Address-in-Reply
Address-in-Reply
Motion
Resumed from 20 May on the following motion moved by Hon Dan Caddy (Parliamentary Secretary):
That the following address be presented to His Excellency:
To His Excellency, the Honourable Christopher John Dawson, Companion of the Order of Australia, Australian Police Medal, Governor in and over the State of Western Australia and its dependencies in the Commonwealth of Australia.
May it please Your Excellency —
We, the members of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled, beg to express our loyalty to our most gracious sovereign and thank Your Excellency for the speech you have been pleased to deliver to Parliament.
The President: Before I give the call to Hon Peter Collier for his valedictory speech, I remind members and guests that the usual courtesies and conventions of this chamber apply in the course of this speech.
Hon Peter Collier (North Metropolitan Region—Leader of the Opposition) (1:11 pm): Over the last few months, as I have reflected upon the potential content of my valedictory speech, I almost always delved back to where it all began, and that is my hometown of Kalgoorlie. As puerile as it might sound, my motivation to embark on a political career, along with teaching and tennis, was shaped by Jonathan, an inspiring young seagull created by Richard Bach in his mystical little book titled Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I first read Richard Bach's fable as a 15-year-old and I was immediately inspired by its theme of breaking free from societal expectations and limitations and pursuing our own goals. If you ask any of my former students or athletes or others with whom I have worked, they will automatically associate Jonathan's wisdom with my messages. For some reason, as an ambitious teenager with clearly defined aspirations, Bach's message really struck a chord with me and I developed a resolute mindset that I was going to become a teacher, play Davis Cup for Australia and represent the Liberal Party in the Legislative Council. I will accept two out of three as a pass.
With this in mind, having taught and coached tennis for almost a quarter of a century, my parliamentary career officially commenced in the Legislative Council on 22 May 2005. My first day in the Legislative Council was on Tuesday 24 May 2005 and I delivered my inaugural speech on 25 May. In that speech I spoke of my dedication to education and regional Western Australia, amongst other themes, and I concluded by referring to an often used affirmation to which I have always committed, with that being to view life as a series of opportunities as opposed to a series of events. I intended to continue with this mindset as I commenced my parliamentary career.
From the very first day, I was in awe of the overall fabric of the Legislative Council and the constant energy that permeated from the chamber. Given the heavy focus of attention being placed on education throughout the community at the time, I salivated at the numerous opportunities to engage in debate on the multiple problem areas that were consuming the sector.
In early 2006 I was appointed shadow Minister for Education and Training, which provided me with considerable avenues to engage with the entire education sector to supplement my parliamentary work. In addition, as a member of the Standing Committee on Legislation, we were tasked with reviewing numerous bills, which provided me with a steep learning curve on the legislative process. Also, I had been approached by a group of disaffected workers who felt that they had been manipulated and exploited by the owner of a private training business. Following a lengthy debate in the Legislative Council in June 2007, through a motion that I moved, the combined efforts of the Liberal Party and the Greens established an inquiry into the Balga Works training saga through the Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations, with myself as a substitute member. The yearlong inquiry produced a number of excellent recommendations, which were accepted by the government. In short, the disaffected workers received their lost wages and significant changes were implemented to improve probity arrangements with contracts between the education department and private training providers. These outcomes would never have been achieved if it had not been for the efforts of one of the Legislative Council's standing committees.
My involvement with each of these committees reinforced with me the value that they have in the parliamentary process. While some governments may appear to resent the role of committees and regard them as a hindrance to their agenda, I have always felt that they actually enhance and improve the political procedure. I continue to hold this view, as I did when I was Leader of the House, when multiple bills were referred to the Legislation Committee for review.
While I was thoroughly enjoying my first term in the Legislative Council, the ultimate aim of any political party is to spend as little time as possible on the opposition benches. What I was not expecting was the brevity of my time in opposition. As history will record, then Labor Premier Alan Carpenter attempted to exploit the disunity of the Liberal Party at the time and, in August 2008, called an election, almost eight months earlier than scheduled. To say that the Liberal Party was not prepared for the election would be an understatement. We had very little accumulated campaign funding and many seats were without an endorsed candidate. Regardless, remarkably, we won that election, and attention was immediately directed to the composition of the ministry.
Having spent nearly a quarter of a century as a teacher, having spent the previous two years in Parliament totally focused on education and having developed a raft of extensive policies, it was widely anticipated that I would be appointed as the new education minister. Consequently, when incoming Premier Colin Barnett informed me that I would be the energy and training minister, rather than being delighted, I felt a combination of shock and disappointment. However, these feelings of self-indulgence were very short lived. I was a minister of the Crown, and I approached my new challenge with relish. To me, the energy portfolio was one of those genuine opportunities in life of which I previously mentioned. I had potentially been at risk of being pigeonholed as being exclusively education focused. My new role would assist me in diversifying my knowledge and skill set. Having said this, my overall understanding of the energy sector was limited to replacing a light bulb, so it was vital that I establish a knowledge base as soon as possible.
As with any government department, it is not vital that a minister has a total understanding of the minutia of the portfolio, nor become consumed with the operational mechanics of the area. However, developing a broad understanding of the sector and the issues that would be likely to emerge was imperative. Energy has been one of those areas that the community tends to take for granted. In the past, the only time they gave it any serious consideration was when the lights went off. With this in mind, as incoming Minister for Energy, I was faced with a complex set of problems. Firstly, due to capacity issues, the previous summer was beset by a shortage of electricity and ordinary Western Australians were asked to limit their air conditioner usage over peak periods and industry reluctantly accepted forced shutdowns.
Secondly, an explosion at the Apache Energy Varanus Island gas processing facility in the Pilbara in June 2008 cut Western Australia's domestic gas supply by over 30%. This had created a significant shortage of gas for industry and had a negative impact upon industrial processing, manufacturing, residential use and electricity generation. This incident exposed the state's vulnerability in terms of a reliable energy sector due to our heavy dependence upon gas at the time. Thirdly, there had not been a tariff increase for a decade, meaning that there was a massive deficit in terms of cost reflective electricity prices, with a report to government recommending an increase of over 50% in 2009 to 2010, followed by a further increase of 26% the following year to bring household electricity prices into line with costs. Finally, multiple problems with the disaggregation process of Western Power had emerged. In particular, Verve Energy had tabled enormous losses largely due to the lack of tariff increases that needed to be addressed. Coupled with these issues was the overarching global debate surrounding climate change.
It did not take me long before I was captured by the dynamic issues surrounding energy. I immediately sought the advice and support of some experts in the field. Premier Colin Barnett was a former Minister for Energy and he was a valuable source of support. I also took counsel from a number of experts in the field, as well as having tireless briefings from the Office of Energy, Synergy, Verve Energy, Western Power and Horizon Power. The challenges that confronted the government to secure a reliable energy source were profound. A key focus was how we were going to respond to the gas shortage exposed through the Varanus Island explosion. In addition, I needed to address a number of issues with regard to the gas market. As a novice in the field, it was imperative that I embraced the gas sector in making decisions that would have an impact upon its industry.
With this in mind, in January 2009, I established the Gas Supply and Emergency Management Committee, composed of the gas producers and retailers; gas users, including electricity generators and networks; representatives from the Dampier Bunbury Pipeline Limited; the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia and the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, and government representatives. The committee was tasked to review and provide advice to government on the state's gas security, gas supply disruption management and mitigation options for gas supply disruptions. The committee reported in September 2009 and as a result of its recommendations the Independent Market Operator was selected to operate a permanent gas bulletin board and to develop a gas statement of opportunities. Both initiatives had been called for by the gas industry and were extremely well received by the sector. President, I will seek leave to table a copy of that report.
Consistent with another recommendation, as Minister for Energy, in May 2011, I approved the long-term arrangement between Verve Energy and the APA Group, which would lead to the development of the Mondarra gas storage facility near Dongara to provide additional gas supply of up to 150 terajoules a day for a 30-day period in the event of another disruption to supply from the North West Shelf. This storage facility was completed in September 2013. The decision to refurbish Muja A and B was made to ensure energy security and diversification in the South West Interconnected System over the short to medium term and, in particular, to reduce the reliance on gas during summer months. The genesis for a refurbishment or extension of the life of Muja AB originated in 2006–07 following the former Labor government's decision to retire the plant in order to meet the generation cap of 3,000 megawatts imposed on Verve Energy. As part of the disaggregation of the old Western Power, Verve Energy received approximately 10 unsolicited offers in relation to the future of the asset post the designated retirement date of April 2007. In February 2007, Verve Energy’s capacity was 3,480 megawatts. The former Labor government supported Verve Energy's request for proposal process that was specifically designed to identify a life for Muja AB post its notional retirement date of April 2007. In March 2007, Verve Energy retired the 2,040-megawatt Muja AB plant and in May 2008 it advised Inalco that its proposal was preferred. In June 2008, in response to the Varanus Island explosion, the then Minister for Energy announced that Muja AB would return to service to reduce diesel usage and free up gas supplies.
In July 2009, I announced the refurbishment of Muja AB. The project was estimated to cost $150 million and would be completed by October 2012, with all four units operating as a 240-megawatt Mid West plant. The project was a joint venture between Verve Energy and Inalco, referred to as Vinalco. Following an explosion in one of the four boiler units in July 2012, problems with the joint venture emerged when Inalco was unable to contribute its share of the additional costs to complete the refurbishment. These problems intensified when the condition of the remaining boiler units was found to be worse than initially expected. The joint venture was ultimately terminated, with Verve Energy taking responsibility for the project. The final cost of the refurbishment was significantly higher than originally forecast, largely driven by the boiler repair cost and capacity credit refunds, although refurbishment was the best available option at the time. The refurbishment was completed in February 2014 and the plant operated until its retirement on 1 October 2017, achieving profits in both 2015 and 2016. Finally, with regard to Muja, contrary to the assertion in the Langoulant report that Treasury was not aware of the joint venture, I once again refute that claim. As per evidence that I provided to the Legislative Council on 12 June 2018, both Treasury and the Auditor General were aware of and supported the arrangement between Verve Energy and Inalco.
Turning to gas, on 27 June 2012, I opened two new high efficiency gas turbines at Verve Energy’s Kwinana power station. This represented an investment of $263 million by the Liberal–National government to ensure security of energy supply. At the time, these units were the first of their kind to become operational in Australia and represented the latest in gas turbine technology. The machines added 200 megawatts of flexible, efficient gas-fired generation to Western Australia's power system.
Moving on; although Western Australia had a dependency upon gas and coal for energy generation for many years, there had been a growing desire throughout the global community to adopt more low emission and cleaner energy sources. The renewable energy sector was in its infancy when the Liberal–National government took office in 2008. One of the mechanisms to promote the renewable energy sector was through the feed-in-tariff, which provided a subsidy to householders with photovoltaic, wind and micro-hydro systems. After considerable consultation and assessment of the existing schemes in other jurisdictions, on 27 May 2010, I announced a net feed-in tariff scheme set at 40c per kilowatt hour on electricity exported into the South West Interconnected System and regional grids. This model was determined from extensive community consultation and an assessment of models from other Australian jurisdictions. It served the dual purpose of reducing household electricity bills and significantly enhancing direct community involvement in the move to a cleaner energy future. The $23 million originally allocated to the scheme would limit the number of households eligible to access the financial incentive. However, it was anticipated that it would significantly stimulate the rooftop solar market. Following a review by the Office of Energy, I announced changes to the scheme in May 2011, increasing the initial budget from $23 million to $114.5 million over four years, with the rate reduced to 20c per kilowatt hour from 1 July 2011 and capacity capped at 150 megawatts. The feed-in tariff scheme was enormously successful. On 1 January 2009, prior to its introduction, there were 2,554 rooftop solar installations in Western Australia. Following its introduction in 2010, there were 36,004 on 1 January 2011, and 130,324 on 1 January 2013—immediately prior to the state election. The number continued to increase after the election, despite the conclusion of the scheme. By 1 January 2017, there were 220,416 systems and by 1 January 2025 it had escalated to 527,775. In essence, the feed-in tariff had facilitated the development of the rooftop solar industry, contributed to the reduction in unit prices and highlighted the ongoing financial advantage of installing a rooftop solar system. Of course, I need to acknowledge the escalated cost of the scheme, with the capacity cap being exceeded due to a number of issues. This was an unfortunate outcome of an otherwise excellent policy initiative and, as Minister for Energy, I took full responsibility.
In addition to the feed-in tariff, the government invested in a number of other major renewable energy projects. This included the Collgar wind farm near Merredin, which I opened in June 2011 with 111 turbines, which added another 206 megawatts of capacity to the SWIS grid. Also, the 10-megawatt utility solar farm in the Mid West, which I opened in October 2012, which was, at the time, the biggest solar photovoltaic project in the nation, comprising 150,000 solar panels, covering 50 hectares of land. In addition, our government invested tens of millions of dollars into low emissions energy projects through the low emissions energy development (LEED) fund. The end result of this investment was a more than doubling of the renewable percentage in the SWIS generation output from less than 4% in 2008 to approximately 10% in 2013. To conclude on the portfolio of energy, the one area that had universal support throughout the sector was the demand for a comprehensive and coordinated appraisal of the direction of energy into the future. With this in mind, in August 2009, I announced that the government would begin the process to develop the strategic energy initiative to secure a sustainable energy sector. The point of the SEI was to take a holistic approach to the development of a long-term energy strategy. We conducted multiple community forums throughout Western Australia and consulted widely with all stakeholders engaged within the portfolio. On 28 August 2012, I released the Strategic Energy Initiative: Energy2031: Building the Pathways for Western Australia's Energy Future. The five pillars to a more strategic energy pathway were identified as having a diverse and secure energy supply, be proactive in energy planning, develop effective and efficient energy delivery, have informed and responsible energy use and strong engagement in capacity building. The pathways identified in Energy 2031 still hold true today. I will seek leave to table a copy of that report. In conclusion, despite my initial reticence, I found the energy portfolio to be dynamic and rewarding and I thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as minister.
I move on to the training portfolio. Although not education, it was closely related and I relished the opportunity to have an impact in such a crucial area. Having taught primarily at the senior secondary level for 23 years, I was extremely mindful of the role performed by training in our education system. For generations, our entire education system had been led by the nose by universities. Nonsensically, an abundance of the core curriculum had been generated towards providing an outcome that led to university entrance. This was despite the fact that, historically, only approximately one-third of our students actually chose a university pathway post compulsory schooling. Although there had been some dismantling of this mindset in the previous decade, this culture had been ingrained throughout our society for generations, and there still existed a widely held and yet misguided notion that anything short of a university degree was an inferior career pathway.
For years, many students left school in year 10 or the equivalent and got either an apprenticeship or a job, while the majority who continued to complete years 11 and 12 strived for university entrance. A combination of parental, peer and societal pressure often meant that multiple students continued with ATAR-equivalent courses when it would have been far more appropriate for them to choose a vocational pathway. I was intent upon doing my level best to alter that mindset to ensure that students recognised that a training qualification should not be viewed as subservient to an ATAR pathway; rather, it should be regarded as a treasured possession that would provide job security for life as well as open doors for employment all over the world.
With this in mind, after numerous conversations with Premier Colin Barnett in an effort to raise the profile of training, in August 2009 our government announced the establishment of a standalone Department of Training and Workforce Development, discrete from the Department of Education. This would ensure that there would be a more dedicated and focused delivery of training services to the community. When education and training are combined in one department, the overwhelming focus of attention is inevitably directed to the former, with the latter being a poor cousin within the relationship. This announcement ensured that training would receive the attention it so richly deserved. Suffice to say, the unanimous consensus of opinion within the training sector was that it agreed with this decision. I acknowledge and thank the inaugural Director General of the Department Training and Workforce Development, Dr Ruth Shean, for her guidance, professionalism and support in her new role. I very much enjoyed working with Ruth and her entire team in meeting the unique challenges of a new department.
Also in my pursuit to elevate the status of training, in September 2010 I opened the inaugural Skills West Expo. I was conscious of the minimal attention provided to training and skills development throughout the media and the community. With this in mind, I approached The West Australian to seek its support in promoting training as an avenue to a valued qualification. Then Chief Executive Officer Chris Wharton was very interested, and we subsequently agreed to the establishment of the Skills West Expo, a joint initiative between the Department of Training and Workforce Development and The West Australian. The West Australian also agreed to regularly print a success story of a trainee or apprentice to highlight the advantages of this career pathway. The inaugural Skills West Expo was a phenomenal success with literally tens of thousands of students and other Western Australians taking advantage of being able to access more than 100 exhibitors. I am delighted that the expo has become a permanent fixture on the training calendar. It has most definitely provided a positive profile for the sector as well as stimulus for thousands of students to consider a training pathway.
