Estimates
Estimates of revenue and expenditure
Consideration of tabled papers
Resumed from an earlier stage of the sitting.
Hon Dan Caddy (Parliamentary Secretary) (5:04 pm): This will be fifth time lucky—on the fifth attempt, we will get to the end of this! Members will be pleased to know that I will not start on the GST this time, like I did on the second, third and fourth times.
Several members interjected.
The President: Order! We know there is a bit of excitement post–question time, but can we please have some quiet for the member on his feet.
Hon Dan Caddy: Thank you for your protection, President.
The President: I would not exactly say that, honourable member. I would say that I was fairly enforcing the standing orders.
Hon Dan Caddy: Moving on from the GST, this budget will also enhance community safety in Western Australia. There are a couple of headline items for that. In the police portfolio, there is $43 million to implement the nation-leading firearm reforms. I know that has been a big topic in this house over the last couple of weeks. There is also $22 million to catch and deter hoons on our roads. I have spoken many times in this chamber about my support—
Hon Neil Thomson interjected.
Hon Dan Caddy: I am not taking interjections from you, honourable member.
I have spoken many times in this chamber about my support for our police officers. I take this opportunity to again acknowledge them all, from the latest recruits to Commissioner Col Blanch, for their dedicated service to the people of Western Australia. Our police officers attend a variety of matters in our local communities. The focus on positive community outcomes is reflected in the commitment to collaborate and foster relationships with local people, schools, businesses, our Indigenous elders, organisations and community outreach groups. The work that WAPOL does keeps our local communities safe. It diverts people to community care organisations when appropriate and timely. It collaborates with many government departments to support those who may be struggling in our community.
Some members may be interested that I was recently recommended to take a listen to Persons of Interest, the official Western Australia Police Force podcast—I assume it is. It is a great podcast that showcases our local police officers who are out there doing the job. They are interviewed about a particular case or particular aspect of their job or about what happens in the course of their day. Of course, it is constructed with all the permissions and identity protection in place and all of that. I had the delight of listening to one of the earlier episodes called "You Can't Outrun Ace", which was about First Class Constable Jayden Elphick and his police dog Ace, and their first official attendance as a unit in tracking a suspect. Constable Elphick recounted some of the training he had undergone with Ace.
Hon Neil Thomson interjected.
Hon Dan Caddy: Member, please! Acting President.
It was fascinating to hear how caring for Ace impacted on Constable Elphick's daily life and how the two developed their mutual partnership to become a unit that could rely on each other, just like two human officers would rely on each other in a partnership. One of my favourite bits was right at the end when I heard this very proud "Good boy" from Constable Elphick. It was fantastic. The excitement from the human part of this duo when his partner Ace was successful was palpable. I suspect that Ace continues to serve and continues to be a very good boy indeed.
The government has committed to introducing new legislation and has invested $22.5 million to crack down on hooning and other antisocial behaviour. Something else I have often spoken about in this place is the police and community youth centres. I have spoken about individual PCYCs and the PCYC program as a whole. This government, in this budget, has committed an additional $10.5 million to our police and community youth centres. This includes $5.5 million to ensure the sustainability of PCYCs across Western Australia, bringing total approved funding to $24 million. There is also another $5 million to continue the delivery of safeSPACE programs.
For regional police officer recruitment—calm down—the government has committed to investing $15.6 million in the redevelopment of the former residential accommodation at the Western Australia Police Academy. The residential accommodation component of the police academy is critical for ensuring the recruitment and development of our regionally based police officers and this is part of this government's strategy for futureproofing regional policing.
The last thing I would like to touch on is the Regional Road Safety Program—the local roads program. This government will invest just under $70 million to expand the Regional Road Safety Program to target high-risk, high-speed regional roads managed by local governments. Further, on the theme of community safety, $41 million has been invested by this government to expand youth justice rehabilitation programs and initiatives to reduce youth crime. I believe Minister Swinbourn was speaking about that earlier in far more detail than I will go into. Over half a billion dollars has now been invested into youth justice since 2022. For the third tier of this fire and emergency services funding, $127 million has been invested to bolster our fire and emergency services capability, including new fire stations in both Yanchep and Bullsbrook.
I spoke about the state building infrastructure before, but the other cornerstone of this budget, along with the provision for the state building economic infrastructure, is this government's commitment to manufacturing in WA—our commitment to Made in WA. These commitments, just like the state building economic infrastructure, lay the foundation for future growth in Western Australia and complements the enormous spend on economic infrastructure.
