be seeing a farm business manager or adviser. On that point, we have been talking a lot about these eastern wheatbelt farmers. I know that for many years the Department of Agriculture and Food has charged the Rural Adjustment and Finance Corporation unit with the task of enabling people to transition out. It was an adjustment process. I hope that there is sufficient funding in the forthcoming budget to ensure that that process can carry on. I turn to another slightly different issue. The night before last I was able to attend the Western Australian Naturalists’ Club’s annual Serventy memorial lecture, which was given this year by Professor Steve Hopper, foundation professor of the School of Plant Biology at the University of Western Australia, who was formerly the head of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London. I really urge the minister to get briefings from people such as Steve Hopper and the many experts the minister has in his agencies. Mr A.P. Jacob: I read one of his essays last week—very good. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE: There is some wonderful research that he has undertaken. One of the points of the memorial lecture that he gave the other night was that we know the importance of habitat preservation. Indeed, when the WA Naturalists’ Club was founded in 1924 one of the things that Dom Serventy said was that we have to protect habitat areas. We must not let it get bowled down without properly understanding what is going on there. It is one thing to protect habitat and another to fully understand the processes that are going on in those habitat areas. The topic of Professor Hopper’s speech was pollination processes in habitats and how fascinating it is to see that in the south west of this state a remarkably high percentage of our flora is bird-pollinated, whereas in other parts of the world we do not have that at all. This has all sorts of implications for the size of habitats that we need to preserve and their proximity to other areas. It has implications for our horticulture industry. If we do not fully understand the pollination processes, we could be missing out on opportunities in horticulture and likewise the conservation and regeneration of areas. That was a fascinating presentation and an indication of the quality of research that we have and how that research and that science is done in conjunction with the broader community in Western Australia. I turn to the new administrative boundaries and arrangements for the Department of Environment and Conservation and the intention by the Barnett government to split the DEC into the department of parks and wildlife. From the outset I am concerned with that title, recognising that parks in this state occupy about only eight to nine per cent of the total surface area of the state. The selection of those park areas has often been haphazard. It has not been a particularly scientific selection process. It has been a case of, “There is some land there that is not suitable for agricultural or pastoral purposes, so we will put that into the conservation estate.” A fair bit of that has gone on. Nevertheless, it is precious land and, as the minister has indicated, there is scope there for some exciting tourism opportunities. But at least 90 per cent of the surface area of the state is not included in the reserve system. How we manage biodiversity values on that whole other area of the state is the key thing. The minister might respond by saying that the wildlife unit is going to deal with those other off- reserve conservation issues, but I am just worried about an imbalance there. A lot is going to depend on whom the minister appoints as the director general of that new agency, but the weighting could be so strongly towards the parks management side that I wonder where things like the old Department of Conservation and Land Management science area, where this fantastic work has been going on that is so valuable to our growing body of knowledge and that helps us to understand the conservation estate, will fit in. I know there is talk about making sure that it is there, and that is why the term is “parks and wildlife”, but it does sound a bit like the old Wildlife Conservation Act from the 1950s. I do worry about the tone of things from the outset. I worry about things like the land for wildlife unit within DEC and where that is going to sit. There are a number of things that I am concerned about. I just wanted to very quickly touch on a proposal that has already been referred to the Environmental Protection Authority. This, though, might require the minister’s intervention. I know that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, will have an interest in this as well. It is a proposal to extend the dog fence to ensure that wild dogs are kept out of the southern pastoral areas. I think we need to check the value for money we will get out of this extension. We need to check what the ecological impacts of this fence might be. In Western Australia we have mass migrations of emus from time to time. When they hit those fences and congregate and cannot get past, there can be mass suffocations of emus. What is their role in the spread of seed stock into new areas? I can think of one species, Persoonia longifolia, that depends on that transit via an emu’s gut into new areas. If we do not have that, we do not have that species being transported. That is just one example. The issue here is what to do with this proposal for a huge fence extension. It is huge. Depending on the option that is chosen, it is an extension of 500 to 730 kilometres. A report by GHD does give us a lot of background information, but clearly we need some sort of environmental assessment. I know it has been referred to the EPA. I think, though, that it would be highly

178 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] appropriate for the minister to use his powers under section 16 of the Environmental Protection Act to ensure that there is a formal assessment of the environmental impacts of that proposal. At the same time, we could check that there really is the need for this. I have heard that there is a serious problem in the Yilgarn area with wild dogs, but I have been hearing that doggers in other areas are having trouble finding dogs. As I conclude, I know that we will be discussing things like rangeland reform. That is certainly an exciting area to make sure that our rangelands are managed correctly and there are opportunities from an economic, social and environmental perspective. That will be absolutely at the core of the work that I will be pursuing over the course of the next four years. I look forward to helping Western Australia be a truly prosperous state; a state that enhances and protects its environmental values and ensures that people’s personal wellbeing and finances are as strong as ever. MR I.C. BLAYNEY (Geraldton) [12.48 pm]: Madam Deputy Speaker, I would first like to congratulate you on attaining your position, and I would like to congratulate the Speaker on his election to his position. I would also like to congratulate my fellow Acting Speakers on their appointment. I would like to congratulate all members on their election to represent their people, and in particular those who have come to this place for the first time. I also congratulate all ministers, and in particular new ministers, on their appointment. I would like to thank the electors of Geraldton for the confidence they have shown by re-electing me as their representative. In particular, I would like to thank Len Carroll for his help and support during my campaign and the many other people who helped. I am proud to be part of a re-elected government that has done a good job and has a practical vision for Western Australia. I think we have an unbelievably bright future. Geraldton has developed steadily during the time of the Barnett government. Investments by our government in Geraldton and the midwest to serve Geraldton have totalled $1.05 billion. This includes the $339 million put aside for the Oakajee port project, which I am totally confident we will build. As the Premier has said, the recent opening of the Karara magnetite project, WA’s first producing magnetite project, is the first piece in place for the Oakajee puzzle. Karara’s first stage will produce eight million tonnes per annum, and the project is expected to grow by eight million–tonne increments to 32 million tonnes per annum. The case for stage 2 to take it to 16 million tonnes per annum is being worked on now. Beyond stage 2 the project will need Oakajee port. The railway line from Karara to Geraldton port has recently been rebuilt to carry the extra tonnages; an investment approaching $500 million. Karara has told me that it intends to build up and source locally that proportion of its workforce. I acknowledge and appreciate this. It is also making investments via its community farm and contributions to the Royal Flying Doctor Service and to Parkerville family support network. I also look forward, hopefully, to Karara being joined by Asia Iron and its Extension Hill mine. Another company that is working towards a start is Top Iron, and I also wish it well. Other developments in mining in the midwest include Western Australia’s first uranium mine by Toro Energy near Wiluna, which has been given the go-ahead; Mutiny Gold’s various deposits that are moving towards development; and Ferrowest’s Yalgoo deposits and associated pig iron plant. There are many more projects. The midwest is quite prospective and relatively unexplored. All of these projects have a large economic impact on Geraldton, and the city, the Mid West Chamber of Commerce and Industry and I are keen to get as much as possible economic spin-off from them. I want to pay credit to Hon Norman Moore, who will retire at the end of this term. He has had a long involvement with the north and the midwest. In the last term he was Minister for Fisheries and saw through a lot of changes for which I think he will be well judged. Likewise, he was a popular Minister for Mines and Petroleum and was very well regarded by the industry. I want to thank him for coming to Geraldton and launching my campaign earlier this year. An issue that has also raised its head recently is fracking. I understand how this process is intended for Western Australia in contrast with the process in other states and nations. Here, for example, the wells will be much deeper. However, it is clear that there is widescale community concern about the practice, and I think it is clear that the industry and the government will have to work to address these concerns. During the last Parliament I made two grievances on behalf of the pastoral industry of Western Australia. The main concerns were the huge increases in pastoral rents and the impact of wild dogs. I state again that neither of these issues has gone away. If anything, the pastoral industry’s position is even worse now than it was when I made the grievances. I again urge the government to address these issues. Staying with rural matters, as a fairly recently retired farmer I naturally follow farming issues. Like most members, I have been concerned about the problems of the eastern wheatbelt in particular. Both state and federal governments have spent large amounts of money in the past pursuing rural adjustment. I refer members with an interest in this area to a publication by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation evaluating the schemes. Looking back at the schemes of the 1980s and 1990s, it is now clear that they addressed the problem with concessional credit, short-term carry-on finance, household support and re-establishment, and funds were also available for exceptional circumstances, mostly drought. However, at the time these schemes

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 179 were criticised in Western Australia for being too hard for us to access. Governments went away from these programs and the focus turned towards improving management to make farms and farmers more resilient, but it is interesting to note that the Queensland government stayed in this space with the Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority. The issue here is how various lenders evaluate farmers. They use a number of formulas to decide on a farmer’s borrowing capacity and to analyse them. Hence they prefer equity to be above 80 per cent if possible; total machinery value not to exceed gross income; drawings not to be above 10 per cent of gross income; repayments of loans not to exceed 15 per cent of gross income; direct cash costs not to exceed 60 per cent of gross income; and generally a preference for some livestock income. A couple of points are worth making. Personally, I can say that a couple of droughts can have a huge impact on all business planning. Drought in 2006 reduced my farm income by over 90 per cent and in 2007 another drought reduced it by over 80 per cent. This trashed all of my planning and put me back at least 10 years. It took nearly all of my off-farm funds to restore the position. I decided to exit the industry, mostly because of fear of future droughts. Drought impacts on land values, which fall, pushing down everybody’s equity level. What is most feared is a snowball effect from ever-decreasing land values pushing more people into a riskier profile. This has to be avoided at all costs. Another issue that has had some impact is a change in the sources of rural finance. Traditionally, farmers who did not fit into the banks’ formulas anymore could be passed to stock firms, mostly Elders or Landmark—formerly Wesfarmers. They had different policies and, while charging higher rates, had slightly easier criteria. They were probably closer to the farmer and kept a closer eye on them. I understand they are no longer as active in the market. They were probably also better at encouraging farmers to leave the industry since they offered the services of selling properties and conducting clearance sales. We face a very real problem here. It is literally five minutes to midnight. Farmers in my area traditionally mark Anzac Day as the latest day by which they should be ready to go—with everything ready for seeding, all supplies in place, staff organised, fuel, fertiliser, seed and chemicals on hand, and machinery serviced. I commend the WA Farmers Federation for the seasonal finance assistance scheme paper and proposal that it has put together. The proposal revolves around an assumption of about 500 growers needing $200 000 each, totalling $100 million. The main problem, as I see it, is that it is, as I said, five minutes to midnight. I cannot see how the scheme could be put in place in time. It could probably be in place by next seeding. I really think that this year we will just have to work with each farmer’s individual lenders to see whether most can be got over the line. In the back of our minds, we must ask whether this is another roll of the dice and whether there will be another drought, as much as I hate to say it. Longer term I would like to look at the Queensland model and see whether we think it is still relevant for Western Australia. Longer term there are large areas of Western Australia that can and should be farmed. Wheat is in the pipeline from the CSIRO that copes much better with moisture stress, as is genetically modified wheat with a gene from an Antarctic plant that could be resistant to frost. This project is apparently looking quite promising, as is the use of all available new technology to make farms more efficient and resilient in a challenging climate environment. I spent three and a half years evaluating research projects for the Grain Research and Development Corporation and came away confident that agriculture has a good future in this country, but one that will always be challenging. I encourage all members to get hold of the Robson report into metropolitan local government and to read it. In the time I have been in this place I would say it is the best written report I have read and I would like to congratulate the authors for that. People who know of my background of having a difficult relationship with the merged City of Greater Geraldton might find this a bit of a surprise. I think the case for mergers in the city may be far clearer than in the country. Frequently, by merging a number of large sparsely populated rural councils we just end up with larger less economic and less efficient councils. However, there is a lot in the report that I liked. I question the mission creep of local government and I think roles should be clearer. The roles of CEOs and mayors need to be clearer and I endorse the recommendation that the Public Service Commissioner have a role in appointing council CEOs. Debate interrupted, pursuant to standing orders. [Continued on page 190.] Sitting suspended from 1.00 to 2.00 pm QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE ELECTRICITY PRICES 40. Mr M. McGOWAN to the Minister for Energy: I refer to the minister’s promise two weeks ago to keep electricity prices at or about the level of inflation. (1) Does the minister stand by that promise? (2) Considering Treasury estimates that inflation will rise at the rate of 2.75 per cent from 2013–14 over the forward estimates, can consumers expect electricity prices to rise at the same rate? Dr M.D. NAHAN replied: (1)–(2). Yes.