Another area that was personally extremely significant to me was to provide training opportunities for Aboriginal people. From the moment I was appointed Minister for Training in 2008, I informed the Director General of the Department of Education and Training, Sharyn O’Neill, that initiatives to promote opportunities for Aboriginal people was one of my top priorities. Although I am not Aboriginal, I have always held a deep personal affection towards, and a commitment to, Aboriginal people. From a very young boy, I was always conscious of the enormous disparity between the quality of life experienced by most Aboriginal people and their non-Aboriginal counterparts. With this background in mind, I now found myself in a unique position where I could actually make a difference to the opportunities available to Aboriginal people. I commenced the process through the establishment of the Training Together, Working Together committee in September 2009. This was a vehicle for consultation with and collaboration between training providers, government agencies and Aboriginal people to ascertain more effective transition points from training to the workforce for Aboriginal people. Co-chaired by the Chair and Deputy Chair of the State Training Board, Keith Spence and Dr Sue Gordon, the committee and I travelled throughout Western Australia to access the views of literally hundreds of stakeholders in the training and employment sectors and of multiple Aboriginal groups. The outcome of this comprehensive consultation process was the Training Together–Working Together: Aboriginal workforce development strategy, which I launched at the Training Together, Working Together summit on 9 June 2010.
The most fundamental recommendation to stem from the process was to oversee a more holistic, systemic, statewide approach to training Aboriginal people that would lead to successful employment outcomes. The manner in which this could most effectively be achieved would be through the establishment of a discrete workforce development centre dedicated specifically to assisting Aboriginal people from their training to the workforce, as well as the establishment of four discrete Aboriginal regional hubs to supplement the work being done through the coordinating centre. Consequently, I opened the main Aboriginal Workforce Development Centre in Murray Street, Perth, followed by regional hubs in Kalgoorlie, Bunbury, Geraldton and Broome. These centres were a conduit between Aboriginal people, training providers and employers. This is exactly what Aboriginal people had requested, and our government had delivered. I regularly visited each of these centres whenever possible and was delighted with the work they did and the results they were achieving. Staffed almost exclusively by Aboriginal people, they assisted thousands in their transition from training to employment. In recognition of the success of the Aboriginal Workforce Development Centres, they won the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Public Sector Management in 2012. I am disappointed that, in 2017, the incoming government closed these Aboriginal Workforce Development Centres and morphed them back into the general Jobs and Skills Centres, which were formerly the workforce development centres.
In addition, in response to the recommendations of the strategy, we created positions for mentors and role models to assist Aboriginal people into employment. Also, with regard to Aboriginal people, in 2008 I announced the establishment of the Aboriginal School-Based Training program, with an investment of $11.5 million. In addition to the entrenched basic work-readiness skills in alternative options, this program provided Aboriginal students in both public and private secondary schools with valuable and essential mentoring and pastoral care support.
Given the enduring challenge of providing a skilled workforce for our diverse and geographically disparate population, I personally spent a considerable amount of time accessing the views of a broad range of training and community stakeholders. I also utilised the considerable expertise of the State Training Board in developing a framework for initiatives. I would like to acknowledge and thank the then Chair, Keith Spence; Deputy Chair, Dr Sue Gordon; and members of the State Training Board for their valued support and advice.
Over this period, I released four comprehensive documents to provide some clarity with regard to policy direction in the training sector—Training WA: Planning for the future 2009–2018, Skilling WA—A workforce development plan for Western Australia, the Western Australian skilled migration strategy and the Training Together, Working Together document. Having recently re-read each of these documents, the challenges and suggested policy options are as relevant today as they were 15 years ago. They represent a cohesive framework of policy direction from training providers, employers, industry groups and government. I will seek leave to table these four documents.
To conclude on training, given the significance of the sector to the prosperity of our nation, as the relevant minister I was totally perplexed by the limited cooperation and cohesion between the federal and state jurisdictions, regardless of their political persuasion, on developing a master plan to establish a national skilled workforce. My view has not altered in the 13 years since I relinquished the training and workforce development portfolio. While a lack of coordination between jurisdictions on training frustrated me from my appointment as minister, it was solidified following my appointment as the national Chair of the Workforce Development, Supply and Demand Principal Committee in 2010. This committee was established as part of the new governance structure for the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment. While there is some coordination between jurisdictions on training surrounding standards, its implementation is sporadic and data sharing is limited at best and does not value-add to create an effective, skilled workforce. Coupled with these issues, the federal government is responsible for determining skilled occupation lists and there is frequently dispute between the requirements of skill sets as determined by individual states and those provided by the Commonwealth. Quite frankly, if we are to overcome the multiple impediments to furnishing a comprehensive skilled workforce in Australia, there needs to be an extensive overhaul of the manner in which we deal with this issue. This restructure will require the imprimatur of all jurisdictions to eradicate the ineffective silo approach to decision-making that currently exists. Until bold decisions are made in this area, Australia is going to limp along for generations and continue to rely upon sporadic bursts of migrants in specific skill areas without solving the problem. This approach has been used for decades and is not working. It is like putting a bandaid on a broken arm. Having said this, I thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as Minister for Training and Workforce Development and I am extremely grateful to the entire sector for its support.
Moving on, I was delighted to be appointed Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in December 2010, a position that I retained until our government was defeated at the March 2017 election. I have previously mentioned my inherent commitment to Aboriginal people, and I saw my elevation to the role of minister to be an extraordinary privilege. I have also mentioned some initiatives that we achieved for Aboriginal people in the training portfolio, and I will do likewise with education. Suffice to say, ironically, upon my appointment, it became rapidly apparent to me that the direct influence that the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs could have on Aboriginal people was minimal. This constantly frustrated me in my new role. In essence, it became patently obvious to me that a silo approach existed within the machinery of government in terms of developing effective strategies to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal people. While the intent of respective departments was quite honourable, many of the programs that were implemented elicited a short-term effect at best and were tokenism at worst. Although the Aboriginal Affairs Coordinating Committee exists and consists of the directors general of the major government departments, it has minuscule authority and accountability.
In the aftermath of the government's re-election in 2013, although I was extremely keen to retain the Aboriginal affairs portfolio, I did express my frustrations with the role to the Premier. Essentially, I felt that the position, as it then stood, was redundant. He was receptive to my concerns and collectively we agreed to the establishment of an Aboriginal affairs cabinet subcommittee to drive better coordination across government. As Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Education, I chaired the cabinet subcommittee comprising the Ministers for Health, Mental Health, Police, Corrective Services, Child Protection, Lands and Regional Development and Culture and the Arts and their respective directors general. All policy initiatives surrounding Aboriginal affairs required the endorsement of the subcommittee. I was delighted with the outcomes that emanated from that body. It literally changed the mindset of government decision-making with regard to Aboriginal affairs, in that producing tangible outcomes was required as an imperative of any policy initiative. I was extremely disappointed that the incoming government abandoned the subcommittee in 2017. I feel that retaining this body would have ensured that there was a bipartisan commitment to doing things differently, to doing things more effectively for Aboriginal people, as opposed to the antiquated formula that has not worked for generations.
Despite it being a statutory authority, one of the pivotal Aboriginal advisory bodies that had been dormant for the entirety of the previous Labor government was the Western Australian Aboriginal Advisory Council. My predecessor in the role, Hon Kim Hames, had resurrected this body when we took office in 2008. During my tenure as minister, I joined the council at the beginning of each of its meetings, and the government adopted many of its recommendations in terms of policy and program initiatives. This council comprised entirely Aboriginal people. It was literally a voice for Aboriginal people. Having endured a divisive and bruising national debate on providing Aboriginal people with a voice, we actually have such a body in Western Australia. If there is a genuine motivation to improve Aboriginal outcomes, future governments could do a lot worse than to further empower and promote this body.
With regard to policy initiatives, one of the specific programs that existed within the Department of Aboriginal Affairs was the Partnership Acceptance Learning Sharing (PALS) program. It is a wonderful program that encourages all Western Australian schools to develop projects that promote and advance reconciliation. The projects were many and varied and included drama productions, artwork, visits by elders, Aboriginal language development programs and many more. I strongly promoted the expansion of the program throughout our schools and each year invited the finalists to Parliament House, where all members of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly were invited to interact with the participants. Fewer than 80 schools participated in the PALS program in 2010, and that had increased to over 500 schools by 2016.
To conclude on Aboriginal Affairs, as minister, while I genuinely attempted to do all that I possibly could to close the gap, what I achieved was hopelessly inadequate. Unfortunately, the same must be said of virtually every single current and former Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in every single jurisdiction throughout our nation. This is not intended to be a targeted criticism; it is a depressing reality. I am sure that every one of these ministers acted with honourable intent to achieve exactly the same outcomes—to close the gap, to drive reform in service delivery for all our original Australians so that there is no gap to close. Rather, that the exceptional opportunities and quality of life that exists for non-Aboriginal Australians are equally available for our Aboriginal brothers and sisters.
I am extremely confident that nobody wants the unacceptably low graduation rates that currently exist for Aboriginal students, nor appalling school attendance statistics for Aboriginal students, nor alarming health statistics, nor lack of adequate housing, nor disgraceful incarceration rates, nor elevated substance abuse amongst Aboriginal people. We are now well into the 21st century, yet there has been little substantial improvement for generations in many of these areas for the oldest living culture on the face of the earth.
Until we adopt a holistic approach to decision-making, I despair that things are not going to improve in the short to medium term. The ad hoc, silo approach with tick-a-box programs have not worked. In my entire six and a half years as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, there was not one national Aboriginal Affairs ministerial council meeting as there is with virtually every other portfolio area. Why not? I desperately wanted this to change, and I expressed my views on a regular basis to respective federal colleagues of both political persuasions. We definitely need a seismic shift in our approach to service delivery for Aboriginal people or, unfortunately, in 10, 20, even 50 years time, we will continue to be tut-tutting, shaking our heads and reflecting upon the unfortunate situation with Aboriginal people and then, sadly, we will continue to revert to the age-old cliché that "nothing can be done" as a pathetic excuse.
I am sorry that I could not have done more to assist Aboriginal people.
Moving on, as previously mentioned, although I had been disappointed that I was not appointed Minister for Education when the Liberal and National Parties won government in 2008, upon reflection it definitely provided me with an opportunity to diversify.
Having said this, on 29 June 2012 when I had been summoned to the Premier's office, I was anxiously hoping that it would be to offer me the education portfolio. Although I was relishing my current role, my heart and soul rested most comfortably with education. Suffice to say, I left the Premier's office on that Friday a happy man, and the following Thursday it was announced. In addition to Education, I would retain Energy and Aboriginal Affairs and relinquish Training and Workforce Development until the election in March 2013.
As a lifelong educator, I was extremely cognisant of the role of a quality education in a child's life. Ideally, in a perfect world, our education system should provide an environment whereby every single child is significant, whereby their weaknesses are addressed and their strengths enhanced. It should be a system that assists every student to be motivated and interested, to be resilient and to be compassionate. In short, the perfect education system effectively prepares every single student for the multiple challenges that they confront, both professionally and personally, at the conclusion of their compulsory years of schooling. As I reflected upon the new opportunity in front of me over the ensuing few days, I committed myself to that goal. As always, this would require waking up every single day committed to being the best that I could be to make this aspiration a reality. I knew that this phenomenal opportunity could not be condensed into my exclusive thought processes. I would need the wisdom and experience of multiple people throughout the sector.
With this mindset established, I met with the director general, Sharyn O'Neill, and the executive of the Department of Education the day after my appointment, and we discussed the areas that were most prominent on my mind and those confronting the sector. In short, the priority areas were the expansion of independent public schools, a reform of senior secondary curriculum and associated assessment procedures, funding for public schools, staffing, assisting disengaged students and, of course, Aboriginal education.
Independent public schools was a bold policy initiative that the Liberal Party had taken to the 2008 state election. As the shadow Minister for Education leading to that election, I had spent a considerable amount of time constructing the framework for the overall policy. The stimulus for the policy emerged from my experience in teaching. As a product of the public education system at North Kalgoorlie Primary School and Eastern Goldfields Senior High School (EG), I had previously taught in the public sector, John Curtin Senior High School and Lesmurdie Senior High School, Presbyterian Ladies' College and Scotch College. My sister and a number of my friends were also teachers, so this wonderful profession was a pivotal component of my life. At that time, there were a number of significant issues that consumed the portfolio. The purist form of outcomes-based education (OBE) with the associated levels as an assessment discriminator was being implemented across the state and was being met with fierce opposition. In addition, there was a major shortage of teachers, who at the time were the lowest paid in the nation and there were also significant issues with the creation of the new Teacher Registration Board.
Coupled with these issues was the tsunami of students who were leaving the public education system for independent or Catholic education schools. While choice of schooling always has been, and always should be, a choice for parents and students, the magnitude of the shift was quite alarming and, to me, it represented more ingrained issues within our public education system. What was the stimulus for this exodus? The same, or very similar curriculum was being delivered in all systems, all teachers graduated from the same universities and ATAR standards were moderated and standardised by the same body, yet the flood of students away from public schools was accelerating. Personally, I felt that the issues fundamentally surrounded decision-making on all levels of pedagogy—decisions on staff selection, decisions on budget priorities, decisions on course delivery, decisions on uniforms and, primarily who was making these decisions.
After all, we are all a product of the decisions that we make. These sorts of decisions have been made in the non-government sector by individual schools for generations, yet in the government system they continued to be decided upon almost exclusively from head office in East Perth. Surely a principal in Kalgoorlie would be best placed to decide upon the most appropriate staffing profile for their school. Surely a principal in Midland would be best placed to determine the priorities of their school, be it literacy or numeracy specialists or an additional education assistant. Equally, surely the parents, staff and students at a school in Kingsley would be best qualified to choose their uniform or school motto and ethos. Providing more autonomy for government schools had been debated for decades; however, there had been negligible progress throughout the nation.
With this mindset, I established a small advisory group of experienced public school executive staff—Melinda Harris, Neil McNeil and Stefan Silcox, along with Valerie Gould, the CEO of the Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia—and we began the process. We met regularly over 18 months and sought the views from multiple teachers, parents and administrators. The end product of this work was a document titled “Revitalising Public Education” that the Liberal Party took to the 2008 election. It was a comprehensive document that committed to a massive injection of funds to improve tired and dilapidated public schools, a vast expansion of pastoral care initiatives including doubling the number of psychologists and chaplains, significantly increasing teacher pay and almost doubling the boarding away from home allowance. In addition, the centrepiece of the document was a commitment to provide significantly more autonomy to public schools through the empowering local schools policy. The predominant features of this policy were that schools would be empowered to select their own staff, have control over their funding priorities and enhance the role of parents and the community in the decision-making process. This policy was the genesis of the independent public schools reform.
A considerable amount of time and effort went into creating the empowering local schools document, and I acknowledge and thank all those who contributed. In particular, I would like to thank most sincerely Melinda, Neil, Stefan and Valerie for their tireless efforts. In addition, to the dozens upon dozens of other teachers, administrators, parents and community members who offered advice and feedback, thank you.
The independent public schools (IPS) framework is now an entrenched component of public education in Western Australia and has been used as a model for similar reforms in most other Australian jurisdictions. The implementation of the IPS throughout Western Australia commenced in the first term of the Barnett government, with 34 schools at the end of 2009 and almost 200 by the beginning of 2012. Mindful that the transitioning of IPS status was a voluntary decision for schools, new intakes to the program were always heavily oversubscribed with public schools over the entire state eager to take advantage of decision-making at the local level. I gave a commitment that every school that strived for IPS status would be granted that privilege. This was almost achieved by the 2017 election, with over 530 schools and 85% of public school students in independent public schools.
In November 2013, the independent public schools initiative won the Premier's award for excellence in public school management—a recognition of the effectiveness of a real partnership between all stakeholders involved in independent public school communities. Personally, I regard the independent public school reform as the most significant of my time in Parliament. Although there is always room for improvement in any education system, I genuinely feel that the introduction of IPS has value-added to public education in Western Australia. I am confident, noting that from 2013, Western Australia was the only state in the nation that witnessed an increase in enrolments in public schools, that this can largely be attributed to the introduction of the IPS model. This increase in student numbers was most profound in IPS schools.
Funding of education is a perennial issue for any incoming government. When the Liberal and National Parties assumed the government benches in September 2008, as mentioned, Western Australian teachers were the lowest paid in the nation, and our school resourcing was also close to the bottom. An election commitment of $120 million commenced the rapid rise of teacher salaries to ensure that they were by far the highest paid in the nation by 2017.
The model for resourcing our schools that had existed for decades had reached its use-by date. To be frank, there was absolutely no science behind the existing funding model. There existed basically a one-size-fits-all approach to dollars allocated per student and long-held sweetheart deals for numerous schools. A report by Professor Richard Teese from the University of Melbourne reinforced these points and recommended wholesale change to school funding. Professor Teese's report reinforced a significant horizontal and vertical imbalance that existed between our public schools. The vertical imbalance indicated a massive issue with regard to an existing inappropriate percentage of funding for each level of schooling given the disparity involved in the cost of early childhood versus primary, middle schooling and finally upper secondary education. The horizontal imbalance clarified the long-held view that schools with a similar cohort of students were often funded at widely disparate quantities. Although we were spending an enormous amount of money within the education budget, it was apparent that these dollars were definitely not being utilised as efficiently or as effectively as they should be. It was time to change this approach.
Consequently, in July 2014, I announced a new, more appropriate funding model for Western Australian public schools. The student-centred funding model (SCFM) ensured base funding for kindergarten students, pre-primary to year 3, years 4 to 6, years 7 to 10 and years 11 to 12, and then individual students would be provided with additional funding based upon the need of supplementary support. The targeted categories were Aboriginal students, students with English as second language, students with a disability, students from a low socio-economic background and students from the regions. In addition, schools would be provided with additional funds for targeted initiatives such as the gifted and talented program. In short, at last, without discrimination, the money was following the child. All public schools throughout Western Australia were then furnished with a one-line budget, which provided certainty for principals and finance officers. The SCFM was extremely well received by schools and has since been replicated by most other Australian jurisdictions.
