Statements
Legislative Council—41st Parliament
Statement
Hon Stephen Dawson (Mining and Pastoral Region—Leader of the House) (6:14 pm): It has been a long day for all of us. Indeed, it has been a long four years for many of us. Of course, today we come to the end of the 41st Parliament. I think it is fair to say that this has been a term like no other. It is a term that will certainly not be copied in the future, because of course today we say goodbye to 18 of our fellow MLCs and tomorrow we will start the 42nd Parliament with 37 MLCs. Today, we also say goodbye to our electorates. For those of us who will still be here who have represented regional electorates or a region in this place, we will represent the whole of Western Australia from tomorrow. It truly is an historic moment. Those of you who are leaving and, indeed, all of us, will be the last members for our regions in this place. I want to thank all members for their contribution over the last four years.
I particularly want to acknowledge the staff. To the Clerk and the amazing team that we have not only in this chamber who do so much for us; to Hansard, who make us look good and are always mentioned; to everybody—those who feed us, those who keep us safe and all of those people—thank you very much for what you do.
Although members of the public do not necessarily always believe it, it is the case that honourable members in this place work collegially most of the time and generally respect each other. That is probably because we all come here for similar reasons and with similar motives and motivations: we come here to represent our electorates and improve our communities. Of course, from time to time we might disagree on how to achieve a better outcome for our communities, but, fundamentally, everybody is here for the same reason. That much was obvious from the valedictory speeches we heard over the past few weeks from people from all sides of this place. I want to acknowledge all those who made their valedictory speech. I know that it can be emotional from time to time. Going back over the many years you have served in this place and plucking memories from the important times you have had can make you emotional, but it also makes it very special. As has already been mentioned, when you leave this place, it is only your first speech and your last speech that you are acknowledged and judged on, so your valedictory speech is a very important one. I have made the same point to those who will start tomorrow in this place: Do it right and do it well, because you will be judged on it in the future.
I want to thank members of the government in particular. Thank you for electing me as your leader for the past few weeks and thank you for giving me this job for the next term. Thank you also for being present in the chamber for each of those speeches. Indeed, thank you for doing the right thing in the 42nd Parliament; I will hold those who are staying to that!
On behalf of the government, I thank all those members who are leaving us and will not be coming back to the 42nd Parliament. I want to thank you for the contributions you have made in this place. I also thank you for your public service. I thank you for the service you have delivered and provided to the people of Western Australia.
To the outgoing members of the Liberal Party, Hon Peter Collier and Hon Donna Faragher, I want to acknowledge the significant contribution you have both made in this place over many, many years and, indeed, the significant contribution you have made to public life both in this place and outside. As the last remaining members who were ministers in the Barnett government, it is fair to say that both the Liberal Party and, indeed, this house are losing a lot of experience and knowledge. Opposition is tough—I can say that having served a term in opposition when I started—but these two honourable members have certainly proven that you can still get things done, such as Hon Donna Faragher's relentless pursuit of better child development services in particular. I also want to acknowledge Hon Peter Collier's role as both the Leader of the Opposition and, indeed, the Leader of the House in this place. He stewarded it so well from this side of the house when we were on that side; we certainly put you through your paces! Congratulations and thank you. It really has been terrific to work with you in those capacities.
To both of you, congratulations. Even in the final question time today, Hon Peter Collier with his police and corrective services questions and Hon Donna Faragher with her questions on child development, they still kept going. Congratulations, and I do acknowledge your work ethic.
To the outgoing members of the Nationals WA, Hon Colin de Grussa and Hon Martin Aldridge, who is away from the chamber on urgent parliamentary business, and I am going to put Hon Louise Kingston in that group as well, I want to say thank you for your contributions over the years. As a fellow regional member, I understand the challenges but also the rigours of balancing our responsibilities to this place with those of our electorates and our families. While many of our city cousins are still waking up in the morning, we will often be on an early flight or, indeed, are hitting the road very, very early to get back to our electorates or conversely to get back to Perth for whatever is ahead of us. Hon Colin de Grussa, I particularly acknowledge your contribution to the voluntary assisted dying debate. I think you can be very proud of the role that you played. Indeed, we can all be proud of that legislation in this state. I will acknowledge Hon Martin Aldridge, who is away from the chamber on urgent parliamentary business, because he has been the shadow to me for emergency services for a number of years. He has been formidable opponent. He has annoyed me, but equally he has driven me, and so I want to acknowledge him in his absence and wish him, too, the best of luck going forward.
To the outgoing members of the crossbench, Hon Wilson Tucker in particular, congratulations and thank you for your work in that technology and innovation space. You, like Hon Dr Brian Walker and Hon Sophia Moermond, have not given up on your pet issue. Can I say that daylight saving is observed in the other WA—Washington state—so if the member goes back there, he will get his wish, finally! So, congratulations.