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The SPEAKER: The member for West Swan. Ms R. Saffioti: Okay; I’ll take it. The SPEAKER: Swan Hills, sorry! HEALTH — SERVICES PRIVATISATION 41. Mr F.A. ALBAN to the Minister for Health: On behalf of the member for Southern River, I acknowledge and welcome student council members from Excelsior Primary School, who are in the chamber today. I refer to comments made in this house yesterday in relation to the unpopularity of contracting out health services at the Midland and other public hospitals. Can the minister advise the house whether this view is shared by the community at large? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: I was very interested to hear the comments by the member for Bassendean yesterday along the lines that the majority of people in Bassendean are opposed to contracting out services—privatisation, if we like. Indeed, the union circulated a brochure during the election campaign. There is a good looking bloke there! Mr T.R. Buswell: Where? It’s an old photo. Dr K.D. HAMES: It shows a beautiful hospital and indicates that 81 per cent of Western Australians oppose privatisation. We would think that would have been somehow reflected in the election results, would we not? We would think it would mean something. This Labor Party policy has been adopted only under the current leader. Remember, when in government the previous Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, the person then sitting in this seat, strongly supported the concept of contracting to the private sector. In fact, when he developed the proposal for Fiona Stanley Hospital, clearly in his document about developing public–private partnerships was the concept of contracting out to the private sector. Indeed, the previous Minister for Health contracted out lots of things to the private sector, including contracting out renal dialysis, which used to be done at Swan District Hospital. Suddenly, the new leader has decided to have this anti-privatisation policy as the key plank of the Labor Party’s last election campaign. Indeed, we wondered how much the Labor Party spent on that campaign when we saw ads on TV and heard radio ads. I wonder how much the member for Bassendean’s union spent on that election campaign opposing privatisation of hospitals and getting hospitals to be run by the public sector. I refer to the last federal election when the previous federal member for Hasluck, Hon Sharryn Jackson, advertised at length the contracting out of services in Midland. Remember, she ran all those ads on TV. I was worried; I thought maybe the government’s decision had had a bad effect on results in Midland, so I went through the polling booth results for the new Liberal Party federal member for Midland, Mr Ken Wyatt. The second biggest swing against the Labor Party occurred at the Midland polling booth—4.2 per cent to the Liberal Party in the heart of Midland where Sharryn Jackson had been advertising the negative aspects of privatisation. What happened in this state election? One would think, “This is the Labor Party’s big plank; we are out there fighting against privatising hospitals; this is the key plank of our election.” Not only did we see their worst election result in 90 years of government, but these are the results at the booths around the three hospital seats that contract services. First, Joondalup, three seats; Ocean Reef—well done, minister—16.3 per cent swing to the Liberal Party — Mr P. Papalia: Sit down; you’ll be asked to sit down. Dr K.D. HAMES: I will read through them quickly. In Joondalup, the swing to the Liberal Party was 7.8 per cent and in Butler it was 8.6 per cent. I am winding up very quickly. The swing to the Liberal Party in the electorate of Riverton, where Fiona Stanley Hospital is located, was 7.2 per cent; in Jandakot, 6.2 per cent; and in Alfred Cove, 23.8 per cent. What happened in Midland? That is where we have contracted out services at the Midland hospital. There was an 8.3 per cent swing to the Liberal Party in Midland. This opposition is carrying on with nonsense. It has to realise that it lost the election. Opposing the contracting out of services was the Labor Party’s key election plank and it had its worst result in 90 years. It is time for the Labor Party to dump its failed policies and make sure that it does not carry on with policies that are a waste of time and space. SYNERGY AND VERVE — RE-MERGER 42. Mr W.J. JOHNSTON to the Minister for Energy: I refer to the minister’s many publications over the years as a supporter of small government, privatisation and cost reflectivity and his scepticism about the merger of Verve and Synergy. (1) On what date did the minister first see the cabinet submission on the merger of Verve and Synergy? (2) What input, if any, did the minister have in the cabinet submission that proposed the merger?

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(3) Why did the minister decide to support the merger rather than firstly consult with industry and consumer groups? Dr M.D. NAHAN replied: (1)–(3) I thank the member for the question. As he knows, I do not, and nor should I, discuss cabinet submissions. That is true. Mr W.J. Johnston: That was not the question. I asked you when you saw it. Dr M.D. NAHAN: The member can talk about it all he wants — Mr W.J. Johnston: I never asked you about cabinet discussions. Dr M.D. NAHAN: Yes, you did. Mr W.J. Johnston: No, I didn’t. I asked you when you saw the submissions. Dr M.D. NAHAN: Yesterday I was asked questions along this line and I said that I would justify my reasons for supporting the merger of Synergy and Verve. Yes, I am a long-time supporter of the privatisation of electricity. I have seen it work and how it works. It works in the eastern states quite well. In 2004 to 2006 we implemented a different model here, and that model is unique. Yes, it has allowed a large amount of investment by the private sector — Mr W.J. Johnston: Are you going to answer the question or not? Dr M.D. NAHAN: Please, let me answer the question. It has allowed about $3 billion worth of investment from the private sector, which is good. Point of Order Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: I would like to assist the minister because I did not ask about any of the issues that he is discussing. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Members! We are dealing with a point of order. Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mrs L.M. Harvey: What standing order? Mr W.J. JOHNSTON: The standing orders require the minister’s answer to be relevant to the question asked. I asked: on what date did he see the submission; what, if any, input to the cabinet decision did he have; and why did he decide to support it without consulting industry? He has not dealt with any of those three questions. If he could please address the questions I have asked, it would be appreciated. Questions without Notice Resumed Dr M.D. NAHAN: As I said right at the start, the member asked for details of a cabinet submission and I am not going to discuss that. Mr D.A. Templeman: Come on, come clean! You know you’re hiding something. Come clean! The SPEAKER: I call the member for Mandurah to order for the first time. Will members please let the minister try to answer the question? Thank you. Dr M.D. NAHAN: The member needs to learn that if he asks dud questions, I am not going to give him a dud answer. He should put some more preparation — Mr W.J. Johnston: I just want an answer to the question. It is your obligation, as minister, to answer the question. The SPEAKER: I call the member for Cannington to order for the first time. Mr P. Papalia interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Warnbro, I call you to order for the first time. Will members please allow the Minister for Energy to answer the question? Dr M.D. NAHAN: I am not going to discuss details of cabinet submissions. Mr W.J. Johnston: I didn’t ask you that. Dr M.D. NAHAN: Yes, you did. Mr D.A. Templeman: Did you see it? Cough up. Dr M.D. NAHAN: Of course I saw it. Did I sit in cabinet? Yes.

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Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Members! Dr M.D. NAHAN: Do I look at cabinet submissions? Yes. Do I prepare cabinet submissions? Yes. Do I have discussions in cabinet? Yes. Is that the answer that the member wants? I am puzzled. Mr W.J. Johnston: Just tell us the truth. Dr M.D. NAHAN: Members opposite just got it, but they cannot live with the truth! SYNERGY AND VERVE — RE-MERGER 43. Mr W.J. JOHNSTON to the Minister for Energy: My supplementary question is very simple: what was it in the two weeks between 26 March and 10 April that made the Minister for Energy decide to change his position on the merger of Verve and Synergy? Dr M.D. NAHAN replied: It is a very good question and I will answer it. As I said before I was so rudely disrupted, I support privatisation. I support market-based systems. I support private investment in the electricity industry. I support the many private firms that have invested in electricity, and I welcome others to do so in the future. But our system here has a major flaw—a flaw that the member for Cannington has not recognised. I have gone through some of his speeches and statements in the press on this. One of the key issues is that, unlike on the eastern seaboard—I argued this in detail yesterday but I reiterate it now—the private sector has invested heavily in the electricity industry here to the tune of $3 billion over the past six years. They are very large investments. It has displaced Verve, the state-owned generator, to a large extent. Verve’s share of the market has gone down substantially from nearly 90 per cent towards 50 per cent. I highlight an oddity in the Labor Party’s position on this. The Minister for Health just asked the Labor Party to get real and to support contracting out in the hospital system; now the member for Cannington is lambasting me for not urging more privatisation in the electricity industry. Several members interjected. Dr M.D. NAHAN: That is Labor. It will take a stand. It has no principles. But I digress. Mr D.A. Templeman: It’s like when Colin gave you the motion and told you that this is what is happening. That’s what really happened in the cabinet room. Tell the truth! Dr M.D. NAHAN: Can I have some help from the noise in the corner? The SPEAKER: Member for Mandurah, I call you for the second time! Mr J.R. Quigley: You were told to abandon your principles and toe the line! The SPEAKER: Member for Butler, I call you for the first time! Dr M.D. NAHAN: As the Minister for Energy, I get to know the industry much better. I quickly realised that there are some serious flaws in the industry. The member for Cannington has said that he likes private investment in this sector because it takes the market risk. The problem with this industry is that the private sector builds the power plants and it takes the construction risk, but the market risks in price and quantity are all borne by Synergy. Synergy’s market share is 80 per cent. Members should read the Economic Regulation Authority reports. Everyone warns that Synergy’s risk profile is very high; and, if something happens to shock this industry, it will be borne overwhelmingly by Synergy. Synergy is owned by whom? It is owned by us—that is, taxpayers. What does Synergy’s balance sheet look like? It has a profit of $14 million and sales of $2 billion, but no assets. Ms R. Saffioti: Unless you sell it. Dr M.D. NAHAN: Is the member for West Swan proposing to sell Synergy? The SPEAKER: Minister for Energy, wind this up, please. Dr M.D. NAHAN: I looked at this and the major task I have is to safeguard taxpayers from the failure of the Labor Party’s deregulation. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Members! Dr M.D. NAHAN: I have a responsibility to safeguard taxpayers from the Labor Party’s deregulation. What will we do in the future? Several members interjected.

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The SPEAKER: Members! Dr M.D. NAHAN: Will we repair Labor’s damage? Yes, as we have done in many areas and as we did in this area last term. TRANSPORT — ELECTION PLATFORMS 44. MR N.W. MORTON to the Minister for Transport: I know firsthand that transport was a major topic of interest during the recent state election campaign that saw the lowest ever primary vote for the Labor Party in 90 years. During the campaign, the minister and the Premier referred to the Liberal Party as having a balanced transport plan. With this in mind, can the minister please explain to the house the key differences in our plan compared with those put forward by the opposition? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: I thank the member for Forrestfield for the question and welcome him to the house. He is a vast improvement on his predecessor. I also acknowledge, on behalf of the member for Murray–Wellington, students and teachers in the gallery today from Hope Christian College in Roelands. As the member for Forrestfield is aware, we talked about transport a lot during the election campaign. We recognise that people use motor vehicles in WA and people need public transport. We delivered a balanced public transport and road investment program. Some features include a $315 million extension of the Mitchell Freeway, a commitment to develop the Perth–Darwin highway, which will move some 3 000 to 4 000 heavy vehicles out of the Swan Valley, a rail link to the airport, the transformational Metro Area Express light rail project, $30 million into cycling infrastructure in Western Australia and $36 million to ensure that the 928 schools that do not have flashing safety lights out the front will have them over the next four years. It was well planned and properly costed, and it was a balanced outcome. The opposition had a plan that solely focused on an investment in rail. There were three fundamental flaws in that rail plan. Firstly, the planning was incredibly poor. The instruments it had available were the back of an envelope, a $15 Sharp calculator and Professor Peter Newman. Its transport plan was not only flawed in design but it was also flawed in objective. It was a transport plan designed to link all the Labor marginal seats in the Perth metropolitan area. Let us look at who got on the train. It left from Balcatta. Where is the Labor member for Balcatta? It went down to Morley. Where is Reece? It went across the river and through Belmont out through the airport to Forrestfield. It is good to see the member for Forrestfield here. There was even a bit thrown in trying to unseat the member for Southern River. He did not get on that train; he was elected as a member of this government. The Labor Party’s first failure was planning. Its second failure was that it designed a railway line to the airport that did not go to the airport terminal. That was only a minor flaw. If we got off a 12­hour flight back to Perth, we would have had to wait for a bus, catch a bus, go a kilometre and a half down the road and wait for a train because the train came every 15 minutes during peak time. It was an absolute world-beater. Finally, the Labor Party promised, on this calculator with the shadow Minister for Transport’s stubby digits poking away at the numbers, that it would cost $3.8 billion. Labor Party members said they would die in a ditch on the $3.8 billion. For some reason the Labor Party submitted the costings to Treasury. I am glad it did. It looked at those costings. What did it come back with? They were costed at $5.2 billion. That was only $1.4 billion, or 40 per cent, out! Two plans were presented to the voting public of Western Australia at the last election. Ours was well planned, balanced and well designed. The Labor plan, which was overwhelmingly rejected by the voters of this state, was not planned and not costed and, thank heavens, not happening. SYNERGY AND VERVE — RE-MERGER 45. Mr M. McGOWAN to the Minister for Energy: I refer to the minister’s comments in The West Australian on 11 April 2013 in which he was reported as saying — “Do I think the State will slowly exit generation? Yes,” … (1) How does allowing Verve Energy to increase its generation capacity beyond 3 000 megawatts assist in the minister’s plan for the state exiting generation? (2) How does spending $250 million on refurbishing the 40-year-old Muja plant assist in the minister’s plan for the state to exit generation? (3) How is spending $300 million on the Kwinana HEGT—high efficiency gas turbine—plans consistent with the minister’s plan for the state to exit generation? (4) Is the minister’s plan not just shorthand for privatising the new merged Synergy? Dr M.D. NAHAN replied: (1)–(4) I will start with the last one first: no. I made the statement and I stand by it; that is, over the next three or four years we do not need any more generating capacity in this state at all. We have 700 megawatts