Moving on, one area that had captured the imagination of the federal education debate for years was the introduction of a national curriculum. Logically and understandably, there was a considerable level of derision voiced from parochial elements of the debate in all jurisdictions. However, given the rapid rise in the transitionary component of the Australian population and the considerable competition in the burgeoning tertiary sector, there was also substantial support for the establishment of a comprehensive and standardised curriculum across the nation.
After almost a decade of debate, in mid-2012, the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs was prepared to endorse the principles for a national curriculum. As it happened, that particular MinCo just happened to be a month following my appointment as the Western Australian education minister. Given the rotational procedure of the chair, I found myself presiding over the final debate. Harbouring my own reservations of establishing such a comprehensive reform, I also sought the advice of the head of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority, Allan Blagaich, and he not only shared my concerns, but also informed me that a number of other jurisdictions had similar apprehensions. Personally, although I saw merit in the concept of a national curriculum, given the fact that much of the content in all jurisdictions was very similar, I felt quite uncomfortable with the intransigent nature of much of the composition of the final determination. Quite simply, I preferred a model that would allow for individual states and territories to adapt the curriculum to their unique conditions. Consequently, rather than face the embarrassment of chairing my first ministerial council meeting and opposing a crucial motion, my counterparts in every other jurisdiction, including the federal government, supported my amendment to include the concept of adopting and adapting the national curriculum. Essentially, this meant that the national curriculum was unanimously adopted with the caveat that individual jurisdictions could adapt the content to suit their unique conditions. I feel it was a sensible amendment, and it was warmly welcomed throughout the education sector. I would like to thank Allan Blagaich for his valued advice and support during that crucial national debate.
Another area associated with curriculum that gained my attention as incoming education minister was with secondary graduation rates. As previously mentioned, the overall school curriculum had just laboured through a bruising debate over the introduction of a purest form of outcomes-based education or OBE. The Liberal Party went into the 2008 election committed to re-establishing content into the syllabus as well as abolishing the levels associated with assessing the progress of a student and reverting to percentages. That policy was implemented immediately following the change of government.
However, by 2012, there still existed vague and disjointed core structures and assessment procedures at the senior secondary level. In addition, there was a growing concern amongst universities and employers about lowering literacy and numeracy standards in graduating students. As the dust settled on the OBE debacle, it was apparent to me that we needed a reset with regard to secondary education. We needed to establish some rigour and integrity within our curriculum, our assessment tools and the criteria for graduation.
Consequently, in August of 2012, I tasked Allan Blagaich to establish a committee to conduct a three-month review of the existing curriculum and graduation levels at the senior secondary level. The committee was created within a week, comprising senior education figures from all sectors, and was chaired by Emeritus Professor Patrick Garnett. In the interim, I spent a considerable amount of time personally consulting various stakeholders including universities, training providers, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, the State School Teachers’ Union of Western Australia, principals associations, the Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia and Catholic Education Western Australia.
In December 2012, the committee provided me with its report titled The Western Australian Certificate of Education 2015: Responding and adapting. The findings were compelling and reinforced the widely held belief that significant changes to our senior secondary level of education were essential and needed to be implemented as a matter of urgency. In short, the existing stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3 courses of study were producing perverse outcomes in terms of secondary graduation, with multiple students choosing the least challenging stage 1 courses and abandoning the alternatives. In addition, unacceptably low levels of literacy and numeracy were being demonstrated by students who actually achieved a WA Certificate of Education, or WACE. Finally, over 5,000 students were completing year 12 without any viable pathway to further study or employment.
I will seek leave to table that report.
Consequently, in January 2013, I announced significant changes to the curriculum and graduation requirements of the senior secondary level. From 2015, in order to receive a WACE upon graduation, a student would need to demonstrate a minimum literacy and numeracy standard through an online literacy and numeracy assessment, or the OLNA, which would be mapped to level 3 of the Australian Core Skills Framework, the minimum entry for TAFE, and would have achieved either an ATAR or certificate II qualification. This would ensure that all students were much better prepared for life beyond compulsory schooling, either through further study or employment. These changes were extremely well received throughout the education sector, universities, training providers and employers.
To move on, I was delighted with the reforms that we were introducing at the exit level of a child’s education. However, I was cognisant of the fact that of even greater significance were the entry level years. As previously mentioned, for generations, our entire education system had been driven by the requirements for university entrance. However, I felt that if we got the early intervention process right, the exit outcome would take care of itself. Students would be best prepared to confront the requirements of university, an apprenticeship, a certificate qualification or whichever pathway they chose. With this in mind, I did all that I could to improve Western Australia’s early intervention opportunities for our students. My first act was to make pre-primary school compulsory for all students in WA. While most students were already enrolled in pre-primary, the passing of the School Education Amendment Bill in November 2012 made it compulsory. The passing of this bill ensured that every child of pre-primary level age had access to a high quality, full-time program as they would be guaranteed a place at their local primary school. Coupled with this change, every child was then given on-entry assessment, which included aspects of oral language, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, counting, ordering, early spatial awareness and simple measurement comparisons. This testing would greatly benefit the teacher’s capacity to prepare for every child.
Another initiative with early intervention was the establishment of 16 child and parent centres. Over 2014 and 2015, I opened each of these centres, all at primary schools within a low socio-economic area. A child’s education commences at birth, and it is imperative that we provide all children with the opportunity to develop the education and social skills to succeed at school and beyond. While a child’s parents have primary responsibility for the early years development, in many instances in contemporary society, some families require additional support. Amongst other services, the child and parent centres offered parenting workshops, child maternal health services, early learning programs, cultural programs, antenatal classes, psychological counselling and family support. While each centre was located at a primary school, their services were provided to a broad range of families throughout multiple feeder schools. They are operated in partnership with non-government organisations such as Ngala and Anglicare WA. I spent an enormous amount of time visiting those centres, and after engaging with the children, their parents and the staff, I always left feeling encouraged. The centres definitely had a positive impact upon the entire community. While I was at pains not to interfere with the working formula, after multiple visits, I recommended that we increase the level of literacy and numeracy programs, which was willingly endorsed across all centres.
Shortly after the opening of our 16 child and parent centres, the federal government decided they were a successful model to replicate. Consequently, they opened five of their own child and family centres in Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing, Kununurra, Roebourne and Swan. Unfortunately and disappointingly, they were destined to be short-lived due to financial pressures. I could not conceive that we could close these centres given the positive impact that they were having upon their local communities. Thus, given the infrastructure was already in place, I pleaded with the director general to request that she might find a bit of leftover cash in the bottom drawer to retain and incorporate them into our early childhood family. I was extremely grateful that she was able to accommodate my request and, in June of 2015, the five former federal centres became child and parent centres, bringing the total in Western Australia to 21.
In an increasingly complex society, providing early intervention and support to children and their parents in some of our most challenging communities has been both positive and effective. While a significant number of the clientele that engaged with the child and parent centres were Aboriginal, I felt that we needed a framework that was specifically designed to assist these children. Consequently, in 2015, I announced the establishment of programs for three-year-old Aboriginal children, delivered through 37 primary schools, to be called KindiLink. The program would provide early intervention, literacy and numeracy support, cultural awareness and parenting workshops. It was a perfect example of targeted early intervention in practice.
We could go on for decades and decades and continue to bemoan the lack of economic progress of Aboriginal students, pointing to the well below average NAPLAN results, alarming attendance records and parlous graduation rates. However, this is a convenient excuse for a system that has failed our original Australians for generations. I thank the current government for continuing this program. I strongly encourage future administrations to actually expand KindiLink to ensure that it is available in an even more comprehensive model for every three-year-old Aboriginal child in WA.
In addition, although not exclusively early intervention, I introduced two initiatives in an effort to assist staff and students when working and integrating with Aboriginal students. In November 2015, I launched the Aboriginal cultural standards framework, which was the first of its kind in the nation and was developed by the Department of Education in coordination with the Aboriginal Affairs Coordinating Committee, which I chaired, along with valuable input from Professor Colleen Hayward, Pro-Vice Chancellor at Edith Cowan University. The framework is now embedded in Western Australia’s public schools, providing direction for them to become culturally responsive to their Aboriginal students and communities.
I will seek leave to table that framework.
The second initiative was the establishment of the elders in residence program to assist in building stronger relationships with Aboriginal communities and their families. The first two elders were Professor Colleen Hayward and Ian Trust, Chair of the WA Aboriginal Advisory Council, and they spent time building stronger relationships with Aboriginal people as well as contributing to staff development and leading consultations between schools and communities to help break down barriers. Also, with regard to early intervention, at the request of the early childhood sector, in 2014 I launched the inaugural kindergarten curriculum guidelines. To that date, kindergarten teachers had been largely left to their own devices, with little directional clarity provided to them in terms of their learning content. The School Curriculum and Standards Authority consulted widely with teachers and associated early childhood organisations in developing the guidelines. The guidelines focused on promoting five areas of learning and development, being: identity, connecting and contributing, wellbeing, learning and thinking, and communicating. Teachers were provided with the flexibility to adjust the guidelines as appropriate to meet the individual needs of their students. Again, the intent of this initiative was to provide direction and to enhance the significance of the early years of a child’s education. I genuinely feel that the initiatives that our government introduced to enhance early intervention strategies have significantly improved our education system overall.
To move on, one of the most profound challenges that has faced the education sector in the past few decades has been the seismic shift in the role of teachers. When I first entered the classroom as a “chalkie” in 1981, the vast majority of my time was consumed with curriculum and associated assessment. Pastoral care was primarily punitive and involved the issuing of detentions and sending the more recalcitrant students to the deputy principal. By the time that I left the profession in 2005, after 23 wonderful years, that symmetry had significantly altered. While curriculum still retained the predominance of my time and that of my colleagues, the fabric of our society had undergone a quantum shift, and, as a result, the role of the classroom teacher was much more prominently involved in the pastoral care of students. It was not purely the usual suspects of students who brought with them to school a raft of social and emotional baggage. In fact, this was more the norm than the exception. Challenges such as the breakdown of the traditional family structure, coupled with the use of social media by students as a vehicle for more sophisticated bullying, as well as dramatically increased parental access to schools, has placed enormous additional responsibility on the shoulders of contemporary teachers. With this background in mind, the Liberal Party entered the 2008 election with a raft of policies to address the pressures facing our teachers and schools. These policies included increasing the number of school psychologists by 50, significantly increasing funding for behaviour management programs and specialists, doubling the number of school chaplains and increasing funding for non-government curriculum and re-engagement in education, or CARE schools. While some of these initiative initiatives were implemented in our first term of government, we still had enormous challenges in terms of providing sufficient pastoral care for an increasing cohort of disengaged and troubled students.
The school chaplaincy program is an excellent service that had been almost exclusively delivered by YouthCARE for many years. While there had been some disquiet about the use of chaplains in our schools, this view was not supported by almost all of our public schools. The role of the chaplain is to provide social and emotional support for students, teachers and support staff, parents and the overall school community. Their role is unique compared with that of school psychologists, counsellors or even deputy principals. More often than not, those who seek the support and guidance of the chaplain feel more comfortable in a less formal environment. It must be remembered that accessing the services of a chaplain by a school is entirely voluntary. During my entire tenure as minister on no occasion did I ever have a school with an existing chaplain say that they did not want them. On the contrary, I had multiple schools request additional time for their chaplain. In 2007, as shadow Minister for Education and Training, I promised the existing CEO of YouthCARE, Stanley Jeyaraj, that I would provide a chaplain for every public school that wanted one. There were just over 200 chaplains in our schools in 2008 and almost 550 in 2017. Every public school that wanted a chaplain had one.
Of course, there is a cohort of disengaged students for whom the raft of pastoral care support services would not be sufficient nor effective. This group has seen an exponential increase in the past 20 years. The majority of those students are not attuned to mainstream schooling and some of them actually fall into the juvenile justice system. With this in mind, our education system has evolved to cater for them, although this has primarily been through the curriculum and re-engagement in education (CARE) schools. In 2008, there were five CARE schools delivered through the independent sector and two through Catholic Education. The funding for these schools was provided by the federal government and unfortunately in 2008 it had been cut. Our incoming government met the financial shortfall and the schools remained operational. Upon taking the education portfolio in 2012 I announced a significant increase in funding for the CARE schools to ensure that they were adequately resourced to meet a rapidly growing demand. There were 25 CARE schools, either standalone or hubs, in Western Australia in 2017. While I was keen to support the CARE schools, I was also cognisant of the need to provide as much support as possible for disengaged students in public schools. There had been a growing propensity throughout public schools to transfer these students directly to the CARE schools, as opposed to dealing with them within their own sector. With this in mind, I had some productive discussions with the Director General as to potential strategies that we could use in the public system. I was keen to establish a standalone public facility and the old Midland Primary School was available and perfectly suited. Consequently, at the beginning of 2016 the Midland Learning Academy began operating, providing more intensive educational programs and support for up to 20 students. Each student had their own tailor-made program based upon their individual interests and aspirations. In addition, we opened 13 specialist engagement centres in key locations across Western Australia to support students with complex behavioural and attendance issues.
It is absolutely imperative that future governments provide an alternative learning environment for students not suited to mainstream schooling. Excluding these students from school altogether, and other punitive measures, is completely ineffective. All that this response does is to transfer the problem students onto our streets with their antisocial and, at times, criminal behaviour until their penalty time has been served and then they return to their school to be even more disruptive.
To conclude on the compulsory years of schooling, 2015 stands as testament to the considerable durability of our entire education system. It was a year of enduring reform, with a doubling of the number of independent public schools, the introduction of the student-centred funding model, changes at the senior secondary level, the transition of year 7s to secondary schooling and the rollout of the national curriculum. The fact that each of these reforms were implemented in an efficient and seamless fashion stands as evidence to the commitment and professionalism of our teachers, education assistants, support staff, administrators and the education department.
Finally with regard to the education portfolio, I would like to make some comments about our higher education sector. Western Australia has five excellent universities, four public institutions being the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University, and the privately operated University of Notre Dame. There has been a long-held belief that five universities are too many for a population the size of that of Western Australia. Given the ruthless international competition within the university industry, I am inclined to agree. The combined resources of two or potentially three of our universities would definitely value-add in terms of course selection, research potential and facilities. However, given the parochial variable inevitably attached to amalgamations of any institutions or organisations, I simply cannot envisage it occurring in the short to medium term. With this in mind, as incoming Chair of the Western Australian Higher Education Council (WAHEC) when I took on the education portfolio, I sought the views of the vice chancellors to ascertain strategies to improve higher education in our state. This would be included in work being done by a panel chaired by Emeritus Professor Margaret Seares titled Future Directions for the Role of the State in Higher Education. The panel tabled its final report in February 2013, and it contained a number of recommendations to improve the quality of higher education in Western Australia, including addressing the future demands of the sector, student preparedness for tertiary education, effective collaboration with the vocational education and training (VET) sector, engagement with the Commonwealth government, access for Aboriginal students and amendments to the universities act to modernise commercial land use provisions where appropriate. As Chair of WAHEC I worked closely with all the universities and the VET sector over the next two years and launched the Strategic Plan for Higher Education in Western Australia 2015 in September 2015. The key goals of the plan were to increase the percentage of year 12 students proceeding to higher education, to encourage greater equity in higher education participation, to develop a more integrated system of education and training and to assist in developing more international links in higher education. I will seek leave to table that report, President.
Given that Western Australia attracted less than 8% of international students, the final goal was paramount for the future of higher education in our state. With this in mind, in 2015 I led a delegation of the vice chancellors of each of the universities to China and Vietnam, and then Indonesia the following year, to develop relationships with those countries and our higher education sectors.
Also, in September 2016, with the strong support of the tertiary sector, I introduced the Universities Legislation Amendment Bill as per the recommendation of the panel. This ensured that Curtin, Murdoch and Edith Cowan Universities could use their land for commercial purposes for the first time—something that the University of Western Australia had been doing for decades. Also, as requested by the sector, the bill modernised the composition of the governing bodies of all of our universities.
I thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as Chair of WAHEC and I was delighted to engage with each of the vice chancellors over this period. I genuinely feel that the modest changes that our government made to higher education value-added to the sector in operating in what has become nothing short of a brutal international market. Having said this, I must admit to being more than a little bemused over recent years as I have watched our universities provide multiple alternative pathways to entry into their institutions other than a required Australian tertiary admission rank (ATAR) score. I vividly remember the vitriol and indignation that was exhibited towards one university from the other four in 2015 when it provided early entry for two of its more appealing courses. To the others, this was definitely going to provide a competitive advantage to the university providing early entry. I remember chairing a WAHEC meeting in the eye of the storm and I expressed my concerns at the practice and declared that if it continued, it would be the thin end of the wedge and that inevitably it would become the norm as opposed to the exception. Now, given the advent of online learning offered by the university sector across the globe as almost the standard practice for some courses and the competition within this multibillion-dollar industry, secondary students are provided with multiple avenues of early entry to their preferred course. This, coupled with the introduction in recent years of a general set of courses in senior secondary education that do not have examinations, has borne witness to an alarming and yet equally predictable decline in the number of students choosing ATAR courses. Unfortunately, I imagine that this decline will not only continue but will accelerate in coming years, and this will inevitably lead to diminishing educational standards.