Hon Sophia Moermond, well done and commiserations on just missing out at the last minute on your return here. To each of you, thanks for the issues that you have continued to raise and pursue on behalf of the people of Western Australia in this place. While we do not always agree on everything in this place, you have been elected, and so it is, of course, your right to raise those issues on behalf of your electors.
Finally, to the retiring members of the Labor Party, many of you I have known and worked with for a very long time. To Hon Dr Sally Talbot, Hon Peter Foster, Hon Rosie Sahanna, Hon Martin Pritchard, Hon Darren West, Hon Kyle McGinn and Hon Shelley Payne, thank you all for serving your party with incredible distinction, both inside this chamber and out. I want to place my thanks on behalf of your electorates for ably representing them in this place, whether it was over the term that you were here or, indeed, the multiple terms that you have been here. I will get to you in a second. Hon Lorna Harper is one member who kept us on our toes from time to time. We encouraged her to behave; it did not work, but well done. You, too, can be proud of what you have delivered in this place. Thanks also to Hon Vicki Helps, who came in for the last few weeks to fill the vacancy left by the former member, Hon Stephen Pratt, who of course now sits in the other place that we do not talk about in this place. Well done to you. Thank you for your contribution in this place. You never know, we might see you back here in the future in whatever form that takes.
Then last but certainly not least I thank and acknowledge Hon Sue Ellery for her leadership over many, many years. Sue has been a trooper as not only the Leader of the House for the last eight years, but, first, as the Leader of the Opposition on the other side. Of course, you were the first female Leader of the House and the first female Leader of the Opposition in this place, so I am proud and you can be very proud of the role that you have played. Thanks for letting me sit beside you. Thanks for letting me learn from you. Thanks for teaching me the death stare—I hope to put it to good use over the next while ahead. Sue, I wish you all the very best for what is next. We can certainly all be proud of your leadership in here.
I sincerely wish all the outgoing members the very best for what is next. Although this might not seem the safest of places, and it can be tumultuous from time to time, it is in fact a safe place to come here every day and do the things we do. We are creatures of habit in this place. We move when the bells ring. We eat when the bells ring. We speak when the bells ring. We speak when we are told we can speak. Tomorrow, you are out; you are free! You are free. You do not have to listen to bells. You might have to listen to your partner still, but the structure, everything, will be very different. We are very proud of the role that you have played but do cherish tomorrow and beyond. I wish you all the very best of luck. Everybody is dynamic and, of course, from time to time it is challenging for people leaving politics to re-enter the world and to get a job. I wish you all the very best. You are all amazing contributors, and whether it is boards, committees or jobs in the private sector or whatever is ahead of you, I wish you the best. Enjoy! We do not always get to spend as much time with our families because of our role in this place, so do try to make up that time post tomorrow. It is a formidable group of people who are moving on after serving Western Australia in this Parliament and, indeed, many who have served in previous Parliaments before us.
I note that Hon Darren West turned 60 years old this week and although he is away from the chamber on urgent parliamentary business, I wish him the best. I think I heard him talk about roughing it up at Crown Perth tonight. Can I just ask that he does it after midnight when he is not a member anymore! Private citizens can do what they want, but I do not want to read tomorrow in the paper, Hon Darren West, that you were arrested at 10 to midnight. You will never live it down.
To you all, can I again say I wish you all the very best in whatever is next in the next chapter of your life. Thank you to each and everyone of you, and thank you, President.
Hon Peter Collier (North Metropolitan Region—Leader of the Opposition) (6:26 pm): Thanks, President. I think you have probably heard enough from me today, but having said that, this is a very significant time. This is the end of the 41st Parliament, and I would like to make some comments on behalf of the Liberal Party. Thank you, first of all, to the Leader of the House for his very kind, personal words, and thank you to Hon Donna Faragher and members of the Nationals WA and the Labor Party who are leaving.
I will just reiterate a couple of things that the Leader has said and a couple of other points as well. Before I do that, can I thank, on behalf of the Liberal Party, the chamber staff for doing such an exceptional job yet again. To Sam Hastings and your team, you are outstanding, you really are, and you make this job so much easier with your breadth of knowledge and your professionalism, so thank you. Also, again on behalf of the Liberal Party, thank you to everyone in Parliament House, to Hansard, to Rob Hunter and his team, to the dining room staff, to everyone. As I said when I made my earlier comments, it is such a wonderful place to work. It really is.
That brings me on to my main point that of course is: it is such a wonderful place to work. It is such a privilege to work in this place, and the comments came through loud and clear from successive valedictory speeches that no-one wants to leave. When you leave, in a vast majority of instances not on your own terms, it is difficult. It is a tough gig, and that is what makes the fabric of this place—that it is such an extraordinary opportunity.