I have a few Made in WA initiatives to go through, including $83 million to produce electric buses and ferries in WA, $25 million to manufacture transmission towers and their components, $50 million on a local battery manufacturing program, $50 million for the Perth biomedical precinct, $50 million for the Housing Innovation Fund, and $40 million to top up the Bew Industries and Fund. These initiatives will support many of the following industries and sectors: defence industries, clean energy exploration right across to the live music space, wine industries, biofuels, liquor reforms, small business grants and many more. As well as boldly planning for the large-scale future of Western Australia, this budget shows that we are also looking after those who need a little bit more help. To this end, we are investing $250 million to boost child protection and out-of-home care, $10 million for the police and community youth centres that I mentioned previously, $119 million to support people with disabilities, and $10 million to expand homelessness outreach services. There are many not-for-profits in this space, but I shout out to the incredible work done in Western Australia, especially by Uniting WA.
Our veteran community has also benefited from funding in this budget. Members in this house have heard me speak often about veterans and the veteran community, whether it is individual veterans or organisations within the community. The ANZAC Day Trust, for new members' information, delivers veteran-focused initiatives to support health and wellbeing, family support, community activities and both employment and education pathways for veterans coming out of the Australian Defence Force. It also supports commemoration events and sometimes facilities. This year's budget has seen a boost to our veterans through the Veterans Facilities Fund being realised, which is aimed at enhancing veteran infrastructure that we will put together around our veterans. This will go towards upgrading existing ageing infrastructure of RSL halls, for example, and other ex-service organisations. I am particularly pleased to see the funding that will go towards the psychiatric assistance dogs pilot program, which will support veterans with service-related mental health conditions. This is an incredible program, which is a collaborative effort through RSL WA and Kaizen K9. It marks a significant step forward in supporting our veterans and ex-service members who are experiencing post-traumatic stress in the community. The two-year program will train four puppies to become trained psychiatric assistance dogs, which will then be paired with veterans or ex-service members. It is a pioneering initiative that is the first of its kind in Western Australia dedicated to enhancing the mental health outcomes for our veterans. Canine care providers will undergo comprehensive training at Kaizen K9, which is a Perth-based business with over 25 years' experience in training both police and military dogs. It will oversee this training and equip these dogs to identify symptoms and provide optimal care and support to their veteran companions.
I move to animal welfare. Members in this house would be very surprised if I did not speak at least a few words about animal welfare and the funding that this government has put towards it. I know my friend Hon Amanda Dorn has already spoken at length on this, but I want to make some comments around the funding in this budget for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. I was very happy to see that that funding was increased. In the 2023–24 reporting period, RSPCA WA answered over 17,000 calls regarding animal cruelty from the community, which is an increase of 8% on the previous reporting period. It finalised 36 prosecutions relating to 59 dogs, nine cats, seven birds or poultry, six equine animals, five goats, a sheep and a pig. Keep in mind that this includes only reports on companion animals such as dogs, cats, pet birds and other pet animals. It is not within the RSPCA's remit to do the same for native animals. This budget is committed to increasing funding from $1.3 million to $7 million a year to support the RSPCA and its inspectors, strengthening enforcement operations and supporting the organisation's animal welfare regulator's remit. I acknowledge that this probably does not go far enough for my friend Hon Amanda Dorn—I think she said as much in her statement—but it does represent an increase of over five times compared with the previous year's budget. It is very welcome and I was very pleased to see it. Currently, the RSPCA has only 11 inspectors for the entire state and, as we know, Western Australia is one of the largest jurisdictions in the world. These inspectors are covering 2.5 million square kilometres. In the 2023–24 period, they travelled over 27,000 kilometres. This funding boost will support the professional work that the RSPCA is currently doing, including the Pets in Crisis program, inspection services, the cruelty hotline, the surrender and adoption services, outreach and training programs, and sterilisation subsidies, which continue to be supported to prevent over-breeding. This increase in funding contributes to a stronger outcome for animals, improving response time and effective investigations into cases of cruelty.