The former Chair of the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA), Patrick Garnett, completed a report on senior secondary enrolments in Western Australia several years ago that provided some alarming food for thought and completely reinforced the points that I have made. Unfortunately, the situation has deteriorated further since the completion of this report. I will seek leave to table that report at a later time.
Upon reflection of my tenure as Minister for Education, I like to think that the policies that our government instituted did value-add to our overall education system in Western Australia. The stakes are extremely high in education. We are literally dealing with the lives of our children in ensuring that we present a curriculum and pastoral care support to nurture and craft an environment that is conducive to providing opportunities for all students to thrive and succeed. We simply cannot experiment with thought bubbles and respond to fanatical pressure from ideologues and impose these fads upon our children.
Once again, in short, in 2008 we inherited an education system with our schools being amongst the lowest resourced in the nation, our teachers were the lowest paid in the nation, we had mass teacher shortages throughout the state, the curriculum and associated assessment procedures were confused and inefficient, there was an ongoing haemorrhage of students from the public system to non-government schools and our National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results were unacceptably low.
From the time the Liberal–National government was elected in 2008 until 2017, our schools had received a 70.3% increase in funding to make them the highest resourced in the nation by far; our teachers were the highest paid in the nation by far; we had put a teacher in front of every classroom every year we were in government; we had the highest number of education assistants per student in the nation by far, with a 37.7% increase in numbers; Western Australia was the only state in the nation to produce an increase in the number of students moving from non-government schools to public schools; and there had been the largest number of improved mean scores in NAPLAN results in the nation.
I absolutely loved every minute of my tenure as Minister for Education. It was the greatest privilege of my life. I can say, hand on heart, I did everything that I possibly could to ensure that we provided a quality education for every child. I made sure that I consulted and listened extensively prior to making any final policy decision. I had multiple showdowns with Treasury, that pesky little department that annoys every minister in government. I visited over 700 schools, and I literally went to the opening of an envelope—to awards nights, exhibitions, fetes, debate finals, association conferences and so on and so on. In addition, once a month I would go back to a secondary school and teach either politics or history classes and then have morning tea with the staff, to make sure that I remained grounded. This was one of those opportunities in life that I previously spoke about. I was living the dream. I knew that if I woke up every single day and committed to being the best education minister that I could be, I would never live with regret.
I am in no doubt that there will be others who will have a contrary view of my tenure as Minister for Education. In fact, I would be disappointed if they did not exist, because that would mean that there is no room for improvement. To the current Minister for Education, I wish her well, and to those who succeed her, regardless of their political persuasion, I wish them well in continuing to evolve our education system into one that provides a framework and an opportunity for every single one of our students to be the best that they can be regardless of their race, disability, socio-economic background, geographic location or intellect.
One final thing related to education is the role played by former director general Sharyn O’Neill. Sharyn was director general for most of my tenure as minister, first with training, until the separation of the departments, and then with education. Words cannot express the level of admiration that I have for Sharyn. She is the most capable and professional individual whom I have ever had the good fortune to work with in any capacity. Given the magnitude of reform that we instituted, particularly in 2015, I am under no illusion that the implementation of these policies would not have been anywhere near as seamless without Sharyn’s leadership. I thank her most sincerely for her advice, support and friendship.
Although this provides a synopsis of each of my portfolio areas, it is by no means exhaustive. However, it does capture the most consequential reforms that were implemented during our time in government. With that, I seek leave to table the 10 reports that I mentioned.
Leave granted.
Hon Peter Collier: Now to move on from government. Suffice to say, like all my colleagues and supporters, I was extremely disappointed with the outcome of the 2017 election. Having said this, in politics, the worm always turns and the voting public of Western Australia had made it clear that it was time to give the other mob a go. Thus, we as Liberals woke up on 12 March 2017, disappointed and yet committed to doing all that we could to return to government in 2021.
As I commenced my second stint in opposition, my colleagues elected me as Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council. I also took on the shadow disability services portfolio, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The make-up of the Legislative Council in the 40th Parliament was extremely diverse. Although the Labor Party had secured a comfortable majority in the Legislative Assembly, it was not afforded a similar privilege in the Legislative Council, finishing four members short of a majority. There were seven non-government parties, which ensured that this was going to be a term of heavy negotiation from all sides. This proved to be correct, with every bill, amendment or motion being the subject of horsetrading and negotiation, a perfect example of the role of an effective upper house. I relished the opportunity that this situation presented, while being mindful of the fact that the government definitely had a mandate from the Western Australian public. At times it was like herding goldfish to ensure that we had the numbers; however, I like to think that the end result was improved legislation.
I had originally decided to retire from Parliament at the end of my fourth term. This was certainly not as a result of disenchantment nor lack of motivation; I just felt that it might be time to move on. However, following the strong support of our leader, Hon Liza Harvey, as well as my parliamentary colleagues and many members of the lay party, I reversed my decision. When I was preselected in February 2020, internal polling done by the Liberal Party had us winning at least six seats at the March 2021 election, and we only required nine seats to return to government. This was supported by a 9.4% swing to us in the Darling Range by-election in mid-2018 and an emphatic win in Western Australia in the May 2019 federal election.
A month following my preselection, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and completely altered not merely the political landscape, but the very essence of civilisation. Everything that we had previously taken for granted dissolved and we were confronted with lockdowns, restrictions, shortages and, for the Liberal Party, political irrelevance. Suffice to say, the result of the March 2021 Western Australian election was devastating for the Liberal Party. It was reduced to representation of just two members in the Legislative Assembly and seven in the Legislative Council against a government emboldened with an historic victory. Then, together with our National Party colleagues and a severely reduced crossbench, the daunting task in front of us was to use our limited voices in Parliament to ensure that the government was accountable, while strategising a path to victory.
While in no way do I question the validity nor the reasons for the electoral route of 2021, I remain firmly of the opinion that such a dominance of both houses of Parliament by a party of any political persuasion is not a positive outcome for the political process. In fact, it completely diminishes the fabric of our bicameral system of government. Although I relinquished my role as Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council following the defeat, I totally committed myself to my new portfolio areas of police and corrective services, mindful that this would definitely be my final term.
Again, I relished the opportunities to work in my new shadow portfolios of police and corrective services. While I will not reflect upon all the issues in these portfolios, there is none more important in my opinion than unit 18, a "temporary" juvenile justice facility created by the Labor government at Casuarina Prison, a prison for hardened adult criminals. The fact that this dreadful facility continues to exist is one of my most profound disappointments in leaving this place. I remain convinced that the government has retained unit 18 for purely political purposes. The government knows that it is politically palatable to be seen as being tough on crime, including, in this instance, the exploitation of some of our most marginalised and disengaged youths. This view is shared by some of my colleagues. However, this does not make it right. This is not a Labor nor Liberal issue. This is not a left-wing nor right-wing issue. This is an issue about effective public policy. We are well into the 21st century. Surely we are better than this.
Almost all the youths in unit 18 have a neurological disorder and a high proportion are Aboriginal. If there had been any decline in youth crime since its establishment, or any reduction in reoffending from the youths who have been incarcerated in unit 18 during this time, I would reluctantly accept defeat; however, this is not the case. In fact, youth crime has rapidly accelerated over this period, and for the first time in Western Australia's history, two youths have suicided in detention while hundreds of others have attempted self-harm. In addition, there has been an escalation in the transition of youths in detention directly into adult prisons. All that this despicable facility is doing is making the youths more angry, less resilient and better criminals. No, unit 18 has not worked and will not work; it is the antithesis of effective rehabilitation. For one final time, I plead with the government to please close unit 18.
To conclude on my time in Parliament, I will always reflect fondly upon my time as Leader of the House in the 39th Parliament. It was an extraordinary privilege that I never took for granted. To me, my primary role was to ensure that the government's agenda achieved a seamless passage through the processes of Parliament while ensuring that the conventions of the Legislative Council were never compromised. As any Leader of the House would acknowledge, one of our most challenging tasks is to educate our colleagues from the other place that we do things a little differently in the Council. During this entire time and then in my subsequent role as Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council immediately following our loss in 2017, and again for the last year, my opposite number was Hon Sue Ellery. As with any adversarial position, we had our moments; however, generally we worked well together and always managed to work our way through any issues and for this, I offer my gratitude to Sue.
Finally, the other position that I very much appreciated was as Chair of the Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations during the 41st Parliament. The committee system in the Legislative Council is a powerful vehicle for both the scrutiny of legislation and to assist and enhance the performance of Parliament. During the last Parliament, while the Labor government enjoyed unparallelled power and authority in both houses, the estimates committee worked tirelessly to ensure that we fulfilled our oversight obligations.
In addition to our budget and annual budget reporting, we conducted an extensive investigation into homelessness in Western Australia and a limited inquiry into greyhound racing. I thank all members of that estimates committee and the entire staff for their valued work over this period. It was a pleasure working with each of you.
Of course, like any member of Parliament, as a member for the North Metropolitan Region, I have been extensively involved with the community over the last 20 years. I have greatly valued the welcome that I have received from the numerous sporting and community groups over this period. I would like to pay particular tribute to Cat Haven, where I was vice patron from 2009–2014; to the mighty West Perth Falcons, where I have been vice patron since 2011; and, of course, to my beloved Shenton Park Dogs’ Refuge Home, where I have been patron for the past 23 years. Also, I thank the multiple local councils with whom I have worked and have welcomed me to their wonderful citizenship ceremonies, particularly the City of Joondalup, where I have attended almost every ceremony over this period.
I would now like to thank and make a few reflections upon an essential component of our political system—the media. Contemporary media is a completely different beast to the one that existed 20 years ago. Current members may find this difficult to comprehend, but when I commenced, the media bench above the President’s chair would be completely full every question time, and often during the day, as journalists salivated at the prospect of actually securing some revealing facts or figures from the written answers provided. This was in complete contrast to the equivalent process in the Legislative Assembly, where it is often used for juvenile personal attacks and political pointscoring.
Actual reporting of news and issues has changed significantly over this time. The advent of social media has completely altered the news industry landscape. Gone are the days of prolonged assessment and debate of contemporary issues. Present-day media insists upon instant reporting with issues virtually changing on an hourly basis. There has been a dumbing down of mainstream media as it desperately strives to compete with content posted on social platforms. The younger generation in particular rely almost exclusively on this latter medium for their daily serving of enlightenment. Desperate to remain relevant and maintain profits, mainstream media relentlessly searches for the prospect of capturing a "gotcha moment" to facilitate pages of their daily print or online version, just to keep up with the often meaningless and inaccurate garbage that is constantly spewed on social platforms. In many instances, substance has been replaced by a race to the bottom in terms of time-honoured journalistic standards. This is not assisted by the continual churn of well-meaning and ambitious young journalists who become rapidly disillusioned with the relentless deadlines and low pay and seek greener pastures with resources companies or a minister's office.
Having said this, over the past 20 years, there was only one occasion where I felt that one dominant component of the mainstream media in Western Australia got it completely wrong, and that was when they decided that they were not going to report on nor assess the facts; rather, they were actually going to be active participants in the political process. It involved the internal operations of the Liberal Party and had my colleagues and myself succumbed to their obsessional pressure it would have set an extremely dangerous precedent for members of all political persuasion into the future. Personally, apart from one obvious exception, I have always had a relatively positive relationship with journalists. Although I may not have been particularly delighted with the slant of many of the articles that they have written, I have appreciated that they have a job to do and, on balance, I really cannot complain. I acknowledge the challenging task that they face and I thank the numerous journalists that I have interacted with during my parliamentary career. Finally, on the media, I would like to acknowledge Bethany Hiatt for the excellent journalistic work that she has done over more than 20 years reporting on education matters. I frequently engaged with Bethany as shadow minister and then Minister for Education and I always found her to be meticulously professional and determined to focus upon what was important, and that was to act as an informed advocate for education.
To conclude, I would like to acknowledge those who have made a valued contribution to my time in Parliament. To begin, I would like to thank the Liberal Party. I would never have been elected to the Legislative Council without this magnificent political party. I did not get elected for 20 years because I am Peter Collier; I got elected because I was number 2 and then number 1 on the Liberal Party ticket for the North Metropolitan Region for five successive elections. The Liberal Party has been a vital component of my entire life. In fact, in the federal election of December 1975, as a 16-year-old, I handed out my first how-to-vote card for Liberal candidate Mick Cotter at the Kalgoorlie Town Hall. At that time, having no idea of the political persuasion of my parents, I was drawn to the principles of limited government and personal initiative represented by the Libs. Moving to Perth for tertiary study just over a year later, I signed up to join the Young Liberals in February 1977 at orientation day at the University of Western Australia. Since that memorable day, over the last 48 years, I have worked for the party at every single state and federal election, including chairing dozens of campaigns. I am a life member of the Young Liberal movement and a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the Liberal Party. I am a proud and devoted classic Menzian Liberal. I would never, under any circumstances, do anything to damage this wonderful political party. I am so grateful to the Liberal Party for all that it represents and for providing me with a lifetime of opportunities.
At the parliamentary level, I wish our new state leader, Basil Zempilas, and deputy leader, Libby Mettam, and our entire team, every success as they commence the road back to government. Equally, I acknowledge and thank State Director Simon Morgan and State President Caroline Di Russo for steadying the ship over recent years and for their personal support, and I wish them well as the fight continues. Also, I am delighted that Senator Slade Brockman and Senator Matt O’Sullivan are in attendance today, and I thank them for their support and friendship and I wish them and their colleagues every success in their quest to return to government at the federal level.
As a grateful member for the North Metropolitan Region, I would like to thank the committed staff who have served in my electorate office over the past 20 years. I have benefited from longevity from a small group of quality people over this period. I sincerely thank Norma Tyler, Colin Edwardes, Ruth McKeown, Julie Lloyd, Neil Mattingley and Melinda Poor most sincerely for the invaluable role that they have played in ensuring that we provided a quality service for the public. Located at Warwick Shopping Centre for almost 19 years, our constant stream of constituents would never inquire as to whether we were Liberal or Labor; rather, they were concerned about whether we could find them a house in which to sleep, or where to get assistance with their bills, health questions or a multitude of other such issues. Ours has been an effective salt-of-the-earth electorate office, and this has been due in no uncertain terms to my wonderful staff. I sincerely thank all of my team.
To the Parliament House staff, I cannot speak highly enough of each and every one of you. Parliament House is such a magnificent place to work, and this is due to the professionalism and demeanour of the entire staff. To the Clerk of the Legislative Council, Sam Hastings, and all of the chamber staff and your respective predecessors; to Hansard; to Rob Hunter, the Executive Manager of Parliamentary Services and his entire team; as well as the catering and dining room, security and ground staff, a very sincere thank you. In what is a naturally adversarial environment, you have made coming to work every day an absolute pleasure. Finally, in regard to Parliament House, to the many staff who have tolerated my nicknames and nonsense for the past 20 years, a special acknowledgement and thank you.
To my former ministerial staff, represented here today by Michael Tetlow, Deb Bentley, Heather Gabriel and Tara Salerno, I acknowledge and thank you for contributing to one of the most positive and rewarding periods of my life. We had the best ministerial office by far! Each of us had a dedicated role and yet we gelled, drawn together by a common purpose. We were a rich tapestry of ability and strength and I can say, hand on heart, I feel that we value-added to each of the respective portfolios that we oversaw.
Although I will not identify all of my former staff, I will acknowledge one, and her name is Kathryn Barrie, whom I affectionately referred to as "Wottsie". Her breadth of knowledge and her capacity to comprehend complex issues and policy was second to none. She commenced in my ministerial office on day one as my energy adviser, and then reverted to become my Chief of Staff following the 2013 election, and remained in that position until my final day in the role. I am extremely grateful to Kathryn for all that she is and for the essential role that she played in my tenure as a minister. I am confident that all of my former staff would endorse these comments.
To my current and former Liberal Party parliamentary colleagues, I offer my heartfelt thanks. Any work environment has its fair share of characters and levels of energy. However, nothing could possibly replicate the diversity of a composition of parliamentarians. Like any work environment, many of us have "had our moments"; however, when it has counted, we have always worked through them and ultimately focused upon the main game—being to beat the Labor Party. I am conscious of the expectations and commitment required of a member of Parliament and I am appreciative to all of my colleagues for the enormous personal sacrifice that they have made and the dedication they exhibited to the community, the Parliament and to the Liberal Party. I would like to offer my particular thanks to my colleagues from the 39th, 40th and 41st Parliaments for bestowing upon me their confidence to be their leader. It has been an extraordinary privilege, and I am extremely grateful to all of my colleagues and their predecessors for their valued support.
Although time prevents me from mentioning each of my Liberal colleagues, I would like to pay tribute to one, and that person is Hon Donna Faragher. We came in together and we are going out together—dare I say it, a couple of washed-up old ministers in the departure lounge. However, we are much more than colleagues. We have been through so much together, both personally and professionally, and I would like to thank Donna most sincerely for her valued support and friendship. As godfather to her wonderful son, Harry, devoted Uncle Pete to her daughter, Clare, and close mate to her husband, Scott, I am confident that there will be many more memorable times together ahead of us.