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of excess supply now—again, a sign of a flawed system. We do not need any more, and I might add that that is on the assumption that electricity consumption or demand continues to grow. The data that I have received, in the case of both the eastern seaboard and here, is that electricity consumption and demand, let us say, are declining. So, we will not need any electricity at all for three to four years. We will not need any additional base load till about 2021. After that there will be a need for, they say, about $10 billion to replace the existing capacity we have. As I indicated, and as the Premier indicated yesterday, we expect that after 2021, that additional capacity will be undertaken by the private sector in the main. That is what I said, that is what we stand by, and that is probably what is going to happen no matter who is in power. Now, as to what has happened in the past and decisions to refurbish Muja A and B, that took place and that will be an issue we will debate in this house in the near future no doubt. That decision was taken in 2010. That exists. They are in the process of refurbishing. They have been operated, and started operating, actually, before I became the minister. So, that is it. I wonder whether the member for Collie–Preston is so far against that; okay. As to the other expansions that had taken place in the past, they are what they are. They are what I have to deal with. They are in a situation that exists now. What I said deals in the future, and I think in the future, and I am confident that the major expansion, when needed, of generating capacity will be funded by the private sector and, I trust, in a marketplace in which the private sector takes the risk, unlike now. SYNERGY AND VERVE — RE-MERGER 46. Mr M. McGOWAN to the Minister for Energy: I have a supplementary question. When was the minister first made aware of the plan to merge Synergy and Verve? Mr T.R. Buswell: That’s not a supplementary. Mr M. McGOWAN: I asked about the merger in my question. Dr M.D. NAHAN replied: The issue of merging Synergy and Verve has been around since 2004, 2006. It has been debated — An opposition member interjected. Dr M.D. NAHAN: Just let me answer this. Your leader has asked me a question that is not even a supplementary. I am answering it; okay? Good. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Members! Dr M.D. NAHAN: In 2009, the then Minister for Energy commissioned a report by Peter Oates into the issue. It was specifically about merging Synergy and Verve, and allied issues. That report recommended doing a range of things, which we implemented in full, which was essential to save Verve from bankruptcy. We put that in place. It is strange to me that the people on the other side sit back very comfortably and are satisfied with a system that destroyed a billion dollars worth of state assets. But that is them; that is them. This issue has been on the boil for a long time. When I came in as the Minister for Energy, it was one of the first things we discussed, the merger of Synergy and Verve, and the reasons for it and the issues. So, when did I first start hearing about it? Years ago. When were we first discussing it? Shortly after I became Minister for Energy. AGRICULTURE — STRATEGIC INVESTMENT 47. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Minister for Regional Development: An article in The Australian today raised the issue of Australia becoming a food superpower to Asia. In the minister’s new role as minister for strategic agricultural investment, can he inform the house of the opportunities being realised through the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project and the future opportunities for all Western Australian farmers? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West Central for the question and his passionate advocacy for the Gascoyne food bowl, and now for a very new and exciting agricultural project, the Hamersley agricultural project, just out of Tom Price where the desert has been “greened” with a hay project by Rio Tinto. It is a very exciting development in agricultural expansion in the state. Given the strong focus on agriculture at the moment, we are all very concerned about the plight of farmers in the wheatbelt region. Normally, anecdotally, it is great if there is good, solid rain before Anzac Day for the seeding plan to get underway. That is normally a good, early start to the season. We have not had that good break yet. With the pressure on agriculture at the moment, those early rains will be valuable.

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It is important to put in perspective the opportunities for agriculture into the future. Not to diminish the great challenge of financing this year’s crop, the potential for agriculture is enormous. It is not just the Western Australian government saying and planning for that—the front page of today’s The Australian is headed “Asia food bonanza ‘our next boom’”. The story follows a speech by Anthony Pratt at the Global Food Forum in Melbourne. He outlined the opportunity for Australia to become a food superpower to capitalise on the export opportunities into Asia. He coined the phrase that there is potential for a “dining boom” to follow up the mining boom, to give further economic diversification to the Australian economy. The article states, in part — A US government-funded study released this week found that food production would have to rise by 60 per cent by 2050 just to keep pace with expected global population increases and changing demands. The middle class in Asia is forecast to grow from 500 million to three billion consumers over the coming decades, and Australia will have almost 20 times more arable land per capita than China, India and Indonesia. Western Australia is an export nation. We export 80 per cent of what we produce. The most important thing about this story on the front page of The Australian today is that the Western Australia Liberal–National government started on this policy path three years ago. We started on this policy path with the Ord expansion project, which has now been substantially completed — Mr P. Papalia interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS: The member better read the front page of The Australian which talks about the opportunities in agriculture. Maybe the reason the member for Warnbro sits over there, after suffering the worst electoral defeat in the history of the Labor Party, is because the Labor Party just keeps getting it wrong! The Western Australian Liberal–National government is ahead of the game on this. We are already looking at the development of the north in the Gascoyne food bowl project and the like. The state government is looking to continue its expansion of agriculture to take advantage of this opportunity in Asia. It is not just about the Ord, we are looking at Pilbara water opportunities, and the Hamersley agriculture project is a part of that. We are looking at Gascoyne food planning and infrastructure, and also, after recently visiting China, there is enormous interest from Chinese investment looking at agricultural opportunities in Western Australia. The Premier spoke yesterday about the need to deliver equity into the market, and this is a great opportunity. The Liberal–National government in Western Australia will continue to stay ahead of the game, forging policy change that the world follows rather than changing its mind again and again and never actually getting it right. BUNBURY REGIONAL PRISON — BREAKOUT 48. Mr P. PAPALIA to the Minister for Corrective Services: I refer to last night’s breakout of two inmates from Bunbury Regional Prison. (1) Is it true that these prisoners, described as dangerous by police, smashed their way through the pre- release centre administration area using bricks and sacks, and escaped? (2) How was it that such clearly violent prisoners were housed in one of the lowest security facilities in the state? (3) Was their security classification recently downgraded so that they could be shifted to the pre-release centre to alleviate overcrowding in the highest security part of the prison? Mr J.M. FRANCIS replied: (1)–(3) First question, no, that is not how they did it; second question, I will get to; third question, no, they were not downgraded to relieve any stress within the prison population. Yes, late last night two prisoners escaped from the Bunbury pre-release unit. Everyone, including murderers, eventually—before they get released—gets downgraded and reassessed on a number of different conditions such as behaviour in custody, such as psychological condition and such as whether or not they are ready to be released. They are downgraded and eventually put into a pre-release unit so that they can be prepared for release into the community. Along with that comes a lower level of security as they prepare for that. What on earth went through the minds of a couple of young prisoners last night when they were on the cusp of being released back into society and decided to break out, I have absolutely no idea—obviously, not necessarily the brightest sparks! But, look, they did. What I am not going to disclose publicly is the exact method they used to get out. The reason is simply because for the protection of the rest of the people in Western Australia I believe in a certain level of operational security, as the member for Warnbro would understand. Mr P. Papalia: Clearly! Mr J.M. FRANCIS: If the member for Warnbro wants to have a private conversation with me after question time, I will go through it. But I am not going to reveal the exact method to the people of Western Australia. Mr P. Papalia: I think the other guys know!

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BUNBURY REGIONAL PRISON — BREAKOUT 49. Mr P. PAPALIA to the Minister for Corrective Services: I have a supplementary question. Minister, when exactly did these prisoners have their security classification downgraded, and how long ago did they enter the pre-release centre from the main part of the prison? Mr J.M. FRANCIS replied: Member for Warnbro, I am not sure on those details. I will find out and I will let the member know. HERITAGE COUNCIL — 2013 AWARDS 50. Mr S.K. L’ESTRANGE to the Minister for Heritage: As someone with a keen interest in the heritage of Western Australia I was pleased to learn that the minister presented the Heritage Council of Western Australia’s 2013 awards on Tuesday night. With this in mind, could the minister please update the house on the significant achievements being made throughout Western Australia in the protection of the state’s precious built heritage? Mr A.P. JACOB replied: The Liberal–National government is passionate about supporting and promoting investment in the active use and active re-use of our heritage places here in Western Australia, and we support well thought out and sympathetic conservation work. Protecting heritage these days is no longer about just locking up buildings and turning them into museums. Conservation and re-use, and adaptive re-use, of heritage places is very important for the state’s prosperity, and it contributes to the quality of life of people in our metropolitan and regional communities. It recognises and appreciates our past, while also — Point of Order Mr D.A. TEMPLEMAN: Mr Speaker, the minister is clearly reading from a document. I ask that he table that document. Mr A.P. JACOB: Mr Speaker, I have made one very brief page of mainly handwritten notes if the member wants to have a look at it later, but it’s not a tabling document. Several members interjected. Mr A.P. JACOB: I will table it if the member — Several members interjected. Mr A.P. JACOB: No, I think if the member wants to see it later — The SPEAKER: Is that an official document? Mr A.P. JACOB: No, it is not an official document, Mr Speaker. The SPEAKER: Right, well it does not need to be tabled. Please proceed. Mr A.P. JACOB: No, it is not an official document, Mr Speaker. The SPEAKER: And please do not read your answer, minister; please do not read your answer. Mr A.P. JACOB: Yes, absolutely, Mr Speaker. Several members interjected. Questions without Notice Resumed Mr A.P. JACOB: The Heritage Council’s 2013 Western Australian Heritage Awards—members, it is a very brief one. I have just a couple of notes here and I just want to go through a couple of the awards. I think this is important for the recipients, and, Mr Speaker, I would seek your protection. The SPEAKER: Yes, you go through a few of the awards and let us get moving; thanks. Mr A.P. JACOB: No worries, Mr Speaker. I want to particularly mention the historic town of Toodyay, which actually picked up three of the awards. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Warnbro, I call you to order for the second time. Minister, will you continue and come to the point now, thank you. Mr A.P. JACOB: I will just mention a couple of the highlights because clearly members are not letting me go right through it. The full list is available on the website, and I encourage members to look at that in their own time afterwards.

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The historic town of Toodyay received three awards and deserves special mention. Other winners included a stunning renovation of the Kulahea home—a private residential house in Cottesloe. For any architectural heritage aficionados, it is a home designed by George Temple-Poole—a man whose legacy is across this state. I believe it may be one of the, if not the only, remaining private residences from George Temple-Poole. A very significant project that has done huge things for the appreciation of heritage in this state is the redevelopment of the former WA Newspapers site at Brookfield Place in the member for Perth’s electorate. If any members have not made it down there, particularly on an evening, can I please encourage them down there; it is a fantastic example of adaptive re-use. Mr J.M. Francis interjected. Mr A.P. JACOB: Thanks for that, minister! One of the big winners on the night was the conversion of the WA Institute of the Blind building, which now houses the WA Ballet headquarters. One final special mention I want to make is one that might surprise members, and it was the award for an outstanding contribution to heritage. That was won by Dome Coffees Australia, an organisation that is based here in WA. It might not be an automatic award winner that flicks off people’s minds, and I certainly appreciate some of the amazing heritage projects that that company is doing across this state. It is a really good example of how the private sector can partner in and around heritage. Indeed, CEO Nigel Oakey’s speech on the night was, I think, one of the most memorable speeches of the evening. I am happy to inform members further about many more of those awards. I encourage members to have a look at the website. CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT ACT 2009 — MANDATORY SENTENCING 51. Mrs M.H. ROBERTS to the Minister for Police: I refer to the issue of mandatory sentencing for those who assault police officers and the Criminal Code Amendment Act 2009. (1) Has the minister read the 2009 University of Western Australia Crime Research Centre report, commissioned and paid for by the Office of Crime Prevention, titled “Assault on Public Officer Trends in Western Australia”? (2) Will the minister table this report or ensure that her agency publicly releases the report; and, if not, why not? (3) Given that it is now over three and a half years since amendments were made to the Criminal Code, what plans does the minister have to review the operation and effectiveness of the amendments? Mrs L.M. HARVEY replied: I thank the member for the question. (1)–(3) With respect to the report that the member referred to, I understand that is the report that was made available to the previous minister in 2009. It is not a report that was commissioned by this government. Mrs M.H. Roberts: Have you read it? Mrs L.M. HARVEY: No, I have not read it. The WA Police Union contacted my office and asked whether it could be provided with a copy of the report. That report has been provided to the union. We have been in conversation with the police union. I have had a briefing on the report. I have given an undertaking to the union that if it believes it is in the interests of officers to have that report released, I will speak to the Commissioner of Police about that. With respect to the member’s question about mandatory sentencing for those offenders who assault police officers, I think it has been — Mrs M.H. Roberts interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Midland, let the minister answer. Mrs L.M. HARVEY: Thank you, Mr Speaker, I appreciate your protection. With respect to mandatory sentencing for those people who assault police officers, I did recently comment in the media — Ms M.M. Quirk interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Girrawheen, I call you to order for the first time. Mrs L.M. HARVEY: I recently commented in the media that a review of that act was being undertaken consistent with the provisions of that act. That review is being conducted by the Attorney General. It is

188 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] important, I think, that we reflect on the success of that legislation for the benefit of members, perhaps new members in this house. In the first year that that legislation was introduced, which involved a mandatory term of imprisonment for people who assault and physically harm police officers, assaults against police officers were down 28 per cent. By the end of the second year, assaults against police officers were down 37 per cent, and by the end of the third year, assaults against police officers were down 34 per cent. What this means is — Mrs M.H. Roberts: Why don’t the police union think it’s been successful? Why don’t they agree with you? Mrs L.M. HARVEY: I will come back to the member on that. What this means, members, is that several hundred police officers, as a result of that legislation, have not been the victims of assault as they go about their duty. I think that is a tremendous success story for this state. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Members! Mrs L.M. HARVEY: With respect to the police union — Mr P.T. Miles interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Wanneroo! Mrs L.M. HARVEY: With respect to the police union’s views regarding mandatory sentencing legislation, if I can draw the member’s attention to the commentary recently in a report that the police union put together and presented to me at my request, it unreservedly supports the amended legislation of September 2009 and it understands that the WAPOL guidelines have been formulated to ensure that the legislation was not overused. The police union supports the legislation, it supports the review, and I am very pleased that it has provided some examples of where it says the legislation potentially could be improved. We will be consulting on and discussing those issues with the police union when the review is being undertaken. Mrs M.H. Roberts: Did you read their report or not? Mrs L.M. HARVEY: Of course I’ve read the report! CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT ACT 2009 — MANDATORY SENTENCING 52. Mrs M.H. ROBERTS to the Minister for Police: I have a supplementary question. The minister said in her answer that she had not read the Crime Research Centre report. I note that the police union in its report states that the author has recommended that publishing and distributing the research, including a list of identified risk factors, could reduce officers’ chances of being involved in an assault. Given that was a recommendation of the report that the minister has not read and given that that is referred to in the police union report, will the minister table the report? The SPEAKER: Member for Midland, this is not a supplementary question. If you want to ask a supplementary question, can members ask a succinct supplementary question? Mrs M.H. ROBERTS: Thank you for your advice, Mr Speaker. Will the minister table the report of the Crime Research Centre of the University of Western Australia that was paid for by the Office of Crime Prevention? Mrs L.M. HARVEY replied: I think the member has answered the question. It is not my report to table. The report was not commissioned by me. It was not commissioned by the government. It is not my report to table. Mrs M.H. Roberts interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Midland! Mrs L.M. Harvey interjected. The SPEAKER: Minister! YOUTH — AWARDS 53. Mr P. ABETZ to the Minister for Youth: Given the focus in recent months on initiatives to safeguard youngsters at risk through out-of-control parties and youth offending, can the minister please inform the house of any programs that encourage the overwhelming majority of young persons who are doing the right thing? Mrs M.H. Roberts interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Midland!