As well as this, there are many animal welfare groups in the community that provide care for our companions and native wildlife animals in Western Australia—community and not-for-profit organisations that support positive animal welfare outcomes by rehoming and fostering surrendered animals and abandoned companion animals. I want to thank all the volunteers in this space, who work tirelessly and are really driven by a passion for animal welfare. There are quite literally hundreds of them right across the state. I also want to thank the Minister for Agriculture and Food for her commitment to extend the animal welfare small grants program for the next two years, which provides, as Hon Amanda Dorn pointed out, grants of up to $50,000 for local projects. This program provides grants to groups and organisations that support the welfare of companion animals and wildlife, and foster and rehome pets. It is money incredibly well spent. It is incredibly important that the state government keeps investing in these organisations. The projects that these grants support are vital in supporting both regional volunteers and advocates right across the state and in our communities.
I have touched on specific funding for housing, police et cetera in some regional areas, but I want to highlight one particular regional electorate that is close to my heart. It is an electorate that I am incredibly familiar with. I am sure that other members of this place will concentrate on other regional areas, but, for the next few minutes, I want to go through some of the outcomes for a regional electorate when it has a very hardworking member. I want to speak about the electorate of Albany and the South West. My good friend Rebecca Stephens, the former member for Albany, worked tirelessly for her electorate over her time as the member. There is, of course, a share of the nearly $200 million investment into regional housing, but I want to go more specifically into other commitments.
New election commitments include the McKail north urban master plan. Medium-density mixed-use sites at Albany's Middleton Beach have been released to market to bolster housing diversity, as well as commercial opportunities. The port of Albany is going to receive $11 million for the design and redevelopment of berths 1 and 2 to support an increase in its capacity for grain and fertiliser exports and for mineral sands, which I think is one of the other exports from Albany. There is also an $11.5 million commitment to finalise the airport upgrade, which means that the Albany airport will likely be finished in 2026. I note that the mayor, Mr Stocks, has also been complimentary of this in the media. I believe I read that in The West Australian.
There are major investments in regional roads in the area, with $25 million to upgrade South Coast Highway, which I have driven along many times in my life, and also the 12-kilometre stretch between Cheyne Road and Kojaneerup Road, which is also very close to where our farm was. Indeed, our farm was on Kojaneerup Spring Road, which I think is the next road across.
This budget delivers major investment for the expansion of Albany Health Campus and includes funding for staffing, including doctors, nurses and many allied health specialists. I have a long list of many of the projects that have been funded in Albany, but I will pick out a few of the health projects as I go. As well as the health campus expansion, the general dental clinic and redoing the car park around Albany Health Campus, there is the development of the Albany hospice hub, with a $50,000 grant for the Butterflies Op Shop to co-locate information and resources. There was a $50,000 grant for the Albany Primary School multi-court upgrade. In that same space, there is a $200,000 investment to upgrade the Albany Aboriginal corporation Noongar centre.
Sports are critical to our regional centres, even larger regional centres like Albany. Sports and sports clubs are where people come together. Post the election, we saw $165,000 for the redevelopment of the Railways Football and Sporting Club's clubhouse and almost as much to provide a multi-use community venue for the North Albany Football and Sporting Club.
There are some other significant smaller investments in environments and parks, including $140,000 for the Middleton Beach junior playground redevelopment. All of this funding adds up. There are pages of it, but I will not go through them all. All of this funding is the legacy that Rebecca Stephens leaves from her time as the member for Albany in the 41st Parliament. She was an outstanding member of Parliament and an outstanding regional member.
With the economic infrastructure provided for in this budget—I spoke about the poles, wires and ports for the future—the education sector is going to need to complement these poles, pipes and ports with people. I touched on TAFE a little bit earlier. I will get back to TAFE in a minute. I will just go through some of the education commitments. This budget sees $1.5 billion of new investment in education, with $708 million to meet enrolment growth and support students with disabilities. Among the election commitments that were made, there is $135 million to plan and deliver new schools and for major upgrades to 17 schools; $94 million for upgrades to air conditioning and crossings; $29 million to pilot free full-time kindy, which I have already mentioned; $15 million to expand before-school and after-school care services for children, which is critical; $10 million to support school canteens; and an $8 million investment in remote non-government schools in the Kimberley.
There are some additional investments as well. There is $36 million to support the development of specialist education assistants and a $124 million uplift in school maintenance. As I did when I spoke of our police officers, I want to acknowledge all the teachers, early childhood educators and education assistants across the state and thank them for the critically important work that they do. I start by acknowledging in what was my patch—as with all of us, my patch is now the whole state—an amazing principal I have had the privilege of getting to know during my term, Helen Demiris. Helen and the wonderful Pippa and Mary are always on hand to tell me what is happening and give me a very honest account of exactly what is happening in the world of education. I thank them very much for the time they have taken over the last four years to speak to me about education.
