Associations and Co-operatives Legislation Amendment Bill 2025
Second reading
Resumed from 19 June.
Hon Andrew O'Donnell (4:25 pm): I am delighted to continue my remarks on the Associations and Co-operatives Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. I know that it has been some time since I began them. I want to remind members about some of the things that I was talking about at that time, recognising that some members might have been away on urgent parliamentary business, but it has also been close to two months since then. I think it would add some context for the chamber. We have not discussed this bill for some time. A comment that I brought up at the time was from one of my colleagues and I want to read it in one more time to set the tone and assist the house to get back into the theme of this bill.
This bill is fairly described as modernising the Associations Incorporation Act 2015 and the Co-operatives Act 2009, which makes it sound fairly boring; however, it is really not. Hon Dr Parwinder Kaur, during her contribution, said quite simply that this bill "puts people before paperwork" and there is no better description than that. I am pleased to set the tone in the resumption of this debate by putting that forward once again.
Members who were in the chamber during the first part of my contribution may remember that my focus was on the small, more community-oriented groups that will be impacted by the modernisation of this bill and the groups that will get some assistance out of it. I talked about the importance of supporting those groups and their volunteers who provide so much of our social fabric. It is the school P&Cs, the P&Fs; it is about multicultural organisations, sporting clubs, community gardens and, most importantly, it is about making the burden on those volunteers a bit easier. It will make it a bit easier to run those kinds of clubs and associations. As we all know, clubs and associations—any volunteer organisation—are finding it difficult to have people involved. If we can make it a bit easier on those people, I think we should.
I want to briefly touch on one group that I had already mentioned, but it is quite dear to me in my community. That is the Osborne Park Bowling Club. It is a community hub of activity in the area and it engages directly with many cohorts within our community as one of the largest membership bases in WA for a bowling club. You generally might think of a stereotype when you think of lawn bowls, but I have to say there are younger cohorts too. There are a lot of user groups at the bowling club. My particular favourite is Monday night bingo. This is only made possible because of the hard work of the people behind it. I give a shout-out to president Fred Davis, the past president Ian Gemmell and the club manager Helen Stevens for all their hard work over the years to make the bowling club what it is today. I am proud to once again mention that at the March election the Cook Labor government committed $500,000 towards upgrading the Osborne Park Bowling Club and I look forward to seeing progress for the benefit all the bowlers and the users of the club, which is basically the entire community.
That sums up a little bit of what I was getting to when my marks were interrupted; however, I want to continue speaking about some of the more practical and meaningful support.
Debate interrupted, pursuant to standing orders.
(Continued at a later stage of the sitting.)
