Legislative Assembly Tuesday, 13 June 2006 THE SPEAKER (Mr F. Riebeling) took the chair at 2.00 pm, and read prayers. PROCEDURE AND PRIVILEGES COMMITTEE - SECOND REPORT Statement by Leader of the House MR J.C. KOBELKE (Balcatta - Leader of the House) [2.02 pm]: On 13 April this year, the Procedure and Privileges Committee presented report 2 of 2006, suggesting a number of minor adjustments to the standing orders. As part of the ongoing review of standing orders, several changes have been suggested to PPC members or noted by the Clerks as being necessary to tidy up small drafting inconsistencies, some of which occurred during the major rewrite and modernisation of the standing orders several years ago. These include - making the videoconferencing procedures used by committees a permanent part of standing orders; making a minor clarification of the procedures used during an opening of Parliament to reflect current practice; including the accepted one-hour time limit for presentation of an estimates committee’s report being listed under standing order 101; requiring a member to stand when calling for a point of order during a division; clarifying the procedure used by the Speaker for determining an absolute majority in the house; a simple amendment in relation to granting leave for giving a personal explanation when no other “business” is before the house; clarifying the current practice of the house of counting the day on which the second reading debate is adjourned as the first day; that is, if debate is adjourned on a Thursday, the second reading debate can be resumed on Thursday in three weeks; including a requirement that a quorum of a legislation committee be three members; including a requirement that debate time for the presentation of a legislation committee report to the Legislative Assembly be one hour in total, as is the current practice; and inserting a new heading “PROROGATION” before standing order 220 to clearly identify that part of the bills procedures that relate to the prorogation of Parliament. The government has considered and supports all 10 recommendations made in the report, and I will give notice of a motion to implement the proposed changes in the next few days. Once again, Mr Speaker, I thank you and the members and staff of the Procedure and Privileges Committee for your continuing suggestions to reform and modernise the standing orders of this house. TOURISM WA - REPORT OF STUDY ON STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS Statement by Minister for Tourism MS S.M. McHALE (Kenwick - Minister for Tourism) [2.04 pm]: Last year Tourism Western Australia engaged consultants to undertake a study into stakeholder perceptions of the organisation and the services it provides. This was done proactively as part of Tourism WA’s commitment to continuous improvement and as a measurement against the organisation’s internal key performance indicators. I received a copy of the report prepared as an internal document to assist Tourism WA in March 2006. The objective of this report was to understand the level of satisfaction with Tourism WA and the organisation’s importance to the tourism industry. Research was undertaken with key stakeholder groups including the tourism industry, tourism associations and government. Tourism WA was acknowledged as valuable and important to the state’s tourism industry and the majority surveyed were either satisfied or very satisfied with Tourism WA and its leadership. Importantly, the research found that Tourism WA was performing well in a number of its core roles: marketing and promotion in key markets; providing information to visitors; and setting an overall strategic vision for the future of tourism in WA. I am pleased to report that this research also indicated that the more people dealt with the organisation and its staff, the more satisfied they were with the organisation’s performance. [ASSEMBLY - Tuesday, 13 June 2006] 3499 This report found that perceptions of Tourism WA were moving from bureaucratic and reactive to proactive and entrepreneurial. The research identified several areas where improvement can be made, such as timeliness in decision making and consultation with industry. I know that the areas identified as ones in which further effort could be undertaken, such as communication and consultation, have been taken on board by the organisation. For example, the Tourism WA board and executive staff have established a communication strategy with initiatives to strengthen regular communications to industry via targeted newsletters, face-to-face communications and industry forums. The agency is also committed to building its links with peak industry bodies and other government organisations. The report was the subject of an answer to a question on notice from the member for Capel, and the report was to have been tabled on 11 April 2006 but was