Following on from education, I want to speak a little about training, but, before I do, I would like to seek an extension under standing order 22, if that is possible.
Leave granted for the member's time to be extended.
Hon Dan Caddy: Hon Tjorn Sibma in his valuable contribution tried to use the numbers to show how free TAFE does not work. He tried to convince members of this house that it did not work by using his numbers. He used numbers to back up his ideological opposition to universal education, which is something that we see from the other side.
Hon Tjorn Sibma interjected.
Hon Dan Caddy: I am glad the member is groaning, because one thing that is absolutely certain is that he and his cohort completely destroyed TAFE in this state. They tried their best and, in the process, destroyed the number of tradies who were available in this state at the time. It was not evident at first, but they created part of the circumstance that led to the skills crisis that this government has been fixing ever since. Members can groan all they want, but that is a fact. The numbers support that.
We have invested $331 million this year—it is a new investment—into training to upskill Western Australians and $100 million to lower fees and provide fee-free TAFE courses. TAFE enrolments have reached a new record high—165,000. We are slowly but surely repairing the damage that the other side did when it was last on the Treasury bench. We have provided $141 million to grow and support our construction workforce through the Construction Training Fund and residential construction initiatives; $17 million to expand our heavy vehicle training facilities and program; $12 million to train hundreds of new apprentices for the defence industry; $8 million to support employers to take on mature-age apprentices; and $34 million for the TAFE modern equipment program. We have not just set aside money in this budget; we have been trying to fix this issue and have been fixing it since 2017. Hon Sue Ellery, the former leader of this place and former Minister for Education and Training, took this seriously. She absolutely from day one said, "I am going to fix this mess that was left by the previous government." She took it on. It is a bit like reopening the Fremantle train line after those opposite shut it down so many years ago. It caused all these problems and then we came into government and slowly but surely fixed the mistakes.
A government member: It takes a long time.
Hon Dan Caddy: It takes a while. We are still fixing some of the former government's mistakes. Eight years on, we are still here fixing up some of its mess.
While I am talking about trains and the Fremantle line, let me talk a little about transport. I drive on the Mitchell Freeway regularly to get to my electorate office. The works on that freeway that have now been completed make the drive so much better than it ever was. The investment that this government has put into roads, not just rail, has been absolutely fantastic not only for people in Perth, but also for people in the whole state. Talking about this budget, it includes another $700 million to widen and upgrade Kwinana Freeway and $450 million for the Reid Highway–Erindale Road expansion.
Hon Dr Brad Pettitt: I give you two years before it stops working.
Hon Dan Caddy: I will not even go into that as I am not sure the member would remember the history of that.
We have also budgeted $36 million for upgrades along the Wanneroo Road corridor. I say to Hon Dr Brad Pettitt—
The Acting President (Hon Simon Ehrenfeld): Hon Dan Caddy, address your remarks through the Chair, thank you.
Hon Dan Caddy: Thank you for your guidance and sage advice, Acting President.
Hon Dr Brad Pettitt may be pleased to know, through you, Acting President, that we have delivered $150 million to deliver the new one-zone flat fare; $18.2 million to halve Transwa fares and $10.4 million to keep public transport free for students in 2026. There is so much happening in the transport space.
I do not want to take up all the extra time, but I knew I was going to run out. I will quickly go through some of the other initiatives in the budget. Something that my good friend Hon Samantha Rowe is very excited about is the $332 million investment, through you, Acting President, to upgrade sporting infrastructure across Western Australia. On top of that $332 million is $60 million over seven years for a Perth-based National Rugby League team. A big portion of that will go to grassroots development.
I have already spoken about health. We are now experiencing a period of global and economic uncertainty. I do not need to outline to members in this place some of the things that are going on around the world. It is important that responsible governments deliver budgets for their people, budgets that seek to futureproof and set up their jurisdictions for the future. In the five times that I have risen to speak—if members want to include the extension of time, I guess it would be six times—over many weeks, I have tried to highlight the future aspect of this budget, including the economic infrastructure, which I have spoken about many times, and the money that has been invested in education to bring forward the people we need to take advantage of that economic infrastructure because, mark my words, that economic infrastructure will result in further investment in our state.