I would also like to make special mention and thank most sincerely Hon Colin Barnett. I have known Colin for well over 30 years and regard him as one of my most loyal and valued friends. I am extremely grateful for the trust that he showed in appointing me as a minister for his entire term as Premier and for supporting me in the role of Leader of the House. While it may hold a degree of political convenience for an incoming government to relentlessly condemn its predecessor, historical revisionism inevitably corrects the record. I am in no doubt that history will reflect most favourably upon the Barnett era, in particular the exceptional legacy of Optus Stadium, Elizabeth Quay, Yagan Square, the Scarborough foreshore, the rebuilt health system and so much more. Western Australia has certainly been enriched as a result of Colin’s vision. It was an absolute privilege to serve in a government under Colin’s leadership. I regularly catch up with him and will definitely continue to do so in the years ahead.
I also thank my colleagues and their predecessors within the National Party. Although there are natural complexities in having two distinct political parties competing for a similar constituency, I have always had a tremendous working relationship with my Nationals partners in both government and opposition, and I thank them for their support and friendship. The Liberal and National Parties are an effective team and we will always govern together in that fashion. In addition, I would like to thank members of the government and the cross bench and their predecessors. Again, while we have "had our moments", as must be expected given the nature of our profession, I have enjoyed and valued your company and friendship.
Now to my friends. In politics, we inherently attract a reasonable quota of the fairweather variety, such as property developers. However, they are of no relevance nor consequence to me. I am privileged to have so many loyal people in my life—the valued ships in the night, the bonded friends, many of whom have been with me for the entire distance and are here today. To me, loyalty is the single most pre-eminent quality of a person. To begin, I acknowledge five remarkable women—Cherry Mettam, Susan Browning, Leanne McTavish, Victoria Le-Bar and Andrea Mitchell—all of whom were with me at the start, but not at the end; all of whom were an indelible component of my life, and all of whom I miss terribly. To Cherry, the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world; to Susan, my devoted lifelong friend; to Leanne, my loyal and loved mate; to the extraordinary Victoria Mystique, my treasured second mum; and to my beautiful, beloved soulmate Andrea, I would give anything to have you here with me today. Grief is one of those irreconcilable emotions: You never get over it; you just get used to it. Just when you think you have it under control, without invitation or warning it can resurrect itself and consume you with unparalleled emotional anguish. Never a day goes by when I do not grieve for these magnificent women. My world is less perfect without each of them in it.
To my many friends, I acknowledge and thank you most sincerely for your invaluable support. Unfortunately, I cannot mention everybody, and I apologise for that at the outset. Please do not take it personally; as you all know, my family and friends are sacrosanct in my life. However, in this instance, I would like to acknowledge Rob and Val Kilderry and their children Jane, Georgia and Paul and their partners Terry, David and Turan and their families; Margaret and Barry Court and their children Daniel, Marika, Teresa and Lisa and their partners and families; Neil Mattingley and Ayomi Perera and their children Riley and Abbey; Chris and Caroline Ellison and their children Nick, Siena and Seb; Colin and Hon Cheryl Edwardes; Hon Liza Harvey and Andrew Matraszek; Liz, Reza and Ali Behjat; Hon Michael Mischin and Laraine Reason; Troy Buswell; Hon George Cash; Senator Michaelia Cash; Emily and Julian Ambrose; Cally, Roy and Marie Browning; Robin Pennington; Jeremy Buxton; Andrew Cox and Debbie Guest; Barbara Brophy; Chici and Phillip Drake-Brockman; Glyn and Mark Barber and their family; Sam, Sue and Len Roberts-Smith; Julie and Dale Lloyd and their boys, my godson Ethan and Xavier; Mal McTavish and Leanne, once again, and their children Mitch, Lauren and Linley; Fay and Archie Duda; Richard and Alison Ellis; Brett Raponi and Gill Hamersley; Bradley and Emma Woods; Paul and Donna Brockschlager; David De Garis and Katie Osborne; Sam and Amy Calabrese; Louis Meyer; Jenna Clarke; Peter, Alicia and Kimberley Peck; Jo-Anne Faull; Hayden, Megan and Frieda Gibson; David Wirrpanda; Michael and Rochelle Tetlow; Jonathan Matthews; James Reid; Peter and Eleanor Moore; Andy Gason; Jon Betjeman; Tim Walton; Russell and Susan Davis; and David Siglin and Giovanna Bartle. Of course, to my friends from North Kalgoorlie Primary School and Eastern Goldfields Senior High School, including Linley Fry and Shane Nicholson who are here with us today, who would have thought that we would still be together after all these years? Finally, to all my former teaching colleagues and tennis family and, once again, to my many friends within the Liberal Party, thank you.
To conclude with my friends, I would like to single out one person. I pay special tribute to an extraordinary woman who also happens to be the greatest tennis player of all time and my best friend, and her name is Margaret Court. Margaret was still one of the best tennis players in the world when I first met her 50 years ago. Over this period, we have been through some almighty highs and some extremely challenging lows together. Throughout all this time, I have known that when I was in the trenches with missiles hovering above, Margaret would be there beside me to support me, as I would be for her. I could never have achieved what I have in my life nor survived the challenges that have confronted me if it had not been for the loyalty, support and love of Margaret, and for this I am eternally grateful.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge my family. I am so grateful to my wonderful parents, Les and Beryl, for providing me with a life of love and unconditional support. Although my dad passed away just over a decade ago, he was the epitome of the term "fatherhood" and his words resonate with me every single day. My darling mum is still with us and, likewise, she is a pillar in my life. Despite being in her 90s, she still calls me "love". I speak with her every day and I greatly appreciate her ongoing love and support. I also pay loving tribute to my sisters, Diane and Kerry, to their husbands, Mark and Ian, and to their respective families. "Sibling love" is an understatement when referring to the Collier kids. Regardless of the storms or sunshine that surround us, we will always have each other.
To all whom I have mentioned and to the many others I have not, I finish by offering two simple words that appear hopelessly inadequate and yet represent every ounce of gratitude that I could possibly summon, and they are "thank you".
So, this is it; it is finally time to pull down the curtain. I did not pursue a political career for the celebrity factor, nor for the prestige or as an avenue to other pursuits. I am a humble grocer’s son from Kalgoorlie who just happened to come into this world with an insatiable passion for tennis, teaching, politics and the Liberal Party. While the time to depart has arrived, it is quite surreal and a little daunting that it is actually happening. I still absolutely love my job and I love my role as a member of the Legislative Council. I still have plenty of fuel in the tank and I still wake up every single day committing to being the best that I can be. With this said, what a perfect time to go out. I am finishing on my own terms with a wealth of experience. Personally, I feel that I am a better man. So while I am a little melancholy as I prepare to leave, I am equally positive about the future because I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the best is yet to come.
(Applause.)
Hon Darren West (Agricultural Region) (2:51 pm): Thank you, President, for the call for the final time. For me an easy place to start a valedictory speech is by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today, the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. I extend that acknowledgement and respect to all First Nations people across the Agricultural Region, across Western Australia and right across the great country of Australia. It always was and it always will be Aboriginal land.
For around 25 years now I have been a candidate of the Australian Labor Party and a proud member in my part of the world, which I think is the best part of the world. This mighty political movement, formed in 1891 by striking shearers in western Queensland and by miners in Coolgardie in the Goldfields of Western Australia, stands today as a beacon for working people and for fairness, justice and equality. I could not be prouder to have such an important representative role for this organisation for so long. I will be eternally grateful that I have had the opportunity to carry out that representation in the Parliament. I am just going to turn a little bit, President. It is an immense honour to be the representative of Australia's oldest political party and, at the moment, the most successful political party in Australia.
In my inaugural speech—a time like this is when I, probably for the first time, read back on my inaugural speech—I noted that there were 95 members in the Parliament of Western Australia. To be one of those is not easy. To be one of those is an immense privilege, but to be elected three times is beyond an immense privilege, from someone who comes perhaps from the outside, not the traditional Labor background or Liberal background or even National background. I am someone who takes risks for a living. I am someone who is not afraid to speak up and speak out. My timing has been pretty good, I think. I am not sure that there will be many of my kind again in Parliament, but I am proud of who I am, and I am proud of what I have achieved. I have been very proud to serve in this role.
There are a few things that I can report to members, and one is that 2013 was my first election. It was a difficult election for us on the Labor side of politics, both federally and at state level, and we lost them both. In 2013, the Agricultural Region returned a vote of 17% to WA Labor. In the next election when we had worked hard to rebuild the brand in the regions, particularly around Geraldton, we achieved the result of 23% in the Agricultural Region, still one of the more challenging areas for us. In 2021, in that famous victory, the Agricultural Region elected not one, not two, but three upper house members and returned vote of 44%. That is a remarkable increase that I think all of us can be proud of, and I take great comfort from it. I thank the people of the Agricultural Region for their support over that time.
When I started there was no office in the ag region. We had fewer than 10 members of the party. Up to this election, we have had three offices for around 200 members. We are back in the agricultural areas. Whilst this election was more challenging for us and some of that vote did slide away, we are still a force out in the Agricultural Region of WA, and I thank all those who have come along in that journey for that.
When I started in opposition, we had to be disciplined and effective. It was tough. There are only seven members of this chamber who were here when I started. Three more came along with me, but I just reminded those members that "Agriculture" was alphabetically before the other regions, so I was the first one of our 2013 crew sworn in. So, you know, I have been here longer than you by five minutes! It is a very small crew who have been here for that whole 12-year journey, and I think that demonstrates the number of people who churn through this place, and that is good because it is not a Parliament; it is a group of people who have a like-minded view to make the country a better place and the state a better place. To all those people, it has been wonderful.
Someone asked me recently: what did you learn about Parliament that you did not expect? The thing I learnt the most that I did not expect was the friendships that you form across the aisle. You form friendships both within your political organisation and party and across the aisle. There are some great people on both sides coming to this place, and into the other place on both sides, and it is an immense honour to know and work with all of them. I did not get on with everyone, but that is okay; that is how it is. That is the big thing that I have learnt. I have met some wonderful people from all sides of the political divide.
It was very difficult in the early days because we had to shape policies from opposition. I remember the really strong work of Hon Ben Wyatt, Hon Roger Cook, Hon Rita Saffioti and Hon Mark McGowan in those times in opposition, and others in the shadow ministry of course. For me, Ken Travers was the person who took me under his wing and showed me how this place worked, because I was a bit new to this and a bit green and had come from somewhere very different. He showed me how everything you did had to run a narrative of how that would be received in the electorate, and that was very useful information. When we worked on our policies in those times, we had to work to nullify some of what we thought were bad policies of the then government, but we also had to work on new policies that we would bring in, and provide vision to the people of Western Australia and run a narrative that we were building the future of the state.
Around that narrative was Metronet, which the public was really captivated by and understood the importance of. It did not get us over the line in 2013, but I think the idea that we had a plan and a vision for a public transport system across the metro area and to eventually extend out into the regions was something that people liked. When they were ready for a change of government in 2017, they looked at our policies and looked at us and thought: yes, that is someone we can vote for. And so it was in 2017 when the people of Western Australia took the opportunity to elect a Labor government. We thought that that was a massive win that we would never see again, only to have two further wins even bigger than that.
My political journey I can attribute to a few people from my family. My grandfather was a great Labor man and lived in Western Victoria in the electorate of Malcolm Fraser. We did not like Malcolm Fraser much because of what we perceived that he did to Gough Whitlam, and so any chance to run Malcolm down my grandfather took. I note that Malcolm Fraser became much more of a humanitarian later in his life, and, in the end, I think had they been able to meet, my grandfather and Malcolm Fraser perhaps would have got along. I also had a lot of encouragement from my family. I was always the person to question and answer and hold the debate amongst our extended family and friends. I think being able to demonstrate those traits set me up quite well to come into this place. But it was a meeting with the late Hon Kim Chance and Hon Alannah MacTiernan at Parliament House here one day about an inland road from Lancelin—so we could cart our lime directly back to the land that needed it rather than coming down through Perth—that really piqued my interest in being able to achieve things for the region that you live in and being able to make change. I remember that meeting particularly clearly.
I also remember the phone call I got not long after from Hon Alannah MacTiernan. It was back in the days when phones were quite large, and I thought someone was playing a bit of a joke on me, asking me if I might consider being a candidate in a very safe Labor seat at the upcoming state election in 2001. I was preselected in late 1999—so, over 25 years ago now—and I have contested for Labor at every election since. I really appreciate the support that I got from Kim and Alannah in those early days that made me able to establish myself as someone who had a voice and a vision for our region and ultimately saw me elected into the Legislative Council in 2013.
Members, my inaugural speech contained a reference to voluntary euthanasia, as we called it in those days. There were two things that I took out of my inaugural speech. One was that reference; the other was, in my words:
We have an obligation to future generations to leave the place better than we found it.
I am particularly proud that we were able to deliver on both those things. Voluntary assisted dying is now law in Western Australia and it has been accessed by many people, as it is law and has been accessed in other states. That debate gave me and, I think, all members of the Labor movement immense pride and was in the end supported by many of those members opposite. It was a very emotive debate. A conscience vote was held, so we were able to vote from within ourselves. Issues like this divide not only political parties and populations, but also actually ourselves. I could see members who were perhaps erring on the side of not supporting voluntary assisted dying, but by the end of the debate, when they heard the stories and the great work that was done by Belinda Teh and Andrew Denton and all those who helped us in the vision to make voluntary assisted dying law, we saw those people's consciences come across. I thank everyone who got around that; the committee, which did great work into the investigation of the legislation; and all those who advocated for voluntary assisted dying. When I leave here and people ask what was my one great achievement while in government, I think that will certainly be in my top five, so well done to everyone involved in that. I feel particularly proud leaving here with that as law.
In 2001, we established a small, informal group called Country Labor WA. We were in trouble in the regions. We had some stalwarts like Peter Watson, Mick Murray in Collie and others from regional areas who were a bit concerned about this and thought that we needed to brand ourselves a little bit differently in the regions. I was the inaugural chair. Geoff Gallop established Country Labor in 2001. I relinquished that chair—it was a bit difficult from outside of Parliament—to a member inside the Parliament in 2005 and took it on again in 2013. In those days of opposition, Country Labor was a great place where we could throw all the ideas into the pot and come up with meaningful policy. At our meetings, the Premier's office would send representatives; all the ministers would take a turn to come along and have a listen and give input to our regional policy. I think that is something we perhaps need to revisit. We have had a challenging election in the regions. I think that there is now a great opportunity to reinvigorate Country Labor and bring that back, not as a formal part of the party, but as a melting pot for new ideas and policy. As I said earlier, we were formed in the Goldfields in 1899. There is no more regional political organisation in Australia than the Australian Labor Party and we are very proud of that. Maybe that is something we can go back to.
I established an office in Geraldton in 2014. It took nearly a year and a half to get an electorate office established, which was very frustrating. Not long after setting up in Northam, we had Geoff Gallop at the opening of the office. We also had Jeff Carr, former member for Geraldton. Roger Cook, the then shadow health minister, came up and opened the office for us, and we had a reinvigoration of Labor in Geraldton and a reinvigoration of the branch. People did not realise that Geraldton had been a Labor seat for 90 out of 120 years, so it was only natural for us to go back and rebuild that brand there and rebuild Geraldton, because Geraldton always received great investment from Labor governments. Geoff Gallop, as the Premier who was originally from Geraldton, helped take back the interest in that community, so we were able to rebuild there and establish that office. In my time here in Perth, I had short-term staff, because we knew we were not there for long, so people would move on. My staff included Hon Dan Caddy, who was one of my very early staff, and Fran Hickling, who worked in the office. Then Donna Plummer came, and we really started to reinvigorate Labor. When we set up in Geraldton, Judy Riggs was our electorate officer there. She had a beautiful calming soul and was able to deal with people's issues as they presented. We were all about the solution and how we could get an end to everyone's issues, and that worked particularly well.
We ran a very strong campaign in 2017, we just came up short, but eventually we took the seat back for Labor in 2021. Sadly, it fell, in a four-way contest, in 2025. But we had issues that we had to fight as well. Geraldton has been promised a hospital many times. We got the commitment from the then shadow health minister to rebuild the hospital, and, although that took us a while, that construction is underway today. I had a meeting with Marg Denton, who was then the Director of WA Country Health Service Midwest. I asked what was the biggest thing we needed in the Mid West, and I was told that it was an acute psychiatric unit. There were no acute psychiatric services in the Mid West. That is now under construction. Also, when Roger Cook became health minister, he set up a step-up, step-down facility in Geraldton at the old sobering-up shelter. That is a great outcome for that community and has made a real difference to people's lives.
When we were in opposition, there was a fracking free-for-all by the then government, which actually invested into fracking projects. I stood pretty firmly against fracking—probably a bit too firmly. I know some of my colleagues will know what I mean! But I am proud to say that in Western Australia, we have not had a single fracking project since we came to government in 2007. Fracking is banned right across the state, except on the 2% of existing leases that were granted by a previous government. That is a great outcome for us. Farmers and landowners now have the opportunity to shut the gate, and traditional owners have the right to say no. They also have the right to say yes on that 2%. That was a hard fight, but it was worth it.
We were battling against the closure of the tier 3 rail lines, which I think was still the worst deal for taxpayers in government history. We were right. In the 10 subsequent years, the number of trucks on our Wheatbelt roads has intensified with our record harvests—three of the last four harvests have been over 20 million tonnes—to the point at which our roads cannot handle any more. I welcome the Minister for Transport's desire to bring back the rail network into public ownership because I think that is the best place to provide that service, rather than deliver for a profit.