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Mr A.J. SIMPSON replied: This is my first time on my feet in this chamber in the new Parliament, Mr Speaker, and I congratulate you on your position and — Mrs M.H. Roberts interjected. The SPEAKER: Member for Midland, I formally call you to order for the first time today. Mr A.J. SIMPSON: I thank the member for the question. I was glad that my first job as the Minister for Youth was to help launch National Youth Week two weeks ago in Northbridge. It was great to see young people in our community doing such wonderful things. On the Saturday of the launch, a number of stalls were set up, all run by young people less than 25 years of age. It was fantastic to see such a great launch. Last Saturday was the night of nights when the WA Youth Awards were held. Throughout the week, more than 70 events took place throughout the state, and 450 people were in attendance on Saturday night. There were 12 categories and 28 finalists in the WA Youth Awards. It was a great night. I must admit that I was blown away by the citation of the 28 finalists. They are fantastic youth and it makes me very, very proud to be the Minister for Youth and see that the state of our youth is in great hands in Western Australia. The 2013 WA Young Person of the Year award went to a young gentleman named Lewis Abdullah from Spearwood, who is an outstanding young man. He works at Banksia Hill Detention Centre as a youth advisory helper. He encourages young people from all walks of life with their life skills; he helps them get on with it. Lewis is a fantastic representative of Western Australia. He came through the Halo program and in part of his speech he said that he aims to one day be the CEO of Halo. He is a fantastic asset to our community. Finally, often we read about the wrong things young people do in our community, be it antisocial behaviour, excessive drinking and out-of-control street parties, but on Saturday night I was proud to be representing the youth of Western Australia who do such a fantastic job. It gives me great pleasure to know that our future is in great hands. FARMERS — NATIVE VEGETATION PROTECTION 54. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE to the Minister for Environment: I refer to comments made by the Premier on Monday, 23 February 2013 that — One of the most common complaints is the unnecessary regulation and interference in farmers as they go about farming their land — This was commenting on the protection of native vegetation. What environmental safeguards and protections currently in place does the government intend to remove or water down during this term of government? Mr A.P. JACOB replied: I congratulate the member opposite on his appointment to the shadow environment portfolio. I look forward to some very robust debates in the four years going forward. I am aware of the comments made on land clearing issues by not only the Premier but also the previous Minister for Environment. Those issues did not come to the surface so much during the election campaign period, but they are certainly issues that we will look at going forward. I am sure the member for Gosnells will understand that an incoming government would like to look at a range of areas. I, as a new minister, am particularly interested at looking at those areas. I noted earlier in the day the member’s comments on that space. I was particularly interested in the member’s comments on the nature of some of our areas that have a drying climate. That is the reality of what we are dealing with. There may even be some opportunities in and around that. The member made those comments earlier and made note of that in and around salinity. I assure the member that while we will be looking at that, we are in the very early stages. In anything that I look at as environment minister I will seek to ensure that there is a balance. My first priority is to look at the environmental values for not only issues such as salinity but also fauna habitat. Having said that, there may be some regulatory things that we can look at, such as streamlining some processes and making the entire process a bit clearer and easier to understand. Certainly, as I have said, a big priority for me will be to ensure that there is always a very good balance. My first priority is the environmental values, which are going to be upheld through that process. FARMERS — NATIVE VEGETATION PROTECTION 55. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE to the Minister for Environment: I have a supplementary question. Was the Premier wrong when he said that the current land clearing legislation is wrong? Mr A.P. JACOB replied: I do not think that was what the Premier said. As I just indicated in my earlier answer, there is a range of things that I would like to look at as a new minister. I think the Premier has made a very strong point about some things

190 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] in and around land clearing. Indeed, the member for Geraldton made a few comments earlier today. I am very keen as a new minister to take in all sides of this argument, and where there is work that can be done, we would like to look at that. I am sure there is a range of things that can be looked at. I assure the member that as Minister for Environment I will be ensuring that environmental values are front and centre in that, but sometimes there is a good opportunity for balance in and around those things as well. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION — ANNUAL REPORT 2011–12 Correction — Statement by Speaker THE SPEAKER (Mr M.W. Sutherland): I wish to advise members that in the previous Parliament the Speaker received a letter dated 21 November 2012 from the Minister for Education requesting that corrections be made to the Department of Education 2011–12 annual report, which was tabled on 27 September 2012, in order to provide corrected details and additional statistical information. Corrections were requested to the contents page and pages 16, 17, 29, 127 and 133 of the report, and additions were requested to pages 17, 25 and 134. Under the provisions of standing order 156 I advise that the necessary corrections were authorised on 27 November 2012 and have been attached as an addendum to the tabled paper. [See paper 5363A.] ADDRESS-IN-REPLY Motion Resumed from an earlier stage of the sitting. MR I.C. BLAYNEY (Geraldton) [2.47 pm]: The Robson report also suggests that building new merged councils around activity centres makes sense. I think that is very true. So that would be about a dozen new metropolitan councils. Looking at the two suggestions for new larger councils, I lean towards going ahead with simple mergers and not all the boundary changes that are in the second proposal. From experience, mergers in themselves are hard enough for a community; wholesale boundary changes would be much harder still. I do not see the two proposals as being different enough or the pay-off big enough to go through a large number of boundary changes, but I think the Robson report is well thought out and an excellent blueprint. The other bit of reading I did over the summer was a book written by Hugh White, professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, called The China Choice. Anybody with an interest in the emergence of China and the impact of this on Asia and the Pacific should get this book and read it. White argues for America to find a way to share power in Asia with China as an alternative to either competing with China or relinquishing power in the Asia–Pacific. How this shapes up is incredibly important for Australia. The countries involved are all our biggest trading and security partners. The group that runs the In the Zone conference at the University of Western Australia could perhaps start working towards a north Asia peace centre at UWA to work in this area. I think it is an area in which there could be a role for Western Australia. Finally, I will return to my jewel of an electorate, Geraldton. We are going through a period of steady growth that is being managed well. I thank our ministers for their interest in my electorate and hometown. I was delighted that the government committed late last year to build a new bridge at South Greenough. The existing bridge is quite old, narrow and dangerous. This was the number one priority for the Mid West Industry Road Safety Alliance, to which I belong, and I thank them for their support. I also hope that we will be able to straighten the S-bends to the south of the bridge at the same time. Next year we will open the first new government primary school to be built at Geraldton since Waggrakine opened in 1979 at Wandina. While I am talking about primary schools, I thank the principal of Waggrakine, Lis Turner, and her staff for the way they have coped with the fire that destroyed the school’s administration block recently. I am happy to report that design work on a new block has started, and I thank the minister, Hon Peter Collier, for agreeing that due to the numbers at the school rising considerably, the new administration block will be considerably larger. I am also happy to report that one of the state government’s new child and parent centres will be built at Rangeway Primary School, which happens to be the primary school I attended for most of my years in primary school, and the one whose board I hope to join when it becomes an independent public school—IPS. I agree with the member for Moore’s concerns about the impact of the closure of Nagle Catholic College’s boarding facilities in 2015. The board of Geraldton Residential College has put to the Department of Education a proposal to expand its facilities in a way that will not cost any extra money, but simply redirect existing committed funds. I hope that this will be agreed to or another way can be found to expand the college. Students are a valuable commodity in Geraldton, and the Nagle boarders would be a sad loss to the city. Geraldton’s choice in education will expand with a number of new courses this year at Geraldton Universities Centre, along with expanded classroom facilities. Likewise, Durack Institute of Technology will gain a new resources training centre and health training facilities.

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It is clear that Geraldton Hospital is now inadequate for our needs. Unfortunately, requests for federal government programs to invest in this hospital have been as yet unsuccessful. The hospital runs at near capacity but it has to be borne in mind that St John of God Geraldton Hospital runs at only 50 per cent capacity. The state hospital buys beds from the private hospital when required. It is my hope that Geraldton Hospital will be expanded during this term of government. It can only be a lesson for the future, but the question that always comes to mind is: why were the hospitals not co-located? This would have solved many issues. The CSIRO has built a valuable facility in Geraldton to service the Square Kilometre Array project. This exciting project is steadily developing at Boolardy in the Murchison region. Other projects that I am supporting and working on as the local member include new premises for Foodbank, which does a wonderful job in Geraldton and the Murchison shire; Sun City Christian Centre’s new facilities at south Rangeway; the Fusion village development; Bundiyarra’s accommodation project; and the diocese of Geraldton’s cathedral restoration project and associated Monsignor Hawes Interpretative Centre. I also intend to work closely with the Salvation Army to try to develop more emergency housing, with Community Housing Ltd to build more local housing and with Sun City Christian Centre to also develop more emergency housing. In the area of large infrastructure, projects I would expect to see progress on in this coming term include Oakajee port; Oakajee–Narngulu corridor; Oakajee industrial estate; the sewerage network to service Geraldton’s northern suburbs; completion of the 330-kilovolt powerline to Moonyoonooka; the heavy vehicle bypass around Geraldton—I will add there that I support the heavy vehicle bypass around Northampton—expansion of Geraldton Hospital; and reform of government secondary education in Geraldton. I look forward to renewed activity by our government to reduce red tape and make the conduct of business easier. Like all members of Parliament, I have many frustrations in this area. I acknowledge the help and support of the office of Barry Haase, MHR, federal member for Durack, and Hon Brian Ellis, MLC, member for the Agricultural Region, both of whom have offices in Geraldton. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the help and support of my family and, in particular, my wife, Barb. Barb does the trolley round at the Geraldton Regional Hospital, serves on the board of Aidan’s Place, which is a service provider for children with disabilities, and the Women’s Health Resource Centre, and is the local chair for Relay for Life. She never complains; she is often frustrated, but carries on, just like the rest of us. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms J.M. Freeman): Member for Albany. MR P.B. WATSON (Albany) [2.53 pm]: Thank you, Madam Acting Speaker. The ACTING SPEAKER: Madam Acting Speaker! Mr P.B. WATSON: That sounds good, does it not? The ACTING SPEAKER: Yes! Mr P.B. WATSON: It is good being on this end instead of up there! I congratulate all new members to the house. I congratulate the Speaker. I know that a lot of my colleagues and I voted for him last week! I also congratulate the Deputy Speaker and everyone else who has been nominated. Mostly I would like to thank the candidates whom I went against, Barry Critchison, Hans Vermeulen, Robert Sutton, Diane Evers and Trevor Cosh. I have heard some people over the last few days really bag the candidates and the things they did, but as everyone in this chamber knows, a tremendous effort is made by not only those who get in, but also those who do not get in and there is pressure on the family with the time taken up. I congratulate all those candidates. I move to the campaign. I will not necessarily say I was happy with the Liberal Party campaign. Robbie Sutton did a great job for the National Party. The National Party did not give me much to work with, but I thought he did a tremendous job. Once again, the Liberal Party spent a massive amount in Albany in a bid to buy the seat of Albany. The talk around town, and this is from the candidate, is that more than $500 000 was spent. Members opposite may laugh, but on the day of the election every lamp post in Albany, right throughout the electorate, had a photo that big. If members opposite do not think that it was $500 000, they should ask the candidate. He did not put in a cracker himself; it was all done by the party office. So if other Liberal Party members did not get that much, ask for it next time. There was a constant stream of direct mail, pamphlets, full-page newspaper ads and TV advertising from November 2011 to election day. On election day every polling booth was swamped with Liberal Party banners and bunting. A team of Young Liberals, along with other party members, was even brought in from Perth to help on polling booths. Thirty-five people were brought down, and paid. They were the most aggressive non-country people someone could ever meet. They were up there pushing stuff in people’s faces saying, “Vote Liberal. Vote Liberal.” People did not even know who they were. It might have worked in Perth, but it does not work in regional areas. I thought it was absolutely disgusting. This is my fourth election in this caper and I have been the underdog each time; I love that. Each time the Liberal Party comes up with an excuse such as “We didn’t have enough money.” The first time Hon Kevin Prince had the finance brokers.

