Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this historic parliamentary motion on local government, which was introduced into the House of Representatives last week by the Minister for Local Government, Territories and Roads, the Hon. Jim Lloyd MP. I take this opportunity to congratulate Speaker Hawker, who at that time was the chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration, whose inquiry produced this report. I also congratulate the other members of that committee, because I understand it was a unanimous bipartisan report.

The objective of the motion before the House, which came out of the report, is to recognise the contribution that local government makes to democracy. Through this motion, the Australian government acknowledges the role and importance of local government and the role they play at the local community level. The Australian Local Government Association, represented by the president, Councillor Paul Bell, was instrumental in bringing this motion forward in consultation with Minister Lloyd, and I have written in support of it. I am pleased to place on the record my support for the 19 local government areas that are responsible for local communities spread over the 26,000-odd square kilometres of the Pearce electorate.

Both the electorate representatives and the full-time officers in local government deserve recognition for the tremendous work they do. Most local government elected representatives, at least in Western Australia, receive no remuneration for the work they do. It has become obvious to me over the years that more and more responsibilities are placed on local government councillors, and some of the issues are exceedingly difficult to manage. Issues in growing communities of town planning matters and approval of new developments are very difficult matters indeed and often cause great consternation in the community—and I notice that our councillors come in for a fair amount of criticism.

Personally, I find that staying in touch and consulting with local government on a range of issues in the Pearce electorate—issues that affect the communities for which we have a shared responsibility—is a very worthwhile activity and a great opportunity to find out about the aspirations of local communities. This regular contact with the 19 councillors and shires keeps me abreast of the local issues and matters of concern. Having had discussions with local government, I am then able to come back to this place and convey their concerns on various issues to relevant ministers, and on many occasions we have arranged meetings.

I note that the member for New England talked about greater interaction by local government with members and senators. On many occasions when there have been specific issues to be addressed, we have arranged for people to come over here and talk directly with the relevant minister. There have been many occasions when we have had great success. Probably two of the biggest issues for my electorate are the crossroads between the eastern seaboard and the road that takes all the traffic to the northern mining and pastoral areas. Those two roads have been under greater and greater pressure from large trucks carrying double and treble loads, and the roads simply were not designed for that kind of traffic. So these have been two ongoing issues, both of which have been resolved substantially by local government representatives coming here to Canberra, all the way from Perth in Western Australia, and talking through those issues with our ministers.

In the case of Northam, I have had the greatest support and activity from both the council and the shire. There are two local government representatives there, and both the former and current incumbents have been tireless in meeting with ministers and putting their case. The result a few years ago was a $55 million bypass road for the town of Northam, which had been something they had wanted for two or three decades.

In relation to the Great Northern Highway, nobody could have worked harder than the shire president, Jan Stagbouer, and both her previous chief executive officer and the current incumbent, to get money to fund improvements to the Great Northern Highway, which carries all of the traffic up to the northern pastoral and mining centres of Western Australia. With the boom in mining, this was very urgent roadwork. Once again, they have been tireless in coming to this place or, when our ministers have been visiting Western Australia, making sure that they were in touch, putting their case and very often having to straddle both federal and state governments to ensure that these works were put on the urgent list. I cannot speak highly enough of the work of local government in the Pearce electorate and about the way in which our local government representatives conduct themselves. In most cases, it has just been exemplary.

Many projects apart from roads have been undertaken in the electorate of Pearce. I cannot name all of them; they have just been too numerous. I think we all recognise the importance today of the need to reduce greenhouse gases and the need to conserve water. There have been some wonderful projects supported by local government and funded by the federal government in energy efficiency. The energy efficiency house at Northam won a number of awards and it is a great demonstration project about how the average citizen can actually save energy and conserve water. It was a fantastic project and it continues to be a very popular one. Community water grants have been available for several Pearce councils for important water conservation projects.

For those who do not know the electorate of Pearce, it is an electorate that grows a large quantity of grain and sheep, with both wool and meat being major exports. In addition, we have a lot of intensive agriculture, such as olive growing, the Swan Valley wineries and table grape production in the Swan Valley. In fact, it is the oldest wine-growing region in Western Australia. Many new industries have been set up. So water conservation has become a very significant issue in the electorate of Pearce.

I spoke after the 2004 election in a grievance debate about housing affordability, which I think is a very significant issue, particularly in trying to make sure that young couples can afford to get into new housing. As I said at that time, that could have been achieved by opening up more land. Certainly in Western Australia and in the Pearce electorate that is achievable, if only the state government would commit to spending some money on infrastructure.

The Chittering shire president, Jan Stagbouer, met with Malcolm Turnbull, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, on water, who then made representations to the Western Australian government to try and transport water 30 kilometres from Bullsbrook to Chittering. With that extended pipeline, there would be plenty of land available for development. They are trying to build an aged-care facility, but they are constantly stymied by a lack of water and a lack of commitment by the state government to fund the extension of the pipeline. As I said, it is only a matter of about 30 kilometres, so it is a great tragedy that these projects could be up and running very quickly if only we had that commitment by the state government to infrastructure.

The member for New England talked about bridges as well. The government did have a program. It was funded to improve and repair bridges that were in disrepair. I recently opened the Glebe bridge in York. This money came out of the original Roads to Recovery funding allocation. Another thing an electorate like Pearce needs to consider, because we have got a lot of national parks and large tracts of heavily wooded areas, is bushfire and natural disaster mitigation funding. Our electorate has been the beneficiary of the federal government’s funding for natural disaster mitigation.

We have seen local government become more and more involved in providing social services including medical services, childcare facilities and support for people with a disability in their communities along with other programs. One of the programs very strongly supported and funded by the federal government has been the rural medical infrastructure fund. It has been well received by local governments in the electorate of Pearce.

I could go on. There are so many programs that the federal government has funded, but one of the most popular, and one that I have been asked continually to write to our ministers about and raise in the party room, is the Roads to Recovery program. It has been so successful that every year before the budget I get a flurry of activity from local government representatives asking me to make sure the government keeps funding this program. It has been an enormous help. Again, representing an electorate with many rural towns and small rural communities, the road conditions are so important not only in fuel conservation in these days of high fuel costs but also to get people to medical treatment and to transport farm produce to the wharves and to the airports and by rail. This has been very welcome in the electorate of Pearce and we hope the federal government will continue to fund the Roads to Recovery program for some time to come. It has been an important catch-up program.

Sometimes we do not talk about the Green Corp project, but local government has been the beneficiary of both Green Corp money and Work for the Dole funding. This not only has helped young people to get a better understanding of the importance of conserving our natural environment but also has done very practical work to help communities in local government areas. Local governments have been very supportive of the federal government’s Green Corp and Work for the Dole projects. Work for the Dole has offered employment opportunities to people in the community who might otherwise remain on the dole for a very long period of time. I welcome the interest that the shires have shown and the practical attempts they have made to take advantage of these two fantastic programs—Work for the Dole and Green Corp—and we see the benefit of those programs every day.

I want to finish by saying that I look forward personally to continuing to work closely with the 19 local government area representatives in the Pearce electorate. I hope to build on the productive working relationship I have with them so that by working together we can endeavour to fulfil the aspirations of the people that we represent and continue to provide the infrastructure and the support services that are so important in an outer metropolitan, regional and rural seat such as Pearce. This motion has my complete support.

Debate (on motion by Ms Hall) adjourned.

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