I was also very critical of the move by the previous government to transition year 7 students into high school. I wanted to roll that back, but once these things are set in place, it is actually as big a job to roll them back as it is to implement them in the first place. But that had a profound effect on a lot of our small schools across the Agricultural Region, and the first thing I did in this Parliament was table a petition with over 4,000 names against that.
We were able to introduce the lifting of the statute of limitations for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Mark McGowan came to Katanning and met with some of the victims who were abused at St Andrew's Hostel by a sexual predator. I am very pleased to now report to the house that St Andrew's Hostel in Katanning has since been demolished. I thank the education minister for making that decision. That facility had no right to be in that community any longer, and there is now a memorial park on that site.
Members, above all, when we came to government, Western Australia was in a full-blown recession. Unemployment was at record levels. People could not sell a house. I mean, imagine that now—houses were on the market for six months or more and people gave up trying to sell them. They could not even rent them out. A lot of people had left the state as the state's economic woes intensified. We had the worst economy in the country, and it was a bit embarrassing to be such a resource-rich state but to be rated eighth in the State of the States report. So, in 2017, people turned to Labor in record numbers. I thought the work rate was heavy before, but it only intensified after we won government.
It was a big job. I do not think one can ever understand the challenges faced by a new government until one goes through it. New people will come and take that on.
I was elected by the caucuses as the parliamentary secretary to my great friend Alannah MacTiernan, and we had the agricultural and regional development portfolios. Alannah was a powerhouse. She is a force of nature, as members all know. But in that portfolio, her thirst for knowledge and information and her desire to drive and get outcomes was just so refreshing and an inspiration to me. We brought back the research into agriculture, we rebuilt the department and we stopped the sale of the research stations. As I will touch on a bit later, I imagine the value of those research stations then compared with now. We built a shared research facility in Katanning and we opened up the opportunity for farmers to get into regenerative agriculture and carbon farming, which unlocked new revenue streams and opportunities for farmers, particularly on some of our lessor lands. The lands minister diversified pastoral leases. That was a huge change for the pastoral industry. We committed to a new home for agriculture at Murdoch University, which remains a work in progress and may be relocated, but I still hold some hope that that facility will become a reality under a Labor government.
We built strong relationships with industry representatives, particularly CBH, because as the grain harvest began to increase, we both needed each other. We have been able to work with them, with a $400 million commitment from industry and federal and state governments to build a lot of fast rail loading facilities. These will reduce the train loading times from 12 hours to three hours. Members can just imagine how much more productive those trains can be when they load under those facilities. There are 11 of those going in across the state, including up in my area. Some are already in operation.
We were able to work quite well with the peak bodies, although we did find them a challenge from time to time. I think in more recent years, they have been even more so.
The agricultural sector was in a pretty challenging space in 2017, but I can tell members now that there has never been a better time to be involved in agriculture. In the last eight years, our land values have tripled, and that is driven by people wanting to invest in our industry. I can tell members that, in my time in agriculture, there has never been a time when everybody wanted to get involved like they do now. We are seeing all kinds of investment coming into the sector, and that drives research into new chemicals and new varieties of crops and all the things that we need as we move from a more livestock and cropping mixed farming enterprise to a complete cropping enterprise. That is what we have done on our place, because the advances in science and technology are greater in the cropping area.
In the regional development portfolio, we introduced the RED grants to assist businesses in regional WA. These have been particularly well received. I note that even great supporters of the other side have put their hand up, put in applications and been successful in receiving RED grants. I think that shows the significance of that exercise. We transformed the Royalties for Regions program from basically a pork-barrelling exercise to a meaningful funding provider to a billion dollars per year. The mismanagement of that program is a great lesson for future governments, as outlined in the Langoulant report.
WA Labor during our term was able to implement its long-held goal of electoral equality. The Legislative Assembly change in 2005 meant all electorates were of an equal vote, and now, the Legislative Council, starting tomorrow, is elected by votes of equal value. What a great outcome that is for democracy in Western Australia. We had a situation in which some people's votes were worth nine times other people's votes. If there is going to be malapportionment and gerrymanders and vote weighting, the question is: Whose votes are weighted and by how much? Now, this way, everyone's vote is of equal value. I am particularly proud of that, and that is also in my top five, along with fixing the economy.
Alannah and I also at times had the portfolio of ports, which is just a fascinating portfolio. One does a lot of work for not a lot of reward sometimes, but pretty much every project in Western Australia needs a port. We had the hydrogen industries portfolio, which I still think is the fuel of the future. That and battery technology will drive us forward. We were working with the Premier on the portfolio of jobs and trade. Whilst I was quite well-versed in agriculture and regional development, these new portfolios really were of keen interest to me and I learned an awful lot about things that I would not have otherwise been exposed to and able to work with industry on. Alannah was very hands on and delegated a lot of tasks to me. I learned a lot, and I will always appreciate that. Alannah, you backed me in. Not everyone does, and I do really appreciate the opportunities that you gave me and what I was able to bring away from that and contribute.
Upon Alannah's retirement, I became the parliamentary secretary to Minister Reece Whitby. We had the environment, climate action, and racing and gaming portfolios, later to become energy, environment and climate action. As Hon Peter Collier mentioned earlier, there are a couple of things I deeply agree with him on. That energy portfolio is fascinating and it is massive. In 20 years time, our energy will be derived in a completely different way than it is now. That transformation is not only necessary but vital to the future of Western Australia. It is in good hands. We are getting there, with around a third of our energy now provided from renewables. We have invested heavily in batteries. We will always have gas as a backup fuel. We will phase out the coal-fired power stations by 2030. I note that the UK, which installed the world's first coal-fired power station, has recently closed down all of its coal-fired power stations. That is the way the world is moving, and Western Australia is well placed. As I say to anyone in the energy industry who will listen, if we cannot make renewables and storage with gas backup work in Western Australia, we will never make it work anywhere else. That is the way that our energy mix will move going forward. It was just wonderful to be a part of that transition. There were a lot of other things that we did in government, but they are well documented. I think no matter how partisan one is, nobody can argue that our government has not been a highly successful one.
I want to turn to the people I have worked with and met. That has been the best part of this job. We get to work with some amazing people we would not have had the opportunity to work with otherwise. We get to meet people who are driven as much as we are, and, in many cases, even more. There is an old saying that people will never remember what you did or what you said, but they will always remember the way you made them feel. It is always those people who made you feel good whom you remember the most. I have received a lot of messages since I announced that I was not contesting the last election and not intending to continue my career, and I will always remember those. To everyone who sent me well-wishing messages, thank you, all. I have had some particularly touching ones that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
Coming to Parliament is a bit foreign for a farm kid. It took me a little while to get used to being here. A lot of things that happen here still do not really make a lot of sense to me, but they are done for the reasons that they are done. The staff at Parliament are all wonderful. To Sam, the Clerk, the Deputy Clerk and all the staff and the team here in the chamber, thank you all so much. I have probably been one of your more challenging members at times. I always leave things to the last minute and want stuff five minutes ago, but you have always been accommodating, and I thank you all for your help and support, particularly the chamber staff; you are all fantastic. Hansard—I do not know how they do it, especially considering those of us who get up and ramble on a bit. Hansard always gets things accurate. What a skill that they have—that power of concentration is something that we all envy. To Parliamentary Services—Rob and the team—thank you all. You have been great, especially as we come towards the end of our terms, making sure that anything we think we might need, you have already thought about. To the hospitality staff, what a great crew you are. I note that most of the hospitality staff have pretty much been here the whole time that I have been here, so you clearly love the role that you have, and we clearly love having you in those roles. Thank you all so much; it is just so nice to see you all. From when we come in here early in the morning for a much-needed hit of caffeine to when we are still here late at night needing something else that comes in a glass, you are all wonderful and very helpful and thoughtful. I think you understand a little bit of what some of us are going through at different times; not every day is a good day. To committee staff, you have been very helpful to us. Committee work is very important, and I will touch on that a little bit more later. Colin de Grussa and I have been on a committee and many of us have been on committees together. I have had the great opportunity of being on the public administration committee for all of my three terms. Thanks to all the staff who have worked with us in that process.
To our reception staff, again, sorry; I usually let you know that I had guests coming as they were walking up the front steps, but it was never a problem and you always got it sorted for us. Thank you.
I acknowledge the outdoor staff. I give a special shout-out to our security staff, particularly those who have to stand outside in hot and cold weather just making sure that this precinct is safe. This parliamentary precinct was not set up for a modern Parliament, and that is okay; it is a beautiful, traditional old building, but there are not fenced-off areas through which we can walk out to our vehicles. We have dedicated people who stand there to make sure that we are safe. Thank you all for your work. I make a point of doing it every day. When it is cold or hot, they are still out there making sure that everything is right. To the outdoor staff, the place always looks a million bucks. Well done.
I got a special note from the Clerk yesterday that really touched me, and thank you, Sam, for your well wishes. It was particularly appreciated.
I have worked with three Presidents since I came to Parliament, including the first woman President, who is sitting over there. There have been four Speakers in the other place, including the first woman Speaker. There have been two party leaders and two deputy leaders. There have been three leaders in the Legislative Council across both sides, including the first woman. We saw the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Legislative Council. There have been a lot of firsts in my time in this Parliament. Isn't it great? There are probably a few that can be achieved by a future Parliament. We cannot do it all; we have to leave some for those who come along after us!
We have done a few other things. We have made the hours of the house a little bit more family friendly. I, for one, certainly appreciate not being here until 9:45 at night. For regional members, it does not really matter because you are just going home to go to bed, and there is no family waiting for you or anything, but those late nights really made the next day tough. I think it has been a great change to move those hours back to 8:45 pm and 20 past six and do a bit more through the day. To those who instigated that and made it happen, I really appreciated that. Whilst it was contentious, I think saying goodbye to the dear old afternoon tea break was a good move. I did not mind going out with everybody else and having a cup of tea, a sausage roll, a scone and some of the delicious food that was presented before us, but I was just averse to the five minutes of bells when we came back. Those bells would ring for five out of the 15 minutes, and it made that whole Parliament afternoon tea experience less enjoyable for me, and it was an extra half an hour that we could have worked into the sitting day to help reduce our finish times.
I turn to parliamentary Whips. What an interesting relationship it is between members of Parliament and parliamentary Whips. It is not a job that I ever sought to do, and no doubt it is a particularly challenging one at times, but all the parliamentary Whips just loved me! They just loved everything about me. They would always send me texts—all of them—every day, saying, "Can you please come back in the chamber?" I just took that as: these guys really like me; they want me back in the house. How cool is that? Repeatedly, time after time, they wanted me back in the chamber with them. Lovely!
I touched on committees before. The Standing Committee on Public Administration is a unique committee, and you can pretty much self-refer any inquiry you like. Gee, we had some interesting inquiries that I think provided a lot of good across the years. In my first term, we did an inquiry into the Serco contract for custodial services and court security. That was a bit of a contentious contract that had been outsourced, and I have a view that human misery should never be outsourced by government. I encourage future governments to uphold the notion that where there is human misery, the service should be provided by the taxpayer because it is a service that should be delivered in the best interests of those who are unfortunately users of that service. Also, the general public should know that there is no profiteering or profit-taking from services in human misery, and that includes custodial services and health. We looked into those contracts. Once they are let and privatised, they are very difficult to wind back. I even concede that there are some advantages or some appeal to governments in outsourcing some of these contracts, but I have been proud that we have brought some outsourced staff—for instance, for Main Roads and the Water Corporation—back in-house in recent years. We can do a lot more on that. The Peel Health Campus staff are coming in-house, and I hope that other places do that in the future as well. These are core Labor values that we should look to strive to and implement in the future. Thanks to all the staff and members of committees on which I served.
We also did an inquiry into St John Ambulance, which I think was our most publicly well known. I still get hugs from paramedics and volunteers who know about the work that we were able to do in the inquiry and what we were able to expose. Rather than say let us bring the ambulance contract back in-house, because, again, there are good reasons why St John is well placed to deliver that contract, it was a very timely shot across the bow, if you like, that we needed better from our ambulance service delivery contracts. To its credit, St John Ambulance took it on the chin and has made great moves in doing that—bringing the call centres together and working on a lot of the changes in the way that paramedics are regarded and trained. These are remarkable people who see the worst, sometimes, that society can dish up. It was a little bit hard for me listening to a lot of the testimony of people having just been through a ridiculously traumatic experience and there being another call and them having to go. Regarding those paramedics and volunteers across the state, I think the volunteer model is somewhat unsustainable, and I know that changes will be made there in the future. I am proud that we have been able to deliver paramedics to the regions.
I am rambling a little bit here, but, similarly, we made changes to emergency services with improvements to facilities. Having an aerial backup, training and proper personal protective equipment for all of us—I am a volunteer firefighter in the regions—gives us a lot of comfort when we attend a particularly bad fire. That has been a very positive change for us, and I acknowledge everyone at the Department of Fire and Emergency Services.
Getting back to committees, it was a bipartisan and enjoyable experience. It has provided a lot of useful information to Parliament, both before I came and during my time, as all committees of course do.
Fun fact: I think I would be the only member of Parliament ever to have served 12 years and never go on an overseas trip. I am quite proud of being able to say that. A couple of times there was an opportunity to go but the timing did not quite work for me. I have stayed in Australia, and mainly in Western Australia, during my time. It does not mean that I have not been able to learn a lot from what other jurisdictions are doing, but it is just something that is important to me. I feel proud leaving the Parliament saying that.
I have had many friends. I have made many friends along the way and kept many old friends. I have lost a few friends due to the role I have had in the Legislative Council. Some people just cannot seem to look past the political divide, but that is a matter for them; I am okay with that. I have met a lot of great people and made some strong friends along the way. When I was reading my inaugural speech some names were there, Tanya and Kristian, David and Roslyn and Daine and Lisa. We are still firm friends, and I think they might all be here today. Friendships can endure a political career. I look forward, though, to spending more time with all of you because your family and your friends are the ones who lose out when you take on a political career.
I will get to the hard bit for most people, and it will probably be hard for me too, but I want to acknowledge my family. As I have said, you give an awful lot to come here. They give up an awful lot for us to come here, and it is not their choice for us to come into this place. There is a lot of time away and a lot of time when you are pulled in 10 different directions. There are just things that you need to go to do and be part of. You come down to Perth to Parliament. It is almost always at their expense. A lot of stuff is dished up to you on social media—I mean, we sign up for that, but they do not. I think a lot of people on social media must forget that everyone who is a member of Parliament or a public figure has a family and that family deserves some respect, even if you have none for the person you are getting into on social media. It is a cesspit and it is out of control.
I put up a pretty simple ad on Marketplace the other day for some leftover hay that we had, and one very brave person from behind his keyboard suggested that I would be doing everyone a favour if I took my own life. I do not understand why anyone would write something like that, particularly at this time. That person clearly had not thought it through that this person has a family, and so they have become the victim of a lot of pretty ordinary behaviour, opinions and views. To my family, I am sorry about that. It has been difficult for you.
On the day I gave my inaugural speech, Madeleine turned 18 years old, which is why I wanted to make it on that day. I wanted to make my valedictory speech today because Maddie lives in Sydney now and could be home, but she is working for a fourth Premier. She has worked with Annastacia Palaszczuk, Roger Cook, Mark McGowan and now Chris Minns in New South Wales. She is a particularly capable and strong young woman who is blazing a trail her way. I could not be more proud of you, love. Sorry—I am not holding it together too well up here, but that is what happens!
To my son Dylan, he is on the farm and has been there for 10 years now. He is making his own borough on the place, if you like, and has been a great custodian of the farm while I have been doing this. Him, Mark and Baz have kept the wheels turning up there, literally, over the last 12 years and I am looking forward to spending more time with him. To my wife, Lesley, you have been a rock of support for me. I cannot thank you enough for everything that you have done over the last 12 years. Again, I am looking forward to spending a lot more time with you. Behind every member of Parliament is a great husband, wife, spouse or partner, and I am lucky to have one of the best.
My grandparents are no longer with me. They have taught me a lot about family and grew up in a different time when we could understand how difficult it was for past generations. They drive us to make the future better for future generations. They have all gone, but they taught me a lot. My sisters and their husbands, they were here at the start and they are still here. I also look forward to spending more time with them and their families. I think it is a cause of some pride for people to have a family member in Parliament, but we do not get to see as much of them as perhaps we would like to.
To my mum, who has known me longer than anyone else—where are you, Mum? Up the back. You have taught me so much and done so much for me. I cannot thank you enough. It has been great being in Parliament because I got to spend a lot of time with her because she lives in Perth now, but I am looking forward to being out of Parliament as well. Thanks, Mum. I love you very much.
To my in-laws, to Nana and Pop, Louise, Brendan and Roz, Tania and Kristian, thank you all for your friendship and support over the years. I mentioned the farm workers. Thanks, guys. It is an interesting relationship turning up to the farm in a suit and telling people what you expect them to do for the next couple of days, but they have been great about that. I know they are very supportive of what I do, but I think they are looking forward to having me back at the farm from time to time and working together with them. I am looking forward to that. We have a great crew up there. Mark is a very proud Noongar man and I love having him around. He brings a whole lot to our farm.