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The next time the guy did not work hard enough. The time after that there was not enough money and the candidate did not work hard enough. This time the candidate worked very hard, a lot of money was spent, and still the Liberal candidate did not get in. There is a reason for that, but I will not tell members opposite what it is. I will tell the people on my side and I will write my book—the book. I am married to an award-winning author, so I am getting all the tips, and boy, have I got some juicies from both sides of the chamber! Mr M. McGowan: Don’t you mean when she writes your book? Mr P.B. WATSON: No, she could not write about some of the things I want to write about! That Liberal Party had three main themes to its campaign. The first was that I was a good bloke, but that a person needs to be more than a good bloke to be an effective member of Parliament. This is perhaps the most condescending statement that could ever be made to the voters of Albany and they quickly saw through it. The second theme was that Albany would be best served by having a Liberal member of Parliament as part of Barnett’s team in government. To the people of Albany this was nothing but a meaningless slogan. Third, was that Colin Barnett and the Liberals would build a Bunbury to Albany gas pipeline, a broken promise—hello!— from the previous election campaign. This meant that the Liberal Party was talking about its own broken promise, a strange way to campaign, given that the newly promised pipeline would have had less than half of the capacity of the one promised in 2008. The Premier then said during the campaign that he wanted a gas-fired power station to go with it. As I said to the Premier in the chamber yesterday, show me the money; show me how much it will cost and how it will help the people of Albany. He did not tell me during the election campaign and he cannot tell me now, and we wonder why the people of Albany do not trust the Premier. I felt sorry for the poor candidate; he is a good bloke. He is a Collingwood supporter and, like me, has a dog called Harry. He is Liberal and I am Labor, but apart from that, we get on pretty well. He had to walk up York Street with Julie Bishop and Colin Barnett. I happened to be driving up the street and I could see everyone trying to cross the road to get away from them. The poisoned dwarf and the Premier were walking up the street with the poor old would-be local member. In contrast, Labor identified the issues that were important to the people of Albany and campaigned around them. Well over 100 local people contributed to my campaign in whatever way they could, from helping on polling booths to having a poster in the front yard or making a contribution in their own way. One of the oldest ladies in my electorate, who is in hospital, rang me and said, “Peter, I can’t come to help you on the day, but my thoughts are with you.” These are the sorts of grassroots people of Albany who make us want to go out and do all the things we do. Firstly, I would like to thank my campaign team, Guy Wroth—some of my colleagues know who Guy Wroth is; he is an Essendon supporter, for a start, and loves campaigns; he lives for campaigns—Ian Bishop and Bob Thomas, who is a former upper house member. I say to all the new members: look to use experienced people who have been in the chamber, not necessarily the upper house, because I know it is a lot different from this place—people who have been in the system. Bob has been tremendously helpful to me. Those three guys have been with me since 2001. A lot of members’ staff have come and gone. If we look after our staff, they will look after us. They have been there since 2001, when we defeated Kevin Prince. I feel a bit sorry for Kevin Prince. I knocked him off with a 15.8 per cent swing not only the first time I stood; he has put someone up during the last three campaigns to knock me off. I have not had the opportunity to be congratulated by Kevin yet because he has gone into hiding, but I am sure he will be there again next time. No election campaign is ever the same, but it has been reassuring to me to have had that stable campaign team, because, firstly, we know how to work together and win, but also no matter what crisis may happen during a campaign we know how to deal with it. My thanks to the WA State Labor Secretary, Simon Mead, for letting us run our own campaign; assistant state secretary Lenda “Cyclone” Oshalem, for her ongoing support and superb campaigning skills; David Michael, the ever popular deputy mayor; and Sarah Thurgate, for their great work in designing material with the limited resources they had available to them. Thanks also to Meredith Hammat and Madeleine Holme from Unions WA for coordinating the local Save Our Services campaign, and to those unions with public sector workers in Albany, who contacted their members, including the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Australian Services Union, the Community and Public Sector Union–Civil Service Association, the State School Teachers’ Union of Western Australia, United Voice and the Western Australian Prison Officers’ Union. Thank you for your help. Of course, election campaigns these days are expensive, and fundraising is an important part of them. One of our two biggest local fundraisers was Peter Watson’s acoustic music concert, which was successful because I did not compete! It was put together by Rod Vervest, who did a fantastic job getting an acclaimed artist to join him for a one-off concert at the Albany Entertainment Centre. Bernard Carney, Andrew and Karen Winton, Peter Grayling and Dave Clarke came to Albany and donated their time for the cause. Locals, Bob Lipinski, June Iddison, Kiersten Fage, Craig Sinclair, Simone Keane and Steve Scanlon and friends also came. Thank you all for a fantastic night. The other fundraiser was a quiz night hosted by Hon Alannah MacTiernan, and the venue was

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 193 packed. People either love her or hate her and I love her. She is one of the most inspirational people I have ever worked with. Thanks to Trish and Crispin Travers, Sandy Bishop, Michelle Pardini and Carol Thomas for organising it all and making sure everything ran smoothly on the night. WA Young Labor also put on an entertaining fundraiser celebrating stories from the pasts of me and the member for Collie–Wellington. My thanks go also to David Scaife and Patrick Ashforth for the work they did to make it a success. I would like to thank my south west colleagues, Adele Farina, MLC, and Sally Talbot, MLC, for their support. I thank Dave Kelly and Carolyn Smith of United Voice and Stephen Price and other AWU members for the support of their unions and I thank those United Voice, Community and Public Sector Union–Civil Service Association of WA and Australian Services Union members who helped on the polling booths. I thank Robert Foster and Ron Bryant from the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia WA branch for their support and for contacting their members in Albany. Many thanks to Mark Wareing, Louisa Van Halteren, Eddie Summerbell, Greg Cross and Tony Elwood for their support. One of the things that need to be done in Albany that I will raise in Parliament over the next four years is reviewing the sustainability of shark gill net trawling along the south coast. Shark is not a high-value fish and the netting results in a large bycatch of other species that have a great value target for recreational fishing. Areas that are popular for recreational fishers turn out to be devoid of any fish once these gill nets have passed through. The Labor Party went to the election promising to fund the Albany motorplex, but, unfortunately, we did not get in. I will work very hard to make sure that we get funding for it through royalties for regions. I hope that the National Party stands up to the Premier on royalties for regions. It was the National Party’s idea in the first place and it has been a tremendous success, although I do not always agree with the way some of the money has been spent over the past few years. People who live in the rural areas should be encouraged to go to the Albany motorplex. I went to Wellstead Primary School the other day because I have been a strong advocate against the primary to secondary year 7 transition. The government came in without any consideration and said that right across the state year 7s will go to high school next year. I will give the Premier and the Minister for Education an example. Wellstead Primary School is 100 kilometres from Albany. It is a very small but beautiful community school. The year 6s become the leaders of the school in year 7. The year 6 boys in particular take longer to develop, but after having that position of leadership in year 7 they really blossom. The government is saying to farmers who are struggling that the government will take away their child a year earlier. Wellstead Primary School is 100 kilometres away from Albany so those young students have to go away to boarding school. I do not want to keep referring to boys, but the boys do develop later. They will attend the boarding school from year 7 to year 12. A mother at Wellstead told me that education is not the only form of development for our young people. She wants her child at home to nurture and enjoy the benefits of the family unit. Everyone is saying that the students who will be sent away are a different cohort, but they are not. It means that a child will go away a year earlier than previously and will cost a family that is already struggling at least $25 000 a year. I cannot understand why the National Party never fought for this. I have been fighting for this for over 12 months. I brought it up at the budget estimates with no support from the National Party. It worries me that the National Party is getting sucked into the Liberal Party. It is alright for Brendon Grylls to go to the Pilbara and get another member elected to the house, the new member for Kalgoorlie, which is great, but the National Party must look after the country people. Royalties for regions is a tremendous concept. I can see the Leader of the National Party sitting over there. Four years ago he was bouncing around as the kingmaker but he is very subdued now. Show some ticker and stand up to the Premier. I know what the Premier will do and I said it right throughout my election campaign. The Liberal Party said the Premier would never do that. Rubbish. Just wait and see what will happen to royalties for regions now. During the election campaign, the Premier came to town. As I say, the Premier is not very well liked in Albany. I do not think he realised that until the second or third visit, when no-one spoke to him. When he came to Albany, one of the first things he said was that the government would put bolts on rocks for fishermen at The Gap and right along our coast. Our coast is one of the most dangerous coasts in Western Australia. If a person falls in the water on the west coast, they can swim out, but if a person falls in the water on the south coast, they fall straight down, there is current underneath and the only way they can survive is to swim out and hope that someone gets them because they cannot get back in over the rocks. Twelve months before the election, I wrote to Hon Bill Marmion about putting bolts on the rocks and he said, “No. My department has said that it is not safe.” We brought this letter to the Premier. I told the Premier that the letter was from one of his departments, and he said, “No; we’re not taking any notice of them. We’re going to do it, and we’re going to have them in by Easter.” I have eaten my Easter eggs and I think everyone else has as well, but the bolts are still not in. The Premier did not even go to Recfishwest, because I spoke to people from Recfishwest and they said that they are wary of the bolts and that it would have been nice if the Premier had spoken to them about it. This is the Premier. He comes to town, sees an issue and then—bang. When I was doorknocking, the Esplanade Hotel was a big issue for people. So into town on his white horse comes Col: “I am going to send them a letter

194 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] and I am going to tell them that if they don’t sell, I, Colin Barnett, am going to reclaim it and build a hotel there.” My staff looked up the Land Administration Act, which states that he cannot do that; if he reclaims the land, it can be used only as a public utility. The Premier said, “I’m going to send a letter and if it’s not back by the twenty-ninth, I’m going to take action.” I stood in Parliament the day before yesterday and asked the Premier what is happening with the hotel site. He said that he got a letter but he had not read it yet. It was the most important thing when he was in Albany, but when he gets back here, he says that he does not have the letter but he thinks the owners are going to sell the hotel. We knew they were going to sell it four years ago; they had it on the market. Now the Premier is saying that the owners are going to sell it and that he has a letter but he has not read it. It was the most important thing in the world; it made headlines: “I’m the Premier and I’m going to do this.” I cannot say what I want to say about that, but the Premier comes to Albany and treats us as fools. I got into trouble the other day for using an unparliamentary word in the chamber. [Member’s time extended.] Mr P.B. WATSON: I have a list of all the things that the Premier is going to do in Albany. I want to let the Premier know that there are 1 423 days to go and the clock is ticking! The new members on the other side of the house should not worry; a lot of promises have been made in their electorates but a lot of the promises depend on someone else funding them. All the polling is indicating that we are going to have a Liberal–National federal government. Whether or not people love Julia Gillard, she has made the Premier look really good. She has spent a great deal of money over here. I drove along Great Eastern Highway the other day and I thought, “The federal government did this.” When I look at all the schools in regional areas that have brand-new buildings, I think, “The federal government did this.” But who has been taking the credit? I was disappointed with a lot of the members who are very arrogant. It is not so much the new members, but those who have just got through their first term. They are very arrogant: “I did this. I’m loved by everybody.” It changes overnight. I listened to the member for Collie–Preston earlier. Members have to get out and be part of the community. It is no good getting up in this place and talking about things like that. They can come in on a swing and they can go out on a swing. They can stay in here for a little while, but they have to remember that on only three occasions in 100 years has a first-term government been thrown out. There is record debt. People in Albany are sleeping in cars because they cannot get a house. There is congestion. I hate coming to the city. The best part of Perth at the moment is the drive up the Armadale hill. When I come into town, it is congested. Dr A.D. Buti interjected. Mr P.B. WATSON: Yes, because I always drop in and have a coffee with the member for Armadale. These are some of the things that were promised: no lack of specialists in the new hospital; $900 000 of state government funding for the City of Albany to plan and build significant bike network projects; a child and parent centre at Mount Lockyer Primary School—I am on the board; and a gas pipeline! We were promised a gas pipeline at the last election; it was the big ticket item! Nearly five years later they have halved the size of the pipe and now the big promise is that we are going to have a gas-fired power station. I do not know who is going to do it, but it sounded good during the election! That is estimated to cost $133 million, just to get everything ready. We were also promised nine overtaking lanes between Albany and Kojonup. The Labor Party came out with three lanes, I think, but Col came to town and said, “We’re going to do nine!” I do not know where he is going to put nine overtaking lanes, because that would mean people could overtake the whole distance between Albany and Kojonup! But Col will come down in a flash car and drive straight down the middle! We were promised $8.75 million for the Centennial Park precinct redevelopment and $8 million for the Anzac interpretive centre. I would like to let the Premier know that at the last election the Labor Party said it would allocate money for the Anzac interpretive centre, and every time I brought it up Colin said he would give us some money. At the time of the budget before last, the former Treasurer Hon Christian Porter said to me, “I’ve got the money for you, Watto; don’t worry about it.” Four months later the Premier announced this project—the same day he announced the Liberal Party candidate for Albany! The Premier was putting politics ahead of the most important thing in my electorate in 100 years! I will never forgive him for that. Let me see what other issues I have here. Some of the new members opposite might not know that I instigated the Blaxell inquiry into the boarding school at Katanning. I have just received an email, and I know that Todd and Becki Jefferis will not mind me reading this. Todd was one of three young men who came to me about things that happened at St Andrew’s Hostel. I thank the Premier for setting up the inquiry; he said he would do that. The inquiry came out with a number of adverse findings. Todd sent me an email the other day stating that no action had been taken against four people: Ian Murray, Colin Philpott, Bill Todd and Ainslie Evans. Todd asked: why have an inquiry that results in adverse findings against people, if nothing is done? He said that the first two have Order of Australia medals, which should be rescinded; and the other two should be removed from their respective positions. This is all part of the process that the victims have gone through. These people had the opportunity to stop this horrible thing happening to those children and they did not do anything. All that has happened is they have been named in a report, and they have walked away. That is one other issue that I will follow up.