This was one of the best sets of budget papers we have seen, and there have been many good budgets over the last eight years. To finish off my contribution on the budget, I congratulate the Premier and the Treasurer and their cabinet colleagues for delivering such a forward-looking and good, strong and fiscally responsible budget for this state. Thank you.
The Acting President: I thank Hon Dan Caddy for his address over eight weeks. Honourable members, we are dealing with item 1, Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure–Consolidated Account Estimates 2025–26. The question is that the motion be agreed to. I give the call to Hon Pierre Yang.
Hon Pierre Yang (Parliamentary Secretary) (5:35 pm): I want to start by congratulating my good friend Hon Dan Caddy for finally concluding his contribution on the 2025–26 budget. It gives me pleasure and it is a great honour to rise here to make a contribution on the ninth budget that this Labor government has delivered. I want to commend the government, the Premier and the Treasurer for a fiscally responsible and futureproofing budget that will set the state on an upward trajectory into the future. My very good friend Hon Dan Caddy just talked about futureproofing. That is something the previous government failed to do. It had a once-in-a-lifetime mining boom and it squandered it. It failed miserably. We were elected in 2017, tasked by the people of Western Australia to fix the previous government's mess and bring WA back on track. We did that.
Hon Nick Goiran interjected.
The Acting President: The member has the call.
Hon Pierre Yang: Thank you, Acting President. I think the standing orders say that any interjection is unruly. I shall not take any interjections in this debate.
This government continues to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and visionary governance, steering us to unparalleled prosperity and stability. I mentioned the track record of the previous government. I want to spend a little of my time today—
Several members interjected.
The Acting President: Members, Hon Pierre Yang has the call.
Hon Pierre Yang: Thank you, Acting President. I want to talk about the budget—a very good budget for the 2025–26 financial year. The 2025–26 state budget delivers our seventh consecutive surplus. It reflects the Cook government's unwavering commitment to building a resilient, thriving and diversified Western Australian economy. As I said, I want to take us back a few years and remind members what kinds of challenges we were facing when we came to government back in 2017.
In 2017, the Western Australian economy was in disarray. If we take away the exports that we had, WA was in a domestic recession. That was purely because of the mismanagement of the finances and the economy by the previous government. I will delve into the details a little bit more. Our credit rating was downgraded. Unemployment rates were at an unacceptable level. By a rough estimate, 80,000 fellow Western Australians who wanted to work could not get work. Against this bleak backdrop, the people of Western Australia elected the Labor government in 2017 to fix the problems that the previous government had left us with. I want to bring us back to where we were in 2017. I have here a document that I have referred to from time to time in this chamber, and that is WA Labor's document prior to the 2017 election called Plan for Jobs. In this document is a section on the economic circumstances of Western Australia back in 2017. If I may, Acting President, I will quote a few passages from this document. It states:
One of the biggest challenges we face in WA is to grow and diversify the economy beyond the resources sector to provide jobs, housing, education and utilities for a population which is estimated to grow to 3.27 million by 2026.
After more than ten years of prosperity, driven primarily by a mining construction and investment boom, Western Australia's economy is now changing as construction projects are completed and move into an operational phase.
It also states:
Most state governments would have used the incredibly fortunate position of a huge revenue surge to ensure that debt was low for when the record high commodity prices inevitably declined.
However the WA Liberal Government has failed to do this. Having inherited the best set of financial books in Australia in 2008, this Liberal Government have turned it into a $31 billion State debt in 2015–16 which is expected to blow out to $39 billion in 2018–19.
…
And yet the State economy is now in a more precarious position than during the Global Financial Crisis, due to poor management of mining royalties and a ballooning net debt in the general government sector by the Liberal Government.
In that snapshot of WA's economy in 2017, we knew that the Liberal–National government had completely mismanaged WA's economy in the eight years it was in power. I will refer to how we got there. In 2008, we had an election. The then Leader of the Liberal Party, who was retiring at that election, came back to become leader and then won the surprise election in September 2008 and became the Premier of WA with the support of the National Party and the crossbench in the other place. What the National Party was saying to the Liberal Party was, "If you support our policy idea of Royalties for Regions, we will support you so that you get into government." The Liberal Party jumped on that idea. That is why we had a situation in which the Liberal Party had to rely on the National Party to stay in government, and, in return, the Liberal Party in government had to give that concession to the National Party in government. We had a situation in which the two partners in government exchanged concessions; one would stay in power and the other would have Royalties for Regions to fulfil its election commitment. In 2013, the Liberal Party and the National Party continued in government, winning one of the largest majorities in the state's history at that time. The Liberal Party was able to govern in its own right, but it chose to stay in partnership with the National Party and continue Royalties for Regions as a government policy. I want to talk about that in some detail in a little while, but before I do, I want to come back and finish off about the economic situation we had in 2017.