This is going to be just as hard—with the staff that we have had over the time. I have mentioned Dan Caddy. Donna Plummer, Judy Riggs, Tobie Prater and Dan Hobley have been with us at different times, but I now have the very best team of people, the most decent, nicest, caring people, who work together and put up with me. It can be challenging some days when things change at very short notice, especially for the organised ones among them, but there has never been a dull day in our office. There has never been a constituent who has not had their issue attended to. So, to Rachel, Lisa and Sharon, thank you all very much. I am bitterly disappointed that there will be no Labor presence in Northam after tomorrow, but that is how life goes. I know that they will move on to bigger and better things. They are a great loss to our party and to our movement. We are all going out tonight to have a drink and celebrate. We are going to rough it up at Crown, so I am sure that will be a great night for us all. I really cannot thank you guys enough. You do not realise how much it meant to me. I went through a difficult time there for a while with the office and staff, and to have you guys come in and get the ship back on course has been wonderful and I thank you all very much for the bottom of my heart.
To the mighty United Workers Union, I have had its support all the way through. I joined before I came to Parliament. I am proudly a member and I will stay a member. The United Workers Union, for those who are not aware, stands up for the rights of some of our lowest paid and exploited workers—cleaners, hospital orderlies, paramedics, bar staff, education assistants and healthcare workers. They are a wonderful group of people who work better by uniting together. Our union does the work, as do all unions. I am a very strong supporter of the union movement. I thank everyone involved for their work, but the United Workers Union supported me all the way through. I hope I have repaid that support. I have helped to get a lot of people elected to Parliament and they chose to enter our United Workers Union caucus as well, strengthening our numbers, helping getting people into cabinet and into party positions.
I had a difficult 12 months. I will pretty openly say that I backed Roger Cook in the leadership ballots, which was a difficult time for our parliamentary group. We had two outstanding candidates from the same group and it did somewhat divide us. It was a difficult time, but I am proud of Roger and what he has been able to achieve in his time as Premier. I know Amber would have made a great leader as well, but I chose who I thought was the right person. Roger and Rita are a dynamic team who will serve us well into the future.
Thanks to everyone at United Workers Union, particularly Dave Kelly, who first called me one day and suggested that we sit down to have a chat. I had three goes of getting into Parliament. I had not figured out the factional system and I do not mind saying that I still have not figured out the factional system! It has been great working with Dave and then Carolyn Smith later. I could go to these people at any time with any issue and work through it. It has not always been easy, but they have both been great supporters of mine and I thank them very much. I would never have got this opportunity without them.
At party office, I jokingly sometimes say, "Gee, we have to win votes in the country despite party office." That is not at all true. Party office is a great organisation that has been ultimately entirely successful, fantastically successful, over my time in Parliament. As I said, we came from a very low base in 2013. We have now had convincing wins at three state elections and now two federal elections. What a great crew we have there. Simon Mead was the state secretary when I started, then Patrick Gorman, now federal member for Perth and dear friend of mine. Mat Dixon, Tim Picton, Ellie Whiteaker, Lenda Oshalem and Lauren Cayoun have been there and many other staff are down at party office. What a powerhouse it has become and I look forward to further strong campaigns. I wish all who have gone on to bigger and better things all the best into the future. I thank you for your service to WA Labor.
There have been plenty of candidates in Geraldton in my time. We have had Kathryn and Lara as candidates. In Moore we had Peter and Barni, with Jenna Denton at the last election. In Central Wheatbelt we have had John, Gary, Michelle and Rebecca as candidates. Beck is here today—onya, Beck; you did a great job! In Roe, we had Josh, and Brad Willis for three elections. What a champion and true believer Brad Willis is. Brad Willis has been our candidate in Roe, our most difficult electorate, for three elections in a row. He knows that we are not going to win Roe, but he is a true believer and supporter of the Labor Party and stands up every time to fly our flag. I can remember how happy Brad was the day that he met Mark McGowan. He is now on a first name basis with the then Premier. Thanks so much, Brad, particularly to you for three campaigns in a row. He is from Katanning and runs a business there. He cops a bit, I think, for being the Labor guy, and that is a bit of a shame. Thanks very much to you all for putting yourselves forward. Of all those people, we only got one elected, but for all those people, thank you all so much for what you have done for Labor.
To all the branch members—we had fewer than 10 and have now got around 200 across the Agricultural Region—thanks to every one of you who was prepared to join the wonderful organisation that is the Australian Labor Party WA branch. I really appreciate it. It has given us strength in numbers and given us a voice in the higher levels of the party. Thank you all so much. Please keep the faith and stay joined up as members. We need you now as much as ever.
To the hundreds of volunteers and supporters who make our party what it is: it is not a party; it is a group of people. It is a group of people who believe in social equity, fairness and justice, as I do. We all do. Thank you all for your small but important roles, whether you are dropping a leaflet in someone's letterbox, knocking on their door, standing at a pre-polling station on polling day, or just spreading the word about how wonderful our candidates are and how people should support us. We all have a common interest in seeking to make the world a better place. Thank you all.
I was particularly happy at the federal election when Trish Cook, the now federal member for Bullwinkel, was the ninth nurse elected to the federal Parliament and the first member to the electorate to be named in honour of a nurse—how fitting. This is the first time that any part of my electorate has been within a federal Labor seat. Congratulations to Trish and Anthony Albanese on that historic win. I know that you are going to make a fine representative for us in the Federal Parliament and be our representative in the Wheatbelt.
The old saying, "If you want a friend in politics, get yourself a dog," is absolutely true, despite what I have said earlier. But loyalty comes in no greater form than our pets, and for most of my political career, and as those who know me well would know, that last week we said goodbye to our beloved kelpie sheepdog, Jess. She nearly made it to the end of my career at the ripe old age of almost 17. That was a sad week for our family, but we still have Buddy. He is still around, and I look forward to spending more time with you, little fella.
Back to our volunteers—sorry I missed this earlier—four months in a row, we had people standing on a pre-poll in Northam and there were 10 of us. So, to all those people who stood on a pre-poll for different times over those four weeks for the state and federal elections, thank you all so much. I look forward to catching up with you individually a little bit later on. The other thing we support is universal healthcare. We all pay the same price for a postage stamp or a unit of electricity—how Labor is that? The sale of Western Power actually threatened that uniform tariff and we were able to stop and overturn that. Members, I just turned 60 and although time has been kind and I do not look anywhere near that old, it gave me call to reflect. My father died at 60 and I think it was probably the biggest thing that made me realise that this was the time for me to go and do other things. There are a lot of things you can do in the world and being a member of Parliament is one of them, but there are many others, and I have other things that I want to achieve in my life. I want to spend more time at the farm. I have learned a lot in this role. Maybe I will get the opportunity to use that elsewhere, whether it be for a not-for-profit on a board or in some other way. I will find an interest. I want to do a bit more travel, particularly around Western Australia. I also had an opportunity to see a lot of the agricultural region. Usually, I fly down for a meeting or function and get on the plane the next morning. I want to go and spend some time in some of these places and hang out with some of the people who I have met.
I have lost a few good people on the way—Kim Chance, the great mentor of mine, who we lost just before the 2017 election. When I caught up with Kim's wife, Sue, just after that election, for Kim's funeral, she was very quick to tell me that Kim had gone in and early voted two weeks before the election. So, we still got Kim's vote in the 2017 election—what outcome is more Labor than that. But Kim was so good to me. I would not be here if it were not for Kim. I miss being able to call him. He was a great loss to me and our movement. Paul Tomlinson was a good friend of mine—he did not vote for me, but was a good friend of mine. We lost Paul recently. He was Mr Northam, really. When I set up the Moora branch and first started, there was this wonderful lady called Lorraine Craven who shared our values and was a Labor candidate in the seat of Moore—the difficult-for-us seat of Moore. We lost Lorraine as well. So, I just want to acknowledge those people and thank their families for the opportunity to learn from them what I could.
There were another few quirky things along the way. Members may not remember this, but in response to something that happened on Sunrise in which Lisa Wilkinson was criticised for wearing a similar outfit during the same week, Karl Stefanovic decided that he would wear the same suit for week and see whether anyone noticed. I am not a Sunrise watcher—or whatever, Good Morning Australia, one of those programs—but I was a bit sceptical that that could happen. So, early in the year, I wore the same suit to Parliament every day for a whole year to see whether that was true. It was true—nobody noticed. Not one person noticed. That was back in the days when I was a regular on Inside Cover. It says one of two things: that we either have a gender equity issue here in which women are expected to wear different clothes all the time and men can wear the same ones, or no-one is taking any notice of what Darren is doing—probably a bit more of the latter. It is still an issue today and I do not understand why, but you can wear the same suit. I did get it dry-cleaned from time to time for those who are concerned, but I did wear the same shirt to Parliament for a whole year and it actually inspired an Alston cartoon, which was one that I have had printed off. It says, "Dress code in Goomalling", and it says "work, fancy dress and social", and it was a person wearing the same clothes for every picture. I know people who have taken that cartoon, had it printed off and given it to their fathers.
I got to go on Rockwiz. That was not parliamentary related because I did not dare tell them I was a member of Parliament when I got on the stage in Rockwiz, but that was a life highlight for me that has happened in this time. I got a little bit nervous sitting next to Ella Hooper from Killing Heidi and answering questions, but that was a great experience. I am also part of a very famous duo who people may not know about. At Labor caucus retreats, there is this duo that comes and performs. Members, their name may not be particularly parliamentary, but I cannot change it here. They are called Fart and Carbuncle. Fart and Carbuncle perform the original Simon and Garfunkel songs before they were stolen by Simon and Garfunkel and the words changed and made into hits. We have had a great time doing that with my great mate Dave Templeman. I look forward to performing together in the future. Dave was going to come today, but he has to take one of his kids to an appointment and that is a fair reason. I am sure that we will get the band back together in due course. Look, we do not charge much and there are still a few outstanding invoices too, Labor caucus secretary, which we would like you to address when you can.
I have been a proud member of the parliamentary cricket team with some of the other members in here—mixed results. Cricket is always the winner when we play the press. They do tend to fabricate the results and perhaps sell up the performances a little bit, or sell them down, but we have had a great time. It has been a great opportunity working with the press. I probably still have that image of Gary Adsheads's stumps getting splattered in every direction to my bowling. That was a wonderful experience. Thanks, Gary, for that. It was a great time and can I encourage anyone who does a lot of sport to get involved in parliamentary sport.
I set up the Parliamentary Friends of the Arts and the Parliamentary Friends of Landcare. I had my staff swooning when Kav Temperley came up to Parliament. It was a bit hard to get them focused on the role that we had to do that day, hanging out with Kav, but thanks to everyone who was involved in those organisations. I do hope that those continue onwards and that people pick that up, particularly the arts—what an important sector. I think that the arts community really appreciates having friends in Parliament. So, please, I hope someone picks that up.
Members, I got Emu Export back to Parliament, where it belongs. It is proudly in the fridge beyond the members’ bar. Anyone who wants to have one of those, have a drink to Emu Export, but it is an iconic West Australian beer and it did strike me as a little bit strange that it was not in Parliament. Thanks to Enno and the parliamentary staff for getting that back into the fridge. It saves me from having a few in the little bar fridge upstairs; I can just go down and get one publicly.
This is perhaps going a little bit over time, but I do want to touch on the two Premiers who I have served under. Mark McGowan is a great friend of mine. He was one of the first people I met when I sort of got around politics in the late 90s. Mark was a great mentor to me. He is a great guy and he was a fantastic Premier, as we now know, leading us through the COVID pandemic. But I think his greatest legacy will be fixing the state's economy, going from eighth in the country to first and a clear winner. Thanks, Mark, for everything. We did not always agree on everything, but when we did not agree, we were able to do it respectfully and privately. It was great to serve with you and I do hope that we can catch up from time to time and talk about the good old days. To Roger Cook: what a difficult time that would have been when Mark has retired reasonably unexpectedly—although, when you look back, there may have been a few signs—and then to have to step up the way he has, has been a testament to him and his character. What a great leader of our state Roger has become and will continue to do so into the future.
Some of the small election commitments that we have made over the time have made a significant impact on some of those. My favourite one is the Merredin Men's Shed, which put up with a broken-down forklift for many years. We were able to get them a new one. I rarely go to Merredin without someone coming up and thanking me for the new forklift. That is the sort of stuff I love. Small amounts of money make a huge difference to these organisations.
I went to sleep in the chamber at 3:00 am and got on TV. It was a micronap—I was not asleep for very long—but it did make it onto TV. I brought a swag to Parliament for a late-night sitting. I did not end up sleeping in it but I was ready in case it was a particularly late finish. I gallantly protected the former education minister when the sprinklers were turned on on us, didn't I?
Hon Sue Ellery: You did!
Hon Darren West: I did. I got between that pulse of water and the minister and held out my coat, and, in the main, I kept the minister dry. I think they were turned on purpose, but the joke was on them! That was another thing that I had to do.
I had a text this morning from a former colleague who described me as one of a kind. I think that is the nicest thing anyone can say to me. I am proudly one of a kind. I do not quite fit in anywhere. I am a little bit strange and a little bit quirky at times, but I do everything I can to the best of my ability. Sometimes it works out okay. I am proudly my own person. I will do things the way I think is right, and I will continue to do that into the future. I come from a background where I had to take risks for a living and success was achieved in far different ways than it is here. For me, the time in here was right. The time for those who are one of a kind has come and gone. We live in a different world in which a single social media comment can define your career.
I have very few regrets but I do echo the sentiments of Hon Peter Collier in that there has been a lack of progress in the area of Aboriginal affairs. That is a shame on us all. As Hon Dr Sally Talbot pointed out, it is strange that in 2025 we have political leaders who will not stand in front of an Aboriginal flag. That shows how far we have to go. Aboriginal people, members of the oldest continuous living civilisation in the world, have far fewer rights than the rest of us. Bigger and better people than me have tried to change that, but I do wish it would change.
The media and social media have presented me with a few challenges, but I acknowledge all members of the media and sort of thank them, I think, for the things they have written over the years.
Members, this morning I woke to the sound of a tractor seeding wheat in the house paddock, and that sound reaffirmed for me that the time is right to go. I played a small role in a government that set WA up for the brightest of futures and I will always be proud of that. Our state is in good hands with Roger and Rita at the helm. I am going home to the farm. One of the reasons I think it is a good time to go is that like you, President, and Liz Kerr, I think it is the year of the Pies!
I wish those continuing on and those beginning their time in here all the best for the future, especially you, Hon Stephen Dawson. You are the ideal person to lead the Legislative Council into what will be a more challenging time with a democratically elected crossbench. I think you are the man to handle that job for us.
So that is it from me, everyone. Thanks again; it has been great knowing you all. I have really enjoyed my time here. I look forward to the future, and I know you will all do your best going forward. Thank you, President.
(Applause.)
The President: Members, I am going to leave the chair until the ringing of the bells to allow you to congratulate the honourable member and for a brief break.
Sitting suspended from 3:52:59 pm to 4:02:40 pm
Hon Wilson Tucker (Mining and Pastoral Region) (4:03 pm): Thank you, President. That went bloody quickly! I remember receiving advice on the first day from I believe it was Hon Kate Doust, whom I am going to paraphrase: time goes very quickly in this space, in this place, so please make the most of it—although I do recall on several occasions, particularly on late night sittings, when time indeed seemed to stand still and in some instances go backwards, particularly when Hon Nick Goiran was expertly scrutinising legislation at length. Some other advice I received in those early days was that it takes three years to understand what you are doing and then you are up for re-election, and it takes two terms to get anything done. I have occasionally liked to sprinkle in some software analogies over the past four years, and I am going to impart one last one for you all. In software development, the timeline is generally measured in hours and days. In politics, I have found it to be months and years, and so I think there is some truth in that advice. Some other advice I received was from our former Governor, the honourable Kim Beazley, whom I always found to be very approachable and generous with his time. We spoke in the corridor one day, in those early days after the election in 2021, and he said, "Young man," although I did not feel very young then and I certainly do not feel very young now, "being here is unique experience and a privilege, so make the most of your time here." These are words that I have tried to live by over my time in this place, despite my less-than-usual path here.
Describing myself as an accidental politician is a bit of an understatement. There were certainly a few occasions in 2021, just after the swearing in ceremony, when I was looking around the chamber and thinking to myself: what am I doing here and how did I get here? Coming into this role with no prior experience in politics, and really without much desire to learn about politics previously, I also had the other complexity of navigating back from Mexico, where I was working remotely at the time of the 2021 state election. I then had to first test negative for COVID, navigate back to the US where I was living at the time, get on a flight to Australia, go through quarantine in Sydney and get to Perth before the swearing in to take this position and restart and rebuild my life from the ashes.
I recall being still in Mexico when the extremely long counting process was happening for the Mining and Pastoral Region. I believe Hon Neil Thomson could back me up on that. I also remember the night when Antony Green predicted the fifth spot for the Mining and Pastoral Region. My name appeared on the ABC prediction calculator for the Daylight Saving Party. I must admit I was quite drunk at the time, after a few tequilas, and I must admit that I had a bit of a crisis of faith about coming back and taking the position. It was something I had really worked for and wanted in 2017. I had spent a lot of time waving corflutes and handing out flyers. We have Amanda in the gallery—we jumped over a few fences late at night to put up more corflutes, which I probably should not admit to. But then in 2021, I had a career, I had a life, and it was a role that I knew well and was good at, and I was potentially trading that in for a role that I knew nothing about. I asked myself the obvious question: what happens if you don't take it?