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Albany has a new hospital and I congratulate the Minister for Health and the Premier. However, I had a meeting with one of my constituents the other day who told me that Albany Regional Hospital provided a cardiac program four days a week, but 12 months ago my constituent was told it would be reduced and now the program at the new Albany Hospital operates for only two days a week. This program keeps people out of hospital, because they are going along and exercising. The hospital said, “Just go to a gym in town and do it.” One of the gentlemen who contacted me said that he went to the gym, which asked him to get a letter from the hospital to cover them. But, no, the hospital will not give my constituent a letter; it is not going to do anything. We have a brand-new hospital, but now the cost cutting is starting. We had a really good system at the other hospital. Now we have a brand-new hospital with fewer beds. We are told that is because they have a better system of looking after things—hello! They are also cutting down on the cardiac program. What will happen is that these people’s health will get worse and they will be back in hospital. I cannot understand the reasoning behind this. I would like to talk about some of the members who are no longer here. John Bowler had a chequered career in the chamber. He sat on both sides of the house. John was part of Gallop’s halfback line, which is the second last row. That line included the late Paul Andrews, Martin Whitely, John Bowler in the middle, me and John Quigley. If anyone has ever sat next to John Quigley for more than five minutes at a time, they would know that it is a very interesting experience. We used to have a lot of late nights during those first four years. Quigs would be sitting in the chamber with a whole lot of papers in front of him and say, “Have a look at this stuff. This guy’s not guilty.” I would not have a clue. He used to sit for hours and hours looking at material on the Andrew Mallard case. Quigs is one of the characters of the house. When he walks around, he might see you one day and he will not the next. If I happen to get into trouble and I need a lawyer, Quigs is the first person I would have on my side. Johnny Bowler has been my mate since I entered Parliament in 2001. I have not always agreed with some of the things that have happened. He was a great member for Kalgoorlie, and I wish him really well in his retirement. Martin Whitely and I did not start agreeing on anything for the past four years. He said it was time to get out when he was starting to agree with what I said. The Treasurer took a pretty cheap shot today having a crack at Andrew Waddell. Andrew did a tremendous job in keeping the swing against the Labor Party down to one per cent. Our biggest regret is that Andrew was our IT guru. Now we do not know who will fix our iPads. Let us hope the new member for Forrestfield has a few skills; we might be knocking on his door. The former member for Forrestfield worked really hard. We can work our backsides off and if there is a swing, we can go just like that. I say to new members that there is no such thing as a safe seat. They should not think they are safe. There are a lot of issues out there, including record debt, the cost of power going up, people not being able to get a house and traffic congestion. Governments may be able to get away with it the first time but if problems are not fixed, they are in trouble. There are a lot of new members in this place today. In 1997 we had the same number of members that we have now. Mr R.F. Johnson: It was 1996. Mr P.B. WATSON: I thank the father of the house, Mr Johnson, very much for his expertise. Mr R.F. Johnson: I’m not quite the father of the house. I’m not far off. Mr P.B. WATSON: I am sorry I did not vote for him the other day. A lot of us on this side of the house voted for the Speaker. The member for Hillarys was not here before. Mr R.F. Johnson: I didn’t expect you to. Mr P.B. WATSON: There are quite a few on this side. We are trying to work out who did vote for the Speaker. I would like to congratulate the Speaker. I think he will do a great job. I see the Speaker down in the gym in the morning. He is obviously getting himself right. Standing at a booth at the end of the election campaign from eight in the morning to six at night was pretty hard work. Then we go back and get all the results coming through. Halfway through the night, the ABC always looks at Wellstead, Manypeaks and Emu Point. We know they are always going to go to the Liberal Party. The ABC gives a tick to the Liberal Party. I was sitting in the corner having a beer and my granddaughter Amelie came up to me with her fingers crossed and said, “You’ll get in, papa.” They are the sorts of things we remember. I must not forget to thank my wife, Meg. She is from the arts community and not used to the robust parliamentary groups and the cut and thrust. I love her. She is a tremendous support to me, as are my children, Kristy, Sarah and Justin, my grandchildren, Amelie, Mason and Eden, and my stepchildren Sophie and Dan. The member for Collie–Preston said today that they are the things that keep us going. We see these young kids coming through. They are the best thing that ever happens to you, apart from your kids. That is why we go out and work hard. I hope all the new members enjoy their job; it is a tremendous job. But just remember that once that constituent comes into your office, they are the most important person in the world. I wish the government all the best for the next four years. I think it is going to be hard, but, as I say to the Premier: 1 423 days to go; I will be watching every day.

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DR A.D. BUTI (Armadale) [3.26 pm]: I also would like to commence by congratulating all the new members of this house on both sides. Some have made very impressive inaugural speeches. I would particularly like to thank the three new members on our side: my neighbour here, the member for Kimberley; and also the member for Fremantle and the member for Bassendean. Of course, the member for Fremantle has the fortunate privilege of being an automatic member of the South Fremantle Football Club; that goes with being the member for Fremantle. Of course, on the other side we have the new member for Alfred Cove, who of course played for South Fremantle, which, in my books, is an outstanding achievement. Probably his second-most outstanding achievement is that he is now the new member for Alfred Cove, which means that the former member for Alfred Cove is not here anymore, and I am sure that there are as many people on this side of the house who are happy with that result as there are on the other side of the house. But I do wish the former member for Alfred Cove the best of luck, because she was a former student of mine at law school. Mr P.B. Watson: So you’re at fault! Dr A.D. BUTI: Yes, I know; some people keep telling me that it was my fault. But I wish her the best of luck in her endeavours, and also all the previous members who have now moved on to other careers. One of my passions, and one of the reasons I entered politics, is education. Of course, in this Parliament we have been joined in this house by two professional educationists, the member for Balcatta and also the member for Forrestfield, so I look forward to some robust debates over the next four years, because I am sure they can bring their expertise to the debates. In particular, I have had quite a few dealings with the member for Forrestfield over the last few years because he was deputy principal at one of the high schools in my electorate. I respect his knowledge of education, so I look forward to hopefully working with him in a collaborative manner, but of course we will disagree, I am sure, on some philosophical matters. I suppose one of the philosophical issues that has been debated in education is IPSs—independent public schools. I am not necessarily opposed to IPSs. I actually sit on the board of two independent public schools in my electorate. In fact, many years ago I advocated for more flexibility for schools. I thought there was a problem with the education department being a monolithic structure, and there was not enough flexibility at the school level. So, as far as that goes in the IPS framework, that should be applauded. But we should not be carried away by saying that because IPS is a popular system, and more and more schools are seeking to become IPSs, it has been successful. We have to get the educational empirical evidence to show that it has been successful. Once that is shown to me, I will be the first person to agree that it has educational merits. I can see that there is a possibility that it will have educational merits by giving the headmaster and the school greater control over the use of their resources, but I think the jury is still out on whether that then transfers into higher educational achievements, and we will have to wait to see which way it falls. With the way in which the IPS system is structured at the moment, I think there is a need to look at how we can increase the outcomes for schools in lower socio-economic areas. The member for Forrestfield was the deputy principal at Cecil Andrews Senior High School in my electorate, where, overall, the socio-economic indicators are on the lower, rather than the higher, end of the scale. If we are going to have a successful IPS system, we must have some funding models that would attract high-quality teachers to those schools. Apart from it being a challenge for teachers who want to go to schools where there may be a greater need for outstanding teachers to try to improve students’ educational outcomes, economics is always an important matter. What monetary incentives are there under the current model of independent public schools for so-called less attractive schools to attract high-quality teachers? Mr N.W. Morton: I wasn’t too bad! Dr A.D. BUTI: No; the member for Forrestfield is an outstanding educationalist. I am not trying to say that the teachers in my electorate are not outstanding people. I have to say that the principals in my electorate are outstanding. All the principals at schools in my electorate, including the three high schools and the various primary schools—I think there are 13 primary schools—are outstanding. I am not criticising my local schools in that respect, but there is no doubt that overall it is hard to retain teachers sometimes at the schools that, superficially, may not be as attractive. What monetary incentive does the IPS system have at the moment? What encouragement is there to attract quality teachers to go to the more challenging schools? There is no doubt that teaching is an incredibly demanding profession. This government seems to think that IPS is the solution to everything. It is not the solution to everything. The solution to better educational outcomes is higher quality teachers. Overall, we have very good teachers in WA. We also have very committed teachers in WA. But there is no doubt the quality of students entering educational faculties at universities in Western Australia are not as high as they were when the member for Balcatta or the member for Forrestfield were at university. Students can get in to some universities to study education or teaching despite having a failed mark in their final leaving exams. That is appalling. We have students in educational faculties at university who have not really passed year 12. People who aspire to be educators should be our highest calibre secondary students. We have to restructure the education profession to make it an exciting profession for people to enter. It is an

[ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] 197 incredibly rewarding profession. I am sure the two members I referred to would agree it is incredibly rewarding. I was a teacher too many years ago. When I was a student, incredibly high calibre people entered university to study teaching! Jokes aside, there is a problem with the overall quality of people entering the educational faculties of our universities. Before I get onto the Gonski review, I will refer to the most recent data from the Australian Early Development Index for 2012. In respect of the various communities in my electorate of Armadale, we have seen an improvement since the previous figures. Unfortunately, the overall Armadale community scores below the state and national averages in nearly every indicator: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills and general knowledge. The percentage of students in the Armadale community who are vulnerable in one or more domains of the data index is 28 per cent. The state average is 23 per cent and the national average is 22 per cent. When we look at the state and national averages, that figure takes into account remote communities. The percentage of students in the Armadale community entering grade 1 below the state average is 28 per cent. The state average is 23 and the national average is 22 per cent. Those who are vulnerable in two or more domains—this is critical—of the Australian Early Development Index: Australian average, 10.8 per cent; state average, 11.2 per cent; Armadale community average, 12.6 per cent. That is not a major difference, but it is still below the state average. But the positive thing is that there has been improvement, and there should be improvement because we have some outstanding primary school programs in schools in my electorate. Challis Primary School, which is one of the feeder schools to the member for Forrestfield’s former high school, has led the way in early childhood education, with the support, may I say, of the former Gallop government and former member for Armadale. It is good to hear that the current government is looking at some of the programs and some of the structures commenced by the Gallop government. I return to the Gonski report. I do not think anyone on this side of the house would disagree that Western Australia should receive more than $300 million; of course we should be receiving more than $300 million. The Premier is right to say that we should receive more than $300 million, but he is not right to say we have a fantastic education system that is great, because I now want to read to members two scenarios from a primary school in my electorate. Not long after the election I received a phone call from one of my primary schools asking whether I could visit the school because they needed to discuss some issues with me, and one of them was Schools Plus. When I became a member of this house in 2010 after a by-election, I invited all the principals of the high schools and primary schools in my electorate for an afternoon tea at my office and asked them what the major educational issue was—the major problem confronting them—and they all answered that it was Schools Plus. For those who are not aware of what Schools Plus is, it is about additional funding for students with disabilities. I am going to read to members two examples that have been given to me by someone at a primary school in my electorate. There is some educational jargon, so I want to let members know what the jargon refers to: “ESC” means education support centre—we have one at Armadale Senior High School; “SNA” means special needs assistant—people employed to assist students with disabilities; and “EN” refers to the student’s level of educational need and is an additional teacher time allocated for a student who fits one of the Schools Plus criteria. This allocation provides the teacher who has a student with a disability additional time to meet with other professionals who may be supporting the student—that is, the parents, therapy focus staff or school psychologist et cetera. The time is also used for writing and reviewing the detailed individual educational plans and individual behavioural plans required to support the students. The first example reads — In 2012 one of our Year 7 students with a diagnosis of ASD,— Autism spectrum disorder — an allocation of 0.8 Special Needs Assistant time and an EN (extra funding for teacher time) of 3 was being prepared to transition to the Education Support Centre at Armadale Senior High School. This student has an IQ in the forties and has major sensory issues and high anxiety. She had been at our school since Year 3 and was making good progress considering her high needs and low academic level. To access the ESC the student needed to catch the special bus provided. Her mother, as a single parent, worked and was unable to transport the student in the morning or the afternoon. In order to fit the criteria to use the bus a student requires an EN4. This child had an EN of 3 and so did not automatically qualify for the bus service. I was advised by the school’s psychologist and the principal of the ESC to make an application to SchoolsPlus. A checklist had to be submitted, in an endeavour to gain an increase in the student’s EN amount. My staff and I and the visiting teacher for students with a disability spent many hours compiling the required checklist and we felt confident the student would gain the EN4 given her high need. At this point it is interesting to note that we had another student on the spectrum who was also headed for the ESC in 2013 … because he is high functioning, hopefully going to have some time in the