Economic growth fell under the Liberal government. We lost our Aaa credit rating. The Plan for Jobs states:
Upon assessing the fiscal discipline of the WA Liberal Government, credit rating agencies Standard and Poor's and Moody's stripped Western Australia of its AAA credit rating in September 2013.
Standard and Poor's were scathing of the WA Liberal Government citing the State Government's 'limited political willingness either to cut expenditure or raise revenues' in November 2013 and again in April 2015 when they predicted that the WA Liberal Government would experience 'slippage' in the pursuit of their savings and debt reduction targets.
The document also states:
In April of 2015 Standard and Poor's put Western Australia's AA+ credit rating on a negative watch and issued this warning:
"Unless the state government undertakes significant corrective measures in its June 2015–June 2016 budget, Western Australia could record average operating deficits of about 1.2 per cent over 2014 to 2018. This sustained level of deficits would make the States budgetary performance no longer consistent with a AA+ rating and would further increase its debt burden."
In the January 2016 CommSec's State of the States report, Western Australia was downgraded to fifth position as slower population growth and higher unemployment affected economic performance.
I talked about the unemployment rate back in 2017, and that was just the unemployment rate for the overall population. If we look at youth unemployment, the figure was even more depressing. The Plan for Jobs states:
Western Australia's youth (15-24 years) unemployment rate continues to increase to 10.7 per cent with now one in eight youth in the labour force being unemployed.
The reasons for the high youth unemployment rate can be varied, but what has become evident is that entry level jobs that were once plentiful are scarce or no longer exist. Our desire for efficiency and convenience has brought about technological changes that now make some entry level jobs obsolete. A great example of this is on-line shopping and self-serve checkouts making less need for checkout assistants.
Compounding the issue is the increases in TAFE fees of up to 510 per cent since 2013 making many TAFE options out of reach for many Western Australians.
There has been a 26 per cent drop rate in the number of people starting an apprenticeship or traineeship since 2012.
"Figures from the WA Department of Training show 19,872 people started a traineeship or apprenticeship in the months to September 2015, compared with 26,986 in the same period of boom-time 2012".
That was the situation we were in: youth unemployment, unemployment in the overall population and our credit rating being downgraded. We were in domestic recession because of the Liberal–National government's mismanagement of the state's finances and economy, and that is undeniable. No matter how the other side wants to spin it, that was a fact. Those were the challenges that we had to deal with as a government coming into power.
I now want to turn to a news.com.au article that talks about some of that mismanagement and gives examples of some of the mismanagement of the state's finances by the former Liberal–National government. The article is titled, "A $250,000 throne fit for Royalties in the Regions". The article refers to taxpayers' money being used to build a $250,000 toilet that welcomes users with Burt Bacharach songs! It states:
Four days before the Barnett Government hands down what is being tipped to be a frugal Budget, numerous examples of questionable funding under the Royalties program have been uncovered.
The controversial arrangement, struck between the Liberals and the Nationals in order to form government in 2008, ensures 25 per cent of WA's mining and onshore petroleum royalty revenue goes to regional areas to fund a range of initiatives.
That sounds legit! The article continues:
But some of the spending, which began in December 2008, has raised questions among groups and community members who argue the money could have been put to better use elsewhere.
…
Bunbury residents said they were fascinated that the space-age dunny said "welcome" to clients and played a piano version of Burt Bacharach's What the World Needs Now Is Love, but wondered whether it was the best use of $250,000.
Other dubious Royalties for Regions funding included $5000 for "sculptures based around cray/lobster pots", money which the successful applicant, a fishing group, had returned because it wasn't enough; $50,000 for Margaret River's CowParade exhibition of 80 fibreglass cows; and several golf-related projects, including $21,291 for "two second-hand motorised golf carts" and their storage facility.
At this point I wish to inform the house that I may seek leave to continue my remarks tomorrow; and I will just do that, Acting President.
(Leave granted.)
Debate adjourned, on motion by Hon Lauren Cayoun.
