WESTERN AUSTRALIA Parliamentary Debates (HANSARD) THIRTY-FIFTH PARLIAMENT FIRST SESSION 1997 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Thursday, 15 May 1997 3082 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 15 May 1997 THE SPEAKER (Mr Strickland) took the Chair at 10.00 am, and read prayers. MOTION - SENATE VACANCY Joint Sitting MR COURT (Nedlands - Premier) [10.05 am]: Parliament has been informed by message from His Excellency the Governor reported to this House on Tuesday, 29 April 1997 that the place of a senator for the State of Western Australia has become vacant under section 15 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act through the death of Senator John Horace Panizza. Several members interjected. Mr COURT: I move - That the Speaker be requested to confer with the Honourable the President of the Legislative Council, in order to fix a day and place whereon and whereat the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, sitting and voting together, shall choose a person to hold the place of the senator whose place has become vacant. DR GALLOP (Victoria Park - Leader of the Opposition) [10.06 am]: As my friend and colleague the member for Bassendean said, the message to this effect from the Eastern States must have come to Western Australia by way of camel train. The delay in this process has been totally unacceptable and it is one of the issues that is causing aggravation in the community with respect to the passage of the Labour Relations Legislation Amendment Bill through the Parliament. The Government's desire to get the legislation through the Parliament before 22 May, when the Legislative Council will be constituted differently, has resulted in its taking extraordinary steps in this Parliament and the political system generally. The steps taken by the Government are causing annoyance and aggravation in the community and inflaming an already bad situation. These extraordinary steps include the delay in the departure of the Agent General-elect to London and the lengthy delay in calling for a joint sitting of the Parliament so that the senator-elect can go to Canberra. In addition, the guillotine motion has been used in this House and in the Legislative Council. All these factors are inflaming an already bad situation. For the Government to have any credibility on these matters this motion should have been moved many weeks ago. Members on this side of the House remember only too well what happened when Senator Vallentine resigned and had to be replaced. They recall the comments made by members who are now on the government side of the House on the process of replacing that senator. I will certainly take the opportunity in the joint sitting to remind the Premier and members opposite about those events. This Government's move to allow Hon Ross Lightfoot to vote on the industrial relations Bill by delaying his departure to Canberra has been a very provocative act in the politics of Western Australia. I remind the Government of its twin responsibilities. Its first responsibility is to ensure that it has a mandate for the legislation it brings to this Parliament and that its legislation can be sustained by a principled argument. The legislation has failed those tests. The second responsibility the Government has is to understand that there is a contract between it and the people and if that contract is to be maintained, it should judge whether the legislation it introduces can maintain harmony in our society. The Minister for Labour Relations obviously advised the Government not to worry about the legislation. He told it there would be a few protests but they would all fizzle out. I am sorry, they will not fizzle out. The protests are about not only the passage of this legislation but also the legislation itself, and when it comes into operation there will be further difficulty for the Government of this State. The motion before this House is one example of how this Government has mishandled the whole issue of the industrial relations legislation. The delay in filling the Senate vacancy has been brought about for no reason other than the desire of this Government to push through the Labour Relations Legislation Amendment Bill before 22 May. The people of Western Australia have been denied their right to have representation in the Senate simply because of the Government's desire in this matter. The Opposition supports the motion but points out to the Premier that it should have been moved in the Parliament much earlier. The fact it was not introduced earlier has more to do with the Government's desire to have the Labour Relations Legislation Amendment Bill passed than with Western Australia's representation in the Senate. [Thursday, 15 May 1997] 3083 The Opposition will have a lot more to say about Western Australia's representation in the Senate on another occasion. The Government should make no mistake: The precedent relating to the joint sitting was set by members opposite and the Opposition will use that precedent to say a lot of things about Senate representation of Western Australia and the delays which have occurred in filling the Senate vacancy. The Premier is losing the plot in respect of the Government of this State. He has allowed the Minister for Labour Relations too much freedom and has given him too much authority. As a result there is antagonism in our community today. It is disappointing it has taken so long for this motion to come before the House. It is certainly not before time this motion was moved. MR RIPPER (Belmont - Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [10.12 am]: The Opposition can do no more than support this motion. In doing so it points out to the House the dual embarrassment of this Government in its handling of this matter. The first embarrassment is the person the Liberal Party has chosen to represent this State in Canberra. I do not know how the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs can live with his membership of a party which elected Hon Ross Lightfoot to fill the Senate vacancy, especially when one considers his views on Aboriginal matters. The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs genuinely wants to advance the position of Aboriginal people in the community. The same cannot be said about Hon Ross Lightfoot. I wonder how the Minister for Education can live with his membership of a party which elected to send Hon Ross Lightfoot to Canberra. Only last week the Minister for Education launched a strategy for the promotion of Aboriginal studies in the school system. Although I was not invited to the launch, I understand he indicated he wanted Aboriginal studies taught in every school and he would consider making that curriculum component mandatory if insufficient schools took up the option. The Minister wants the community to have a greater understanding of Aboriginal culture. However, Hon Ross Lightfoot finds it abhorrent that Aboriginal culture should be taught in our schools and he is vehemently opposed to such a proposal. The first embarrassment to this Government is the type of person for which it is seeking the Parliament's endorsement to send to Canberra. The second embarrassment is the way it has very cynically manipulated the parliamentary processes to maintain its voting strength in the Legislative Council to ram through legislation that does not have the support of the community. At the same time the Liberal Party in Canberra has exploited the Labor Party's adherence to constitutional and parliamentary conventions. The federal Labor Party has not forced a reduction in the federal Liberal Party's voting strength. As the Leader of the Opposition pointed out, the only reason that this motion has taken so long to come into this House is to allow the Government to maintain its temporary majority in the upper House. The only reason it wants to do that is that it is too weak to stand up to the zealotry of the Minister for Labour Relations. Any decent leader would have said to the Minister for Labour Relations, "What you are proposing is too divisive and will cause too much damage to our social cohesion and the State's economy." Any decent leader would have demanded from the Minister that this matter be negotiated with the trade union movement and be subjected to the will of the Parliament which was elected at the last election. There has been no decent leadership by the Premier. Instead, he has caved in and surrendered to the zealotry of the Minister for Labour Relations. The Premier should have brought that Minister into line because there are sufficient people in the Government who know what he is like and are aware of the damage he can cause. A Government member interjected. Mr RIPPER: The member said he is a fine fellow. It is interesting that he is the only member opposite who has interjected in support of the Minister. That speaks volumes for the standing of the Minister for Labour Relations in the opinion of other sections of the Liberal Party. It will be interesting to see whether other members opposite are prepared to defend the way in which the Minister for Labour Relations has approached the Labour Relations Legislation Amendment Bill. The member for Ningaloo is a volunteer. Therefore, only two members on the government backbench are prepared to put up their hands and say they like the way the Minister for Labour Relations has approached this Bill. Is there anybody else? Not a volunteer. All the other members opposite are embarrassed by the way the Minister for Labour Relations has handled this piece of legislation. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr RIPPER: The timing of this motion is a classic example of the Government's whole approach to this issue.