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mainstream high school as well. This student has an average IQ, no where near the same level of need, but he had an EN4 allocation. This of course meant he could access the bus … This was frustrating — The outcome of the checklist submitted was that 0.2 (one full day) of Special Needs Assistant time was removed and the EN level remained unchanged. It appeared to staff that the student was being disadvantaged almost as a consequence of the good work that had been done with her over many years. We did appeal the loss of SNA time and the EN allocation remaining unchanged, but we were unsuccessful. The outcome also meant that $8 800 was immediately removed from the school budget. So, that is the first example. In a roundabout way the teacher is saying that if they actually improve the student, they may lose some of the Schools Plus funding, even though it really is needed. So, where is the incentive? Of course, the incentive is to get the best educational outcome for the student, but the school may not actually have the same amount of resources. One has to remember that this additional resource is there not only for that student but also to help the teacher spend more time with that student so that the SNA and other assistants can also help with other students. I turn to the second example — This year we have a Year 6 student who is very violent at home and has, on a number of occasions, threatened to stab members of his family and his pets. He has been very physically aggressive towards his mother and sister. His sister has had to live with her father for extended periods of time because of the fears her mother has for her safety and her emotional well being. He spends a lot of time at school very emotionally heightened and this has impacted significantly on the dynamics in the classroom. Earlier this term the student’s mother brought the student and his sister to school informing us that he had thrown an object that hit his sister in the head. The sister was extremely upset and stressed and the mother also informed the school that her son had threatened to kill himself. [Member’s time extended.] Dr A.D. BUTI: The second example continues — It was a serious suicide ideation that required intervention by suitably qualified health professionals. The boy’s mother could not get her son to a hospital on her own so to avoid having the student run off or having to restrain him a fictional story was concocted about his sister needing to attend at Armadale Hospital’s Emergency Department because of the blow she had suffered. The two deputy principals drove the mother and her children to the emergency department concerned that at any minute the student may escalate his behaviour and even run off when we were at the hospital waiting to be attended to. After a wait of over an hour the student was seen by the medical staff and an assessment undertaken. He was not admitted, but the mother was advised to bring him back to the hospital or take him to PMH if she had any further concerns. His mother was also informed that he could be considered for a referral to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. However, this option was not clear cut as the student had a pending appointment with a paediatrician regarding concerns that he may have an ASD. In the following week the student continued to exhibit the same behaviours and his mother took him back to Armadale Hospital where, even though the paediatrician had been seen and had referred the student to DSC — That is, the Disability Services Commission — for an ASD assessment, he was referred to Armadale CAMHS. In my role as deputy principal I liaised with the CAHMS intake nurse and described the situation. I was concerned that because he was referred to DSC for an assessment for an ASD that CAMHS would not see his behaviour as fitting a mental health disorder. I clarified with CAMHS that the referral to DSC, once he was accepted on to their waitlist, would mean he met the criteria for a Schools Plus allocation of only 0.2 Special Needs Assistant time with no avenue to gain any time in addition to this allocation. Given the student’s high level of need and because of his age he could be on the waitlist for up eighteen months with only this limited amount of SchoolsPlus time. The situation at home was dire and if he received a diagnosis of a severe mental health disorder, within the SchoolsPlus criteria (a very limited number of conditions) then the student could, if he was also receiving on going counselling, immediately receive a generic allocation of 0.3 SNA time as well as a small amount of EN funding (additional teacher time). With the completion of a detailed checklist the school may even be able to get both allocations increased. The outcome was that CAMHS provided an assessment and the student met one of the required SchoolsPlus criteria. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, a diagnosis by a child psychiatrist is only part

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of SchoolsPlus’ criteria. The second aspect of their criteria involves the student receiving counselling from a suitably qualified psychologist and that psychologist providing a letter to SchoolsPlus stating the nature of the counselling being provided and that it will be conducted over the long term. CAMHS could not provide the counselling at the time of diagnosis and this meant the student’s parent had to source counselling for her son elsewhere. The process of accessing counselling and acquiring the letter took another three weeks. It was very fortunate that this family had previously received counselling through Parkerville Children’s Services and an appointment with a clinical psychologist was able to be expedited. After all this effort the student was granted 0.3 SNA time and an EN1 allocation on Thursday of last week. The school now will now submit a detailed checklist in an effort to increase the allocations thus, hopefully, providing the student with an even better opportunity to improve his academic, social and emotional outcomes at school. Please note that these two examples are but a small indication of the difficulties often confronting schools when trying to gain adequate additional resources from SchoolsPlus for high need students with a disability that fits SchoolsPlus criteria. If you require any further information please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am sure members of this house would argue that those two scenarios attest to the urgent need for governments to reconsider how we administer funding for people with disabilities in the education system. That is why the Gonski reform has some potential because, as we know, it will give students a baseline of funding and then there is additional funding for students who come from lower socioeconomic areas or have a disability. Of course, the problem is the amount that has been allocated to WA, but I dearly hope that the Premier can sit down with the Prime Minister and discuss it. Let us not try to play politics with this. That is an easy thing to say, but let us look at how the Gonski reforms or the funding model can be changed to ensure that Western Australia receives what it should receive and that people with special needs in lower socioeconomic areas who may require additional funding receive that funding. As we and I am sure all the educationalists in the house know, the more money that we spend at the earlier end of the lifecycle, the less money we may need to spend further along. In the past few days in this house we have been hearing about the problems in the corrective services area. If we invest in education, that will, hopefully, have a beneficial effect later in the lifecycle of each individual and for society as a whole. Therefore, we need not to see educational funding as money that is added to the debt of governments; we need to see it as an investment that will have a future economic benefit to society. I mean it is quite obvious. It is quite simple. But for whatever reasons, the governments of both persuasions in many respects do not see it, especially at election time. It is interesting — Mr P. Papalia: We offered policies. Dr A.D. BUTI: We offered policies but, unfortunately, our policies will not be implemented because we are not on the Treasury benches. I think it is true, though, that while education is discussed a lot within a parliamentary term, and granted we did have some very worthwhile and exciting education policies during the last election, overall the public does not tune in to education at election time. We need to change that. Somehow we need to change the thinking of the public about the need for us to be fair dinkum about, and give a high priority to, education. I want to mention one other thing about education. Neerigen Brook Primary School is another one of my primary schools. I am sure the member for Forrestfield would also be aware of this school because it is another feeder school into Cecil Andrews Senior High School. Neerigen Brook Primary School sent a letter basically with a list of proposals or recommendations to both sides of the political spectrum before the election. The school came up with some very worthwhile recommendations that I think need to be considered by the Barnett government. Neerigen Brook Primary School is an independent public school with a general student population of about 400. It caters for about 68 Aboriginal students as well as students from other cultural groups. It made some very worthwhile recommendations, including the need to establish a parenting centre at Neerigen Brook Primary School. Challis Primary School has a centre where parents can attend to learn about education and to learn about being a better parent, and Neerigen Brook in many respects wants to repeat that. Another recommendation seeks — The Government committing additional funds to disadvantaged schools to employ additional EAs — That is, education assistants — as a commitment to social justice and equity so that all students can be included in ways that enable them to achieve there potential. Also it said that the government should work — … with West Australian universities to align the rhetoric of enhancing teacher quality with improved policy and practice.

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I think the government is also looking at having a greater service hub around schools, as recommended by this school. Some of these schools require additional speech pathologists and greater assistance from the Department for Child Protection and Family Support et cetera. To have them more closely linked into the school system is advisable. There were other recommendations but I am running out of time. I want to move on to the issue of crime. Of course, at election time law and order becomes a very important issue. I was the only candidate in the Armadale electorate who was committed to having a 24/7 police station in Armadale. The minister is nodding his head. I am talking about the electorate of Armadale. In that electorate I was the only candidate committed to having a 24/7 police station. It is absurd that for a regional centre the size of Armadale, which is growing and which is at the higher end of crime statistics in the south east metropolitan area, our police station closes at 4.00 or 5.00 pm on weekdays and is not open on the weekend. That is absurd. Granted there are some police officers in the police station, but members of the public cannot enter the police station at night time or on weekends. It is absurd that in Armadale, which is a regional centre with some specific crime issues, the general populace cannot attend their local police station. Of course there will be some philosophical arguments that it is better to have the police out on the beat. Of course it is better to have police out on the beat, but there is a problem, as told to me by senior police officers. Cannington is the nearest 24/7 police station to Armadale and the next hub is down in Mandurah, if we look at it on a linear scale. What the police said to me is that because Armadale is quite a distance from Perth, by the time reinforcements from Perth get to Cannington they have other jobs to go to, so they do not even get to Armadale. It is a shame that I do not actually have time to read out an email from a constituent. There was a home invasion and the people there rang up the police. It took the police 25 minutes to get there—25 minutes! I am not blaming the police. As the member for Darling Range and the honourable minister know, we have some great quality police officers in Armadale; however, there are not enough of them. It took 25 minutes to attend a home invasion in Armadale! I would bet anything that if we had a 24/7 police station, which would bring additional police to Armadale—the police have told me that would bring additional police to Armadale—we would not have to wait 25 minutes for them to attend to a home invasion. We can therefore have all these draconian laws and harsh penalties, but what is the point if we do not have the police to enforce them? MS J.M. FREEMAN (Mirrabooka) [3.55 pm]: I am proud to stand now as the member for Mirrabooka. I congratulate the Speaker for his election and the Acting Speaker who is before us today, the member for Maylands. I wish the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker and other fellow Acting Speakers every success and the very best in their positions. In noting the Speaker’s position, I formally recognise the passing of Joan Childs, the first woman to be appointed Speaker of the federal Parliament. She passed away in February this year. Joan Childs was a bit of an inspiration for me as a young woman coming up through politics. She was recognised as a pretty powerful voice in Parliament. Unfortunately, there were lots of claims to fame for Joan; she was pretty amazing. But when she got elected, the media turned up and said to Joan, “Do you mind if we could take a photo of you either doing something around the kitchen in terms of washing dishes”—this is 1974, so not that long ago—“or hanging out some clothes to show, you know, how great it is to have a housewife in Parliament?” Joan said, “Yep; you can have me in front of the clothesline.” So, she got a whole bunch of people to go out and put a banner up there that said, “Go Gough” and she stood in front of it with a glass of champagne and got her photo taken! So, go Joan Childs; you were an inspiration to young women like me—not so young now! I also recognise the Wadjak people of the Noongar nation—their elders past and present—the original owners of the land in the Mirrabooka electorate. I do that particularly so that I can congratulate the Wadjak Northside Aboriginal Community Group and the City of Stirling on the recent agreement to lease the disused Warriapendi preprimary school in Balga for an Aboriginal resource centre. That is just great news for our community. I particularly congratulate the chairman, Len Yarran, and the rest of the group and the committee, including Shane Garlett, who have worked very hard with Balga Senior High School and others in forming the Wadjak Northside Aboriginal Community Group and for working with young people in the Balga and Mirrabooka area. I want to share with the Parliament Mr Yarran’s vision for the centre so that we understand the importance of it. It is to contribute to building a strong community, showcasing Aboriginal culture and coming together to yarn, but also as an avenue for cultural exchange with the whole community in the area. As members would understand, that is really important given the cultural diversity of Mirrabooka and that we have not only a high percentage of Aboriginal people, but also a great percentage of Vietnamese and Macedonian people, people from central Europe, Africans and Australian-born people. As Mr Yarran said in the Eastern Suburbs Reporter this week — … we’re planting the seed that will last for a long time, and we want to make sure the seed that we plant is healthy, we know who is going to water it, we know who is going to fertilise it and we know who will pick the fruit off that tree. “If we do that right, then that tree will feed the community with a lot of fruit and knowledge.” I think that is a great sentiment and a great testament to the work of the Wadjak Northside Aboriginal Community Group.

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While this is good news, I also wish to raise my concern with the progress of the stolen wages campaign, which is another issue that is confronting Aboriginal people in the community of Mirrabooka. For example, Doolan Leisha Eatts, who is a very senior elder in the Noongar community and who many of us would have seen in welcome to country ceremonies, is, after some two years and advice that she is eligible for stolen wages, still waiting for the payment. This is particularly concerning given that other people in her community who put in applications around the same time have received the payment. This is despite her repeated requests for that to progress and my requests for that to progress. The question has to be asked whether the minister has committed enough resources to make timely and respectfully timed payments. One must appreciate that such a senior elder not being paid at the same time as others in her community is actually quite a form of disrespect, which needs to be acknowledged in this place. That error of her claim having been accepted without making sure a timely payment was made needs to be corrected. I congratulate new members on their election and existing members on their re-election. I also send my best wishes and commiserations to those people who were not successful. There were many great candidates in the last election. The former member for Forrestfield was a particular favourite of mine, as everyone will know. We spent many times chortling away up the back of this place. Andrew and I had a similar sense of humour to the point that at one stage I think our colleagues thought it was best to separate us about halfway through the term! With the indulgence of the new member for Balcatta, I note the Labor candidate for Balcatta, Janet Pettigrew. Janet Pettigrew is a friend of mine and a great community member. I want to recognise the fact that after she lost I asked her how she was feeling and she replied, “You know, Janine, I am an actor. I have gone for lots of auditions and sometimes I’m successful and sometimes I’m not. It was a great privilege to be in an audition for the Labor Party, because it holds the principles I hold and they are the principles I share with the community, and that was the privilege of just running.” That is the sort of person that Janet Pettigrew is and I hope she continues to aspire to public office in some form, because she really will make a great contribution if she does that. I look forward to working with the staff at Parliament again. It is always a pleasure to work with the friendly faces of Parliament in all aspects, right from the gentleman who always seems to clean the toilet just at the time I am going, to the friendly staff in every part of the organisation—catering, up in the library and of course the clerks, who are a joy to work with; I look forward to the next four years. I thank the community in Mirrabooka, and the broader community that supported me, for support and guidance. I thank the Mirrabooka constituents—the residents who voted for me and those who did not. I really look forward to working with both over the next four years. I look forward to the opportunity of showing those who may not have thought to cast their votes for me for whatever reason that I am worthy of representing them in this place. A gentleman who came to get help from me once said to me “I am never going to vote for you, but can you help me out?” I said yes and we did all of the work and he said at the end, “You know, actually I think I am your biggest fan now.” I hope I get the opportunity to show quite a few more people, because I certainly had a pretty hard campaign run against me and I had quite a few people who decided, after having voted for me in 2008, that they would not do that in 2013. For that I suppose I should congratulate my opposing Liberal candidate for a very hard-fought campaign. As I have told her myself, I look forward to continuing to work with her in her capacity as a community member in the Mirrabooka area and as the director of the Ishar Multicultural Women’s Health Centre over the next four years for the benefit of all of those in the Mirrabooka and broader community. I also thank and congratulate the Greens candidate Mark Cooper. It was a bit funny, really, because he is the dad of my son’s best friend. How strange politics really is! The electorate of Mirrabooka—an Aboriginal word for southern cross, which differs from my previous seat of Nollamara, an Aboriginal word for kangaroo paw—now includes Balga, an Aboriginal word for grass tree or xanthorrhoea. It also includes part of Ballajura, which I think is also an Aboriginal word, which I should find the meaning of. Nollamara is no longer an area I represent, which is unfortunate because I enjoyed living in the electorate I represented. It is a shame the electorate decided to move from me and not me from the electorate. I thank my neighbourhood for its support and care. Mr A.J. Simpson: All your stationery had to change. Ms J.M. FREEMAN: Yes, everything had to change. That is right. In particular, I would like to thank the Nollamara Seniors Club, the Nollamara sportsmen’s club, the Nollamara RSL and all of those at the Nollamara shops who worked with me over the past four years on the Police and Community Together project. During the past four-year term the area I represented saw a number of vital projects progressed or brought to conclusion. These included the Reid Highway overpass at Alexander Drive and Mirrabooka Avenue, and the establishment of a successful Police and Community Together community policing pilot. This project has unfortunately ceased, but I believe it should be available to other communities in the Mirrabooka area and others. I think it has great merit. The Mirrabooka bus station upgrade was completed during the past four years as was the Mirrabooka revitalisation by the City of Stirling with funding from the state government, which the previous Labor