Given the magnitude of the electoral outcome in the last election, there will be a number of members who are going to leave after one term, and I feel for you, I really do, because I can just imagine how excited you were when you first came in here and how excited you were when you were out in the community doing things and knowing full well that you were doing a good job, you were working your backside's off and making the most of this unique opportunity, and you really desperately want to do it again, and you cannot. Can I say to each one of you, those members who have served just one term: let it go. Let go that disappointment because the mind is a battlefield, and if you harbour any of those regrets, it will be hard to move on.
Always reflect positively on what happened in this chamber and out in the community because this was one of the most extraordinary four years of your life, it really was. What this place has done is it enhanced your life skills and your professional skills like you would not believe, I promise you. When you get out there in the big wide world again, as the Leader of the House just said, after midnight tonight, you will find that you are a much better person as a direct result of that. I do not mean that in the patronising sense; I mean that very, very sincerely. So good luck to each and everyone of you.
To the other members who have had a little bit longer in this place, and I have made a number of comments on Hon Donna Faragher, I will once again acknowledge her enormous contribution to her portfolio areas and the community and to the Parliament. You are second none, mate. So congratulations and good luck for what carries forward in the future.
To my Nationals WA colleagues Hon Colin de Grussa and Hon Martin Aldridge, again, you have brought a wealth of experience and life skills to this place. You will both be enhanced as a direct result, and there will be big wide opportunities out there for the both of you. To members opposite, in particular to my adversary for most of the time I was here, Hon Sue Ellery—I did make comment of Sue today—congratulations, mate. You did an exceptional job as leader in both capacities, and you are a minister, so you can look back at that scoreboard and say, "Yes, that's what I did. That's what I achieved." You will always be able to look back at that scoreboard, and it is not a vanity exercise; it is a fact. Again, that will enhance you more than ever. But I will finish by saying this: I'm still leader and you're not! I am sorry, guys, and Hansard will not be able to capture the raucous laughter throughout the chamber, but it has been a little bit of an in-joke between Sue and I for a period of time.
I also mention Hon Dr Sally Talbot. Again, she brought an exceptional amount of experience into the chamber and she will carry that out from the chamber. When I first came into this place, I served on the Standing Committee on Legislation with Hon Dr Sally Talbot, and I am very conscious of her forthright attitude towards legislation. Her understanding of bills et cetera has definitely value-added.
From all that, guys, I say on behalf of the departing members from the Liberal Party, that is Donna and me, good luck to all remaining members. Better luck to the guys on this side of the chamber, particularly the Liberal members. When members come back tomorrow, we will be a significantly elevated number—not as many as we would have liked, but we will certainly be a much larger number of Liberal members. Ideally, that will provide more opportunities to scrutinise the government.
To all members—this is like the unique circumstance at the end of the year when we do our end-of-year comments and put down our swords et cetera and make wonderful comments about each other, because they are factual, sincere and genuine, and they reflect what goes on in this chamber—thank you very much for your support over the last 20 years and to all retiring members for your support and your contribution.
Enjoy the 42nd Parliament! Thank you.
Hon Colin de Grussa (Agricultural Region—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (6:32 pm): I am sure everyone knows that I am a man of very few words, so I promise this will not take too long, but I want to reiterate the thanks of Hon Peter Collier and Hon Stephen Dawson to particularly the staff and the people who make this place run as well as it does for us all. Having attended an induction session for committees this morning with the new members of Parliament along with Hon Dr Sally Talbot, I am sure she would agree that they are being spoilt! This new lot who are coming in ought to be able to hit the ground running and do everything very easily. Their hands are being held very well. I wish them all the best.
I want to say thanks again to the staff—to all the people who make this place run as it does—and particularly to all members retiring and continuing. It has been my privilege to serve alongside you over the past eight years—some of you over the past four years. It was said today I think by Hon Wilson Tucker how quickly time flies in this place. It is like a time machine. I cannot believe it has been eight years already. It seems like only yesterday that I was doing those inductions myself and trying to find my way around. I think, from my perspective, the biggest thing that I have learned here is respect. Essentially, it does not matter where one comes from with political ideologies, views and beliefs, at the end of the day, we will not always agree, and very often, we will not agree, but if a member can maintain that respect for each other and for the views of other people, they will go far in this place. I think it is really important that we do not lose that respect, despite the adversarial nature of this place.
The work of the Legislative Council will go on and the new members will come in and the wonderful work that this sausage factory does will continue. I look forward to seeing where it goes. It will be different; nothing can be more sure than that.
With that, I acknowledge my colleagues in the Liberal Party. Thank you for what has been a very difficult four years. It has been a very challenging situation with the way the opposition worked out, the alliances and so on, but I think we have done well. I have enjoyed it. I have learned an immense amount from you all. To Donna and Peter, thank you for your service. All the best for whatever comes next—maybe some time off!