Antony Green actually answered that question quite publicly one evening at a Parliament dinner. He pointed out that the next spot on the group ticket was my mother, Janet Wilson. At the time I needed some Daylight Saving Party candidates, and so I put her in the least likely position to get elected, unless of course I surprisingly got elected and unsurprisingly lost my nerve. I remember telling my mother this and her words were: "Oh my God, Wilson, you have to come back." Just between you and I, President, I think if my mum were to take this position, she would have spent the time trying to legislate dog parks and start hug-appreciation groups, both of which I think you can agree are very admirable pursuits. Obviously, after the decision, it is no surprise that I am here and I took that leap of faith. As I said in my inaugural speech, I believe it is often the scarier, riskier and unknown paths that are more rewarding.
I remember a conversation that I had with my former manager at the time when I told her that I had just been elected, I was quitting and moving back to Australia. After the shock wore off, I raised the idea of still trying to work part time in the software development field to maintain the career that I knew. Her advice to me was: Wilson, you have a tendency to boil the ocean and try to do too many things at once. If this is the path you wish to take, I suggest you focus all your energy on this one role and do it well. That is what I have tried to do over the past four years. I have tried to take this role seriously and give the role as a member of Parliament in this place the energy and attention it deserves.
Now, staring down the barrel of I would say a fair degree of uncertainty about leaving this place and rejoining the actual workforce, I can say that I am glad that I took the riskier path because it absolutely has been a rewarding experience and one that I certainly do not regret choosing. As everyone knows, this role is not a standard nine-to-five job. It has been a privilege to travel around WA over the past four years, despite the sometimes weird and wonderful hours, to meet people and represent a patch of this earth in the beautiful state of WA. I consider myself lucky to have represented the Mining and Pastoral Region, which I have heard will be defunct and cease to exist as of midnight tonight, which I maintain is very unfortunate. I still maintain it is and was the best electorate out there. I think it is much easier to represent a place that is unique and beautiful and includes locations like the Bungle Bungles, Ningaloo Reef, Karijini, the Dampier Peninsula, our Matso's of course, among many, many others.
I also feel very lucky and fortunate to have met so many genuine and friendly people up north as well as over east in the Goldfields, which I consider a real privilege. A few notable experiences I had worth mentioning while travelling around the old electorate are trying to catch barramundi with local Indigenous kids and a few crocs on the Fitzroy River. The kids put me to shame and gave me a fishing lesson using tiny lures and handline. I swear I got stitched-up by the guy at the Broome fishing shop who sold me a very expensive lure and said it was guaranteed to catch monster barra.
Another notable experience was surviving the Gibb River Road and feeling I would say overly confident at the time about my four-wheel drive abilities, only to submerge a fair amount of electronics in the car at the El Questro Wilderness Park during a river crossing whereby the water was well and truly over the bonnet and threatened to stall the car, with a croc sign in the distance.
Another was rocking up very late to a meeting with the President of the Shire of Wyndham–East Kimberley just before my flight back to Perth covered in dirt. I took a friend's advice and tried to do a sunrise hike out to Elephant Rock, out past Kununurra, in a Mitsubishi Outlander. He failed to mention that it was a proper four-wheel drive track that I had no business being on. I did not mind the first two hours of digging, but I lost the plot during the third hour after swallowing about 10 flies!
When I originally came into this role, I was not sure about representing a regional location. I was born in Geraldton, spent time when I was very young in Carnarvon and went to high school in Bunbury, but I did not think that this really qualified me to speak on regional issues. There was also the complexity of representing a region that dislikes the single issue that one represents. In the early years, I recall travelling to Kalgoorlie and copping a fair amount of flak at the Exchange Hotel, the two-up shed and the local gun club for being the daylight guy and "Mr '98". Also around that time, I was meeting with local charity groups and organisations. I was speaking at the Indigenous language school. I was dropping off COVID tests to the men's shed, attending events and making appearances in the media talking about regional representation at the time and the state of Government Regional Officers' Housing properties. They were all very non–daylight saving issues! After a few more visits, I would say some but not all the verbal remarks stopped—I think when the locals realised that I was not there to promote daylight saving; rather, I was there to listen to the issues that were affecting them.
One of the privileged and often frustrating parts of this job, especially as a member of the crossbench without a deciding vote in this chamber, is that we do not necessarily have the power to fix constituent issues. Sometimes all we can offer is to listen, and although we are not necessarily creating an outcome, I think it does offer a level of reassurance for someone to know that a member of Parliament is empathising and listening. A lot of members of the public—including myself prior to 2021—thought that all members of Parliament had all the resources in the world to get the job done, and I think everyone who has been on this side of the chamber at least once knows that that is certainly not the case. As a single member and a one-termer, there are limited levers in this chamber that can be pulled. One of the early lessons I learnt was to follow the advice from my former manager and try not to boil the ocean. I think the silver lining of having a single vote in this chamber and knowing that that vote will in no way change the outcome of the passage of legislation in this place is that one is less constrained to the government's agenda and one has the ability to choose topics that one wishes to speak on and pursue.
During this term, I raised debates in this place on creating a windfall profits royalty regime; adopting four-day working weeks in the public sector; changing the date of Australia Day; changing retail trading hours; improving data privacy; investing in the tech sector; improving rental protections; and, of course, implementing daylight saving. Now, finally, when I cannot be interjected on from this side of the chamber for the first time in about four years, I will leave members with some parting thoughts on a few of the more notable issues that I care about.
I turn firstly to daylight saving, which is really the reason I went down this path to begin with. The motivation was simple then and it is simple now. I felt that the government of the day was out of touch with what the majority of Western Australians, especially millennials and younger voters, wanted when it came to daylight saving. Yesterday, I met our former Premier, Colin Barnett AC, and I mentioned that I would be quoting him in my valedictory speech today. He asked me what exact words I would be quoting, and I said, "Your comments about daylight saving being dead for a generation." He laughed and said that he gets enough heat from his wife for those comments. I am not sure whether that is an admission of wrongdoing, but members can read into that what they will!
To quote Colin Barnett, back in 2009, he said:
For this generation there will be no daylight savings …
It was short and sharp. Back then, the comments annoyed me, and that really started me down this this path of coming to this place. It annoyed me because I believe that topics like daylight saving need to be constantly tested. I think it is illogical to say that just because the majority of the population did not want it previously, we should not revisit that topic again in the future. It has been over 16 years since the last referendum. Since then, over 800,000 new voters have emerged and have not had their say on the topic of daylight savings.
Although I have failed in my mission to bring more sunshine to Western Australia, I am proud to say that I have had a crack at moving the needle, raising the conversation and pulling "every lever"—I am not sure whether Hansard will get my air quotes—through a couple of different means. There have been 51 articles in the media over the last four years related to daylight saving—I like to think that I am responsible for the majority of those—including a front-page appearance in The West Australian. There was also a post and a comment by The Bell Tower Times, an editorial with which I believe most members are familiar, which said:
… I almost think the media begged Tucker to introduce the bill
There was a follow-up comment on that post that said:
… more like he's being paid off by Big Curtain Dye …
The Bell Tower Times responded:
… and big sunscreen
To this day I am not sure whether that was a dig at my hair colour or talking about daylight saving!
I also drafted a bill, the Daylight Saving Bill 2023, which was not as wonderfully named as the United States' Sunshine Protection Act, but I think members will agree that it is an important bill nonetheless. My original position on daylight saving was to legislate a trial period without a public vote. I think that we have all had referendum overload in the last few years. But I ran some polling and I put it to the Western Australian people, asking the question, "Do you want to have a say or put it in the hands of politicians?" It turns out that the public did want to have a say, and so that is reflected in the final version of the bill that I read into this chamber in 2022. Obviously, given the numbers and the Labor members' I would say unofficial strategy of talking crossbench bills out before they get put to a vote, this was as far as I could have taken the bill in this term.
I ran some polling that showed majority support, and separately I worked with the University of Queensland's Professor Thomas Sigler to conduct a peer review report into daylight saving sentiment around Australia. The report is titled Survey of daylight saving perspectives in Australia, and I believe it is the first nationwide report on the topic of daylight saving. The report also showed a positive support for daylight saving, particularly, unsurprisingly, in metro areas and with younger voters.
Another topic that is near and dear to my heart is retail trading hours. Metro retail trading hours—or, as I like to say, the lack of—is another issue that I feel consecutive governments have ignored and on which they are out of touch with the public. Both major parties have chosen their sides, despite some historical flip-flopping to get to their position, and the issue is now a political one, which is unfortunate, because it is the WA consumers, tourists and visitors who I believe are being penalised as a result. Just like with the issue of daylight saving, some antiquated arguments are being thrown around, particularly by the unions, on why WA should keep the most restrictive trading hours in the country. I believe that, just like daylight savings, as younger voters continue to emerge and vote for issues rather than parties, it is a case of when, not if, these laws get revisited and relaxed.
Renters’ rights is an issue I came to advocate for. That happened organically rather than as anything planned. I think that speaking in this chamber, it is easier to talk from a place of personal experience. Coming back to Perth in 2021 and really experiencing the height of the broken rental market, I shared the frustration of a lot of renters out there battling to find a place, albeit from a more privileged position than many. I was very much interested in the Residential Tenancies Bill 2023 because I felt that the McGowan Labor government did not get that balance right between landlords and renters, and I expressed that opinion in this chamber on a number of occasions.
Also at the time, despite becoming a home owner later during debate on the bill, I was renting a property and received a no-grounds eviction, something the McGowan Labor government refused to rule out in the bill to provide long-term security to renters. This was all at a time when the rental market was still broken and not operating properly. It was not in that usual 2% to 3% availability range and was very much an owner's market, which it is still today. At that time, I was travelling up north for a few months. Despite never hiding the fact that I was a home owner, I was labelled a "filthy rich hobo" by The West Australian! After living out of hotels and swags, especially up north in the dry season for a few months, I think they got the filthy part right; I am still not sure how the rich part was justified! I remember receiving a phone call from my mother that morning when the paper was published. She said, without much pride in her voice, "You've made the front page." I also remember a conversation with my twin brother, who called me after getting yelled at in a cafe and asked me, "Wilson, what have you done?" For the record, I never substituted my brother for me in the chamber, despite rampant speculation and a few days when it seemed like a very, very good idea!
I still believe the Labor government has not got the balance right. The 30% of renters who are renting for long periods demand greater protections and deserve the added assurance of removing no-grounds evictions. I hope the new Minister for Commerce, Tony Buti, whom I respect, will listen to arguments from housing and rental advocacy groups, not just the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia.
Another area of interest of mine, which will probably come as no surprise to members given my background, is in tech and the innovation sector. I think playing to your strengths and your background makes a lot of sense in this place. We have a lot of doctors, lawyers and unionists already, and so I felt there was definitely space for a software guy. Coming back to WA from Seattle, I quickly realised how small the tech sector is here. When you say "engineer" in Seattle, it means software engineer. If you say "engineer" in WA, it means civil, mechanical or mining, typically all working for the resource sector either directly or indirectly. Although we are very much behind other jurisdictions, including over east, in tech company presence and moving to a more service-based economy, I think solid work and attention is finally happening in this space. I do not normally offer compliments to the other side of the chamber, but I put on the record that I believe the former Minister for Innovation and the Digital Economy, and current Minister for Science and Innovation, Hon Stephen Dawson, is doing a good job listening and participating in the tech and innovation sector, and I am glad to hear that the minister will be continuing in the portfolio. I think that continuity representation is important because growing startups by getting the flywheel of government investment into startups, scaleups and growing the ecosystem does not just happen overnight; it requires long-term investment and long-term focus.
I was fortunate enough to be part of the all-powerful Public Administration Committee, which was as hard working as it was all powerful. In this term, we finished three reports into ambulance ramping, organ and issue donation, and investment into the innovation sector. The committee also has a really good track record, with the Labor government agreeing to 79 out of our 92 recommendations, which is an 85% approval rating. I give us an A-plus. The only time that we differed as a committee was during the innovation inquiry on a recommendation to appoint a chief entrepreneur in Western Australia. That difference of opinion was not massive. There was not much daylight between opinions. It came down to not if the Labor government should make that appointment, but how.
Given my focus on the tech space, I was glad to see the Labor government agreed to 11 out of the 18 recommendations in the innovation report, although, I believe there were two misses in the government's response to that report—the independent innovation fund and the appointment of the chief entrepreneur. Both were raised strongly by the sector, and every non-public sector representative who appeared before the committee strongly agreed that we needed both. The Cook Labor government announced two very similar initiatives at the same time that the report was handed down, which I would describe as rather interesting timing, in the form of a joint public–private venture capital fund and an innovation advisory board. In my opinion, both have value but are not quite what the sector was asking for. If the public sector is controlling investment decisions, it will ultimately fall in line with the government of the day and the inherent short-termism of politics. I believe that having more independent management and oversight is important to ensure investment and strategy decisions are less political and more in response to what the private sector and the ecosystem needs.
I put on record my appreciation for other members of the Public Administration Committee. I think when members show up and put political factions aside and try to do what is right by West Aussies, better decisions are made and better outcomes are achieved. I am convinced that that is what happened with the Public Administration Committee.
Another area of focus of mine during this term was the Parliamentary Friends of Technology and Innovation (PFTI). I found this group to be rewarding outside of what I would describe as the predictable and often slow-moving nature of this chamber. I think we set a decibel record for the kick-off event in the courtyard. Apologies, President, if we disturbed the proceedings on that day. I will go out on a limb and say that we were the most active and engaged friendship group over the term. We hosted a number of events, which included an inaugural kick-off event in the Parliament House courtyard. We had multiple flights to the square kilometre array; thank you to other Mining and Pastoral Region members for participating and helping put that trip together. We had a tech talk at Parliament about AI; I think all we did really was probably give MPs ideas on how to write their speeches with ChatGPT, but I think it was enlightening nonetheless! We had a sundowner at Forrest Hall and two tech safari bus tours to the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, the Roy Hill operations centre, the Fugro space centre, the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct and the Curtin Entrepreneurs Hub.
I put on record my thanks to the following individuals who helped make these events possible and for their engagement over the years: Ivana Deng, Peter Kasparek, James Avanarkas, Nilesh Makwana, Alex Jenkins, Professor Peter Klinken AC, Renu Kanuu, Danelle Cross, Eva Chen, David Rees, Bradley Hill, Cecily Rawlinson and Kevin Pfleger. Of course, I give a big thank you to the other co-convenors of the PFTI group, Ms Caitlin Collins MLA, future Premier of Western Australia—I am calling it now!—and Ms Emily Hamilton MLA. Of course, I have to thank the Leader of the House for attending five out of six events and also speaking at a handful of them. Thank you.
I am also thankful to a new member of this place who I believe has been sworn-in and will be haunting the halls very soon, Hon Parwinder Kaur, who will be relaunching the PFTI group in her own imagining, of course. Given Parwinder's advocacy in education and science, I am glad to hear there will be some level of continuity with the network that this group has helped to create. I think it is in very good hands.
The technology and innovation space in WA and Perth, as I said, is small, but it is growing. There is need for more investment focus to compete in a global marketplace for talent and companies, but there is a big number of motivated people trying to get us there. It has been a privilege to meet so many startups, ecosystem builders and investors over the past four years and make some really good friends along the way.
I would like to conclude by thanking a few more people. Firstly, President, thank you for all the lunches and interesting talks you hosted. I thank Professor Thomas Sigler, Jason Furze and Nick Lloyd for their daylight saving advocacy and support over east. I thank Marion Burchell for helping peel back the layers of bureaucracy, and there are certainly a lot of layers to be peeled. I thank Hon Kate Doust for the conversations about the WA tech sector and the guidance during Commonwealth Parliamentary Association events, which I was fortunate enough to attend. I somehow managed to sneak into two during my term, which I found to be very insightful, and it was a great experience meeting MPs from around the Commonwealth. I realised at these events that, surprisingly, politicians are not bad people. Everyone I met had their hearts in the right place and was there to give back to the community.
I thank Amanda Klaj for her hard and fantastic work over the years. We drove each other crazy, but somehow our friendship survived. I thank Aaron Stonehouse for making it through the full four years, especially for the advice in the early days, which was useful as we both came from a similar unexpected path to this place. I thank Nik Kaurin for his wise words, which are beyond his youthful looks. Thank you to all the staff in Parliament and in this chamber, whom I did keep busy on a number of occasions with a number of last-minute requests. I thank you.
I will conclude by saying that it has been a privilege to be in this place. Reflecting on the last four years and how the lead-up to the election played out, it does feel like the right time to wander off into the sunset. But at the same time, it feels like there is a level of, I would say, unfinished business. This role has a way of becoming all-consuming, I would say, and part of your identity; it gets under your skin, as I think a lot of members can attest to. I certainly would not rule out an attempted return in the future. After I throw my laptop into the ocean and have a few more tequilas in Mexico, I think the political urge might just come back. As members know, and incoming members will find out, time here is precious and does indeed go quickly.
(Applause.)
Debate interrupted, pursuant to standing orders.
(Continued at a later stage of the sitting.)