202 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] government had committed to; the traffic lights at Beach Road and Butterworth Avenue, Koondoola; the Butterworth Park playground and the many successful community celebrations, including Harmony Days; NAIDOC; the Girradoola Christmas functions that I was involved with; and great projects such as the progress of the Westminster community garden. They have been some of the few events that have occurred in the past four years that I am very proud of. I would also like to note the successful campaign that I worked on with the businesses and community in Balga to bring back a doctor to what was a new suburb for me in the electorate of Mirrabooka. It seems rather odd to not have a doctor for a period in a suburb such as Balga. I was also very proud to work with the southern Sudanese community to ensure they voted in the historic referendum that resulted in the newest nation on earth. I thank those who supported my successful campaign for re-election to the seat of Mirrabooka. I thank the many volunteers who assisted with doorknocking. I will go through a few names and if I forget anyone, I do apologise. I thank those who helped with doorknocking, street corner meetings and stuffing letters—people like Jonathan, Kiara, John, Cassie, Lyn, Sabah, Helen and Tomas. I particularly would like to thank those who were booth captains on election day. As we all know, it is probably the hardest job of all during an election. It is a hard ask to ask people to be booth captains. I really appreciate their support and the love and care they gave in being booth captains. Booth captains do an invaluable job coordinating and setting up the booths and my success is a testament to them and all the volunteers who worked on their booths—Stephanie, Ron, Chris, Jodie, Kiara, Carmen, Donata, Cassie, Dai, Hugh, Sulaman, Adrian, Linda, Rob, Neil, John, Alan, Jonathon and Rebecca, I am ever appreciative of your efforts. To other significant contributors to my campaign, in particular the trust shown in me by Ellie, Keryn, Adrian and Danny—I thank you for your support and guidance throughout the campaign. Special thanks go to my partner, John, who, despite our personal difficulties, was a rock and a great on-the- ground worker. I could not have done it without him, even though we have gone through our issues this past couple of years. There are many supporters in a campaign, individuals and members of various community organisations and businesses and I thank you all. I would like to thank and recognise my staff, especially as the three have all taken their experience to new members. They are all going to work for the new members elected in Parliament, which says that either I am a great boss who has trained them well or I am a terrible boss and they have left—or something in between. I thank two of them very much for their work over the past four years and the one staff member who was with me for the past year. While doorknocking and leaflet dropping in the area over the years, I have seen many changes and the impacts they have had on the local community. The biggest change is urban infill and the impact the removal of trees has on the natural environment and on the ambient temperature of a neighbourhood, which in turn leads people to be over-reliant on air conditioning at great expense. The most distressing thing about the changes to the urban environment through this type of large block development is that it creates dormitory suburbs rather than neighbourhoods. People in dormitory suburbs no longer know their neighbours because they drive in their enclosed cars into their enclosed carports—or overcrowded streets with people parking on the roads and verges—and walk into their enclosed houses and wonder why they have a feeling of despondency with their life in the suburbs. It is my strong belief that a sense of wellbeing comes from a sense of worth and a sense of worth comes from positive human interaction; a friendly hello across the fence can change a person’s outlook. But we are creating suburbs in which people think that to achieve happiness they must move to the leafy green suburbs. They are aspiring to purchase wellbeing rather than creating the environment for it in their own neighbourhood. It is absolutely imperative that we work collaboratively and effectively with local governments by giving them powers under the local government planning laws and through the development assessment panels to ensure that we do not continue to make heat sumps and overcrowded ill-planned areas that were once vibrant neighbourhoods. On the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s website are some of the strategies used by some states to mitigate urban heat islands. Those strategies include increasing tree and vegetative cover, installing green roofs called rooftop gardens or echo roofs, installing cool and mainly reflective roofs and using cool pavements. Also, we should invest in our local bushlands, such as the Bush Forever sites, of which there are a number in the Mirrabooka electorate. In particular, it is imperative to effectively manage public spaces such as the Mirrabooka bushland north of Reid Highway. That has been an issue over the last four years. The Department of Planning cannot hand over the land to the Department of Environment and Conservation to manage it because DEC does not have enough money to manage it. Therefore, the Department of Planning, which is not supposed to manage it other than by doing small structural work such as putting up fences, cannot do any significant work. The City of Stirling says that it will not manage the land unless it receives some payment. [Member’s time extended.]

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Ms J.M. FREEMAN: Now that you are in the chair, Mr Speaker, you missed me congratulating you on your appointment. I look forward to working with you over the coming four years. Focus is needed to make the Mirrabooka bushland the jewel of the area that is used sustainably by the community. Flora and fauna is integral to a community. Wallabies reside in the bushland—I cannot remember the other name for them—and there are even kangaroos in other areas, although not as much in the Mirrabooka bushland. We need to create the bushland in a sustainable way, not as a dumping ground or as a four-wheel drive driving course, because that is detrimental to and degrades the appearance of the area. [Quorum formed.] Ms J.M. FREEMAN: I was talking about Bush Forever and the importance of ensuring that Bush Forever land is properly managed and resourced. Although the urban planning issues that I have raised are important, they are, however, not the most urgent in Mirrabooka, as that is dominated by the tragedy of many of the people in Mirrabooka not having a permanent roof over their head. We have a housing crisis in Mirrabooka. The 2011 census found that 42.3 people per 10 000 people were homeless. I have a feeling that a lot of those people are in the Mirrabooka area. But homelessness takes on a different context. It is not just sleeping on the streets; it is sleeping in and overcrowding other people’s accommodation, sleeping in cars, and constantly trying to get accommodation through the Department for Child Protection and Family Support and other agencies. The Western Australian Council of Social Service did an opinion piece on 11 March. It referred to social services turning away about 30 per cent of clients. This is very much stressing the client services in the Mirrabooka area. The frustration of the community workers is palpable. They meet regularly to try to find solutions when there just are no solutions, because there are not enough houses to accommodate the people in need. With Perth recording a 22 per cent increase in private rental prices over the past year and with a median income in Mirrabooka of just above the minimum wage, Mirrabooka residents are struggling to meet the high rents of the area. Average rents have risen by about 85 per cent in the decade from 2000 to 2010 compared with an increase of about 35 per cent in wages between November 2000 and November 2010. Rents in Mirrabooka sit around the Perth median of $470 per week. With vacancy rates below 1.2 per cent and a population growth of around 3.4 per cent, this puts vulnerable communities at the cutting edge of the housing crisis and in increasing need of public housing. My staff and I and many community sector workers are dealing with these vulnerable people searching for appropriate and affordable rentals every week, if not every day. For example, an Iraqi man who was accepted by Australia as a refugee after he had spent some time living in Italy and working at the Vatican arrived in Australia with his family of five. He was housed in a settlement service house and recently one of our good community agencies that works in settlement had to issue him with an eviction notice. The service did not want to issue him with an eviction notice, but it needed the house to fulfil its contract for settlement. Despite numerous applications for this man and his five children—it is not as though he did not have assistance to do so—it took six months to find him a property to live in. That is just one story. In another story, two Afghani women came to see me a week or so ago. They share the care of a son, because they shared a husband. They came to Australia on a woman-at-risk visa. They are subletting a room in a house with a community member who is a male shift worker, so, culturally, it is not the most appropriate thing, but they would not have a house otherwise. They cannot make a noise if he is sleeping during the day but are often disturbed when he entertains late at night. Their son is now 16 years of age and he wants to study but he is finding it difficult. They have no capacity to gain a private rental given their English language skills, but they have been told by the Department of Housing that they are not eligible for priority housing. In another story, an Australian-born mother of two daughters has to live with her mother and father while dealing with one of her daughter’s mental illness and suicidal ideation. Much of these issues have been created by the housing situation because this woman has to live with her parents, who question their granddaughter’s health and behaviour on an ongoing basis. Despite numerous applications, which she showed me, to enter the private rental market, and despite having a part-time job to supplement her income, she has had no success in accessing urgently needed housing. These are just a few of the people who are suffering because of the Western Australian housing crisis. I commend the Edmund Rice Centre for establishing a housing office, and my hat goes off to Piok and Mandy for the tireless work they do to identify private rentals for those in dire need. They go to home opens and help people with their rental applications so that people who are vulnerable can find housing. Unfortunately, they are often gazumped; and I will go to gazumping a bit later, because we need to address that as a consumer protection issue. As members may appreciate, because the Mirrabooka electorate is very culturally diverse, many newly arrived Australians, including humanitarian entrants, choose to live in the area. However, as a recent Senate inquiry established, the insecure nature of their tenancy means that they are likely to move more than twice in four and a half years, in contrast with one move in seven years for the general community. This has a profound effect on the

204 [ASSEMBLY — Thursday, 18 April 2013] settlement outcomes for families, with the stress impacting on the health, education and English language skills of the entrants and their children. One worker recently commented to me that they cannot concentrate on learning English because they are worried about housing themselves and their family; so, no English, no job; no job, no capacity to pay high rents; the cycle goes on. Currently, the Department of Housing manages 36 749 rental properties. It is, however, questionable what percentage of these sit vacant for too long waiting for maintenance and reallocation. As of November 2012 there were 19 697 applicants on the waiting list, and despite the questionable decrease from a waiting list of over 24 000 in June 2012, we have seen waiting times increase beyond the eight-year wait at that time. It is my view that the decrease from 24 000 to 19 000 was because they took many people off the list in a manner that I do not think was particularly ethical. Even though they were able to decrease the numbers on the waiting list, the waiting time has increased. The priority housing list sat at 3 174 in November 2012, with waiting times in 2007– 08 being just over one year. This was hardly acceptable for priority housing, but in December 2012 it increased to two and a half years! Even when I talk to a constituent, and I believe they qualify for priority housing and I can get them on the priority waiting list, I have to say to them that it will not solve their housing crisis, because they will still have to wait for two and a half years. This housing crisis has only got worse since the eighth report of the Community Development and Justice Standing Committee in the thirty-eighth Parliament, “A Fading Dream – Affordable Housing in Western Australia”. The government did not fully accept any of the recommendations and only partly accepted some, so I call on the government to relook at that report and the housing issues in the community. It is imperative that the minister and this government address the urgent need in our community. The minister should begin by making clear what he will do with the Mirrabooka land south of Reid Highway, being lots 60 and 61 Milldale Way. The minister’s silence about that land has been deafening and the community needs to know what will be happening with that land. Dr K.D. Hames: Are you talking about Health land? Ms J.M. FREEMAN: I think the minister is going to lose that; is he not? Dr K.D. Hames interjected. Ms J.M. FREEMAN: I have only three minutes, minister. The silence has been deafening and the community needs to know what is occurring. Other action needs to be taken to address gazumping to gain available rentals. Gazumping is when the prospective tenant offers cash incentives to the owner or property manager to gain the house over other applicants. We need to ensure that rental and consumer laws prevent this. We need to investigate, with local government and communities, innovative housing developments, such as using available airspace; for example, building over council car parks, retaining the car park and delivering housing above it. We need to ensure that building and planning laws can enable such innovations. We need to further pursue a regional focus, where there is available housing, on the settlement of newly arrived Australians. I would like to congratulate the enthusiasm of and assistance given by Paul Kyaw from Multicultural Services WA and Chris Ward of the Edmund Rice Centre, who have worked on resettling Burmese and Twa communities in the Katanning region. We need to work on effective rooming house and shared accommodation legislation to ensure that people who are forced to live in shared accommodation because of the current housing crisis are protected. The government needs to deliver on its commitment to enable granny flats to be used for broader rentals. Talking of government commitments, it is important that the government deliver on its election commitment for transport into Mirrabooka and deliver the Metro Area Express in the time frames promised; that is, commenced by 2016 and completed by 2018. The residents of the area were excited by the Metronet plan offered by the Labor opposition. Although I welcome any effective transport in the Mirrabooka area, I believe there is still a strong case for heavy rail along Reid Highway connecting the Joondalup line with Midland. I will continue to argue strongly for this over the next four years. In terms of law and order, which was raised by the member for Armadale, I too have received many emails that show that the waiting times for a police response are unacceptably high. People who are fearful of things that have happened in their home are waiting for hours, if not until the next day, for a police response because they have been deemed as not a priority. I commend the City of Wanneroo for its work so far in looking at the changes that are needed in the Koondoola area, particularly the Koondoola shops. In closing, I point out that we need to work on truancy. Truancy is a large issue in Mirrabooka. Education is very important but delivery of education is no good unless kids are in schools. The failure to have truancy officers has been to our detriment. Debate adjourned, on motion by Mr J.H.D. Day (Leader of the House).

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ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE Special On motion without notice by Mr J.H.D. Day (Leader of the House), resolved — That the house at its rising adjourn until Tuesday, 7 May 2013 at 2.00 pm. House adjourned at 4.27 pm ______

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