inadvertently not attached to the answer. This KPI research has been a valuable undertaking and Tourism WA will redo the research in 2007. I table the report. [See paper 1580.] PREMIER’S BOOK AWARDS Statement by Minister for Culture and the Arts MS S.M. McHALE (Kenwick - Minister for Culture and the Arts) [2.05 pm]: Western Australia has a wealth of literary talent in all its forms. Names including Tom Hungerford, Sally Morgan, Tim Winton and Kim Scott, to name a few, have filled shelves internationally. With an ever-growing Western Australian literary culture, I had the honour on Friday, 9 June of celebrating the literary achievements of Western Australia’s writers with the presentation of the 2005 Premier’s Book Awards. With 134 entries from established and new writers, I can inform Parliament that writing is certainly flourishing in Western Australia. Authors Sue Davenport, Peter Johnson and Yuwali were awarded the 2005 Premier’s Prize, as well as the Western Australian History Award, for their work Cleared Out, which tells of the first contact between a group of Martu women and children and white Australians in 1964. This is an extraordinary story that portrays events from different viewpoints and shows how misunderstandings have arisen from the time Aboriginal people and white Australians made contact. The winner of the Fiction Award was Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany. It was also the feature book for the 2006 Perth International Arts Festival’s One Book program. Rod Moran won the Poetry Award for The Paradoxes of Water: Selected and New Poems, 1970-2005. The non-fiction category fielded two winners with Richard Bosworth for Mussolini’s Italy: Life Under the Dictatorship and Philippa Nikulinsky and Stephen Hopper for Soul of the Desert. Wendy Binks’ Where’s Stripey won the children’s category and the winning work for young adults was awarded to Kirsty Murray for A Prayer for Bluey Delaney. The final category for best script was awarded to Reg Cribb for Last Train to Freo, the film of which has been produced with state government support through ScreenWest and will be in cinemas later this year. A key event for our literary industry, the Premier’s Book Awards celebrate and promote the works and words of our writers. The Premier’s award program links with the building blocks of books and resources people access every day through the extensive statewide library network. It reinforces the capacity of the Better Beginnings family literacy program, a state government initiative, which promotes the importance of books and reading in a child’s life. Through history books we understand more about ourselves by learning more about our history. My congratulations to all who judged and wrote books and were finalists and winners. QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE OUTCOMES-BASED EDUCATION - PREMIER’S INVOLVEMENT 320. Mr P.D. OMODEI to the Premier: I refer to the numerous assertions of both the Minister for Education and Training and the Premier that they would not be changing their implementation plan for outcomes-based education. (1) Does the Premier concede that because of his obstinate support for the Minister for Education and the Premier’s OBE plan in the past, his recent concession on the need for change has damaged his own credibility and leadership? (2) Why has it taken the Premier until now to realise there is a problem with his OBE plan, and will he concede that the belated changes he is now negotiating have the potential to confuse teachers even further? (3) Will the Premier take this opportunity to pledge to Western Australia’s teachers that he will leave the door open for the implementation of OBE to be delayed if they are still not ready following these changes; and, if not, why not? 3500 [ASSEMBLY - Tuesday, 13 June 2006] Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. Before I respond, I welcome the students of West Morley Primary School to the Parliament. Also, I am sure I am speaking for everybody in the Parliament in congratulating the Socceroos. Members: Hear, hear! Mr A.J. CARPENTER: What a great night it was! It was one of the greatest moments in Australia’s sporting history, I think. What a genius “Golden” Guus Hiddink is! Next stop, Fremantle Dockers. I think he is definitely the next coach. If we can appoint Ric Charlesworth, we can appoint Guus Hiddink, no problem about that. I will round that off by saying I stayed awake until the 70-minute mark, so I am one of the world’s great losers. I could not believe it when I woke up this morning and realised what I had missed. Anyway, it was brilliant, a great achievement; let us hope they can keep going. (1)-(3) In relation to the issue raised by the Leader of the Opposition, as far as I recall I have always said that whenever genuine concerns were raised by teachers we would endeavour to address them, and we have.