To my colleagues on the other side of the chamber who are also retiring, thank you, particularly Sue and Sally, who have both been here for some time. Thank you for your service and for the way we have been able to work together. To everyone else who is moving on as well, thank you and all the very best. In the words of my favourite non-human, live long and prosper.
The President (Hon Alanna Clohesy) (6:35 pm): Members, I will make a brief contribution. I promise it will be brief. I know that it has been a very long day and perhaps even a long four years for all of us.
Thank you very much for the honour that you bestowed upon me at the beginning of this term when you elected me as your President. On my election, I promised that I would undertake this role with the values of fairness, equality and hard work. Indeed, I know that I have strived every day to uphold those values, especially at each sitting of this chamber, attempting to fairly interpret and apply our collective determined rules of debate and behaviour.
This work would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of our Deputy President, Hon Martin Aldridge; our Deputy Chairs of Committees, Hon Steven Martin, Hon Dr Brian Walker, Hon Sandra Carr, Hon Dr Sally Talbot and Hon Stephen Pratt, as well as Hon Jackie Jarvis and Hon Peter Foster who did part of the term; and our Standing Committee on Procedure and Privileges, which also included Hon Tjorn Sibma, Hon Dan Caddy and Hon Kyle McGinn. I thank each of you for undertaking your roles with professionalism and large parts of good grace, right down to the wire.
This aspect of the role is visible to the chamber and those who follow the proceedings and this part of our world, but, as Presidents before me have commented, much of the role takes place when the Council is not sitting. In this regard, I have worked to shape the strategic direction, management, administration and public engagement of Parliament through the management executive committee, the various parliamentary advisory committees and the various employment and management-related processes. I particularly acknowledge the contribution and collaboration of former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Hon Michelle Roberts. It is vitally important that our two chambers along with the Parliamentary Services Department work as a whole to provide well-managed and high-quality services to members and the general public. I also take this opportunity to recognise the hard work of the small but dedicated parliamentary electorate office unit in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
Other aspects of the role of the Presiding Officer, as you know, include representation of the Parliament at various forums, and details of much of the work that has been undertaken is contained in our various annual reports over the years. I will spare members the detail. Like all of you who have recently made valedictory speeches, it is nearly impossible to summarise four years of work in a brief contribution, but I recognise that all this work has forged deep relationships across organisations, jurisdictions and nation states to enable and strengthen our Parliament and our community.
Coming back to our house, I thank each and every one of you for your commitment and contribution to this place. To the immediate past Leader of the House, Hon Sue Ellery, as has already been noted, amongst her many achievements is becoming the first woman Leader of the House in the Legislative Council and of course the first woman Leader of the Opposition. Thank you for your support, knowledge and wisdom while I have been in this role and across the years.
To the Leader of the Opposition, Hon Peter Collier, thank you also for your wisdom, experience and commitment. As a new member to this place, which is now many years ago, I learned from observing both of your contributions and your ways of working. We will miss you greatly, both of you, and I wish you all the very best.
Indeed, to all members who have held party or other leadership roles in this place over the last four years, I acknowledge and thank you for all of your work in this place. To the new Leader of the House, Hon Stephen Dawson, congratulations on your election and thank you for the respectful and professional manner you have shown in conducting your role.
Members, every aspect of our work would not be possible without the outstanding commitment of the teams throughout Parliament who support us. In this regard, we owe much gratitude to the Parliamentary Services Department, encompassing the wide range of teams led by the energetic Rob Hunter. Members of our chamber, parliamentary committees and department of the Legislative Council have benefited hugely from the work of our Clerk, and the Clerk of the Parliaments, Mr Sam Hastings. I nearly gave him an honourable title then. He is honourable; he just does not carry the title. Mr Hastings' procedural and organisational leadership has allowed the Council to function in an outstanding way, and I am grateful for your service and your sound advice. Thank you. I also extend my sincere gratitude to the Deputy Clerk, Paul Grant, and to each and everyone in the Council executive management team, chamber support office, procedure office and committee office. None of this would be possible without your knowledge, skills and commitment to the Legislative Council.
Members, the position of President is by its nature quite lonely. It is a lonely job necessitated by the importance of ensuring independence in the role thereby enhancing fairness in the approach to the role and decisions. But I could not have undertaken this role alone and I acknowledge the significant support I have received from the Legislative Council team, from my partner, Phil, and my family, very broadly defined, near and far, and my dear friends as well. Former President Hon John Cowdell, who provided significant support; my dedicated electorate office team, Cindy, Nicolette and Dennis; and my equally dedicated executive officer, Rebecca, a very humble and heartfelt thanks to all of you.
Members, it has been an honour and a privilege to serve you and the people of our great state in WA, and I wish all of you the very best. And with that, members, the house is adjourned.
House adjourned at 6:43:00 pm
Questions on notice answered today are available on the Parliament of Western Australia's website
