Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak to the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2007-2008 and cognate bills. Following the delivery of the 2006-07 budget, the Premier of my state came out and, predictably, roundly criticised the quality of the budget in relation to Western Australia. I remind the House that state governments are responsible for funding many of the areas of which this state Premier has been critical. State governments are responsible for funding health, education, housing, infrastructure and local councils. The list of the failings of the Western Australian state government when it comes to funding these very important areas is long indeed.

My electorate comprises 91 per cent of Western Australia. It is incredibly remote and it takes in a large number of regional areas. Unfortunately, however, it is also a long way from the city of Perth, which appears to be the only focus of the current Labor government in Western Australia. In fact, it is an extremely Perth-city-centric government. It does not listen to the people—certainly not those living in the Kalgoorlie electorate. It simply places funding in what it thinks are its priorities. In the last few years, the state government has been absolutely fascinated with the creation of a rail system to bring the south-west population into Perth.

A most recent demonstration of the typical lack of funding provided by the state government was the introduction of daylight saving. It was an arbitrary process that gave no consideration to any of the views of the population, except those located in Perth city. But I hear from my city based colleagues that daylight saving is not even popular there. Mrs Audiene McCrae, a constituent in my electorate who lives in the Merredin area, was one of three women who, together, collected more than 45,000 signatures against daylight saving. The rejection of daylight saving by the Merredin area was typical of the population across my electorate. People in my electorate in the main work 12-hour shifts. They start at 6 am and finish at 6 pm. The last thing they want, especially in the hotter areas of the Pilbara, the Gascoyne and the Kimberley, is another hour of extremely high-temperature daylight. They are looking for sundown and an evening where they might relax and enjoy some outdoor time. The daylight saving bill was passed by the state government and, at the insistence of Premier Carpenter, along party lines.

The state funding for education was a miserly $177 million, for which the state government copped a great deal of criticism—and rightly so—from teachers right across the state. In contrast, in this budget the federal government has made a $9 billion investment in education. That investment will make a great deal of difference right across this nation. Our endeavour is to improve teacher quality and to improve access to education.

One of the outstanding features of this budget is that funds will be provided—specifically through a $700 voucher per family—to help children who cannot meet the minimum reading standard for year 3 students. This voucher will be available to parents to spend on tuition to bring their children up to a better standard of reading and comprehension in order to improve their opportunities to access an education that will create a better outcome.

One of the well publicised examples of the state’s neglect of education in my electorate is the school in Wiluna. The school was in the headlines last year because of a horrendous situation whereby raw sewage was flowing through the school grounds, the presence of asbestos had not been addressed and the school was located opposite the very noisy and very active local hotel. It was only when the Governor-General visited the Wiluna school that the state Labor government was shamed into taking some action and making some funds available to relocate the school and to create a better education facility for the children of Wiluna.

Last year also saw a process from the state education department—approved, of course, by state cabinet—that prevented attempts by the federal government to encourage the attendance of children at school. Specifically, the federal government and the local principal cooperated to encourage better attendance by schoolchildren at Halls Creek school. The process was applauded locally—in fact, right across the Kimberley. However, it did not suit the state Labor government, which went to extremes to prevent its state education system teachers from cooperating with the federal authorities, to the point of denying access to attendance records. It was a disgusting move by the state government, especially when attendance at the Halls Creek school was as low as 58 per cent. When the federal initiative to improve attendance was introduced, attendance rose to as high as 85 per cent, yet that was of no interest to the Western Australian state education minister. She put every hurdle in the way of the success of that program.

The government has created a highly successful and very desirable program called Investing in Our Schools—in fact, this latest budget has provided an additional $2 billion for that program. The program was designed to provide desperately needed funds directly to schools to provide basic necessities—to improve the infrastructure and the learning environment—for students in so many state schools across my electorate. The sad thing was that the state education system chose to remove up to 18 per cent of the total funds, which had been provided directly by federal government, for what they called ‘administration’. Many of the schools that I have visited and have had the pleasure of seeing these improvements in have told me that they see it as an unreasonable imposition by the state education department because, in many cases, no services had been provided by the state education department whatsoever.

Typical of those schools that have been provided with very necessary improvements and programs through the Investing in Our Schools program is the South Merredin Primary School, in my electorate. It received nearly $139,000 for improved play areas. This included returfing the oval, which was in a horrendous condition. It was virtually a gravel pit that was causing daily injuries to schoolchildren. The Carnarvon Primary School received $84,165 for flooring, school ground improvements and classroom furniture. One would think that those responsibilities belonged to the state education system but, unfortunately, that is not the case in Western Australia. This is an issue that is very easily overlooked, because the schools of which I speak are removed from the metropolitan area.

The Derby District High School received $138,783 for school grounds improvements, shade structures—very necessary in the Kimberley sun—classroom furniture, interactive whiteboards and computer equipment. The Exmouth District High School received $36,495 for library resources. Once again, that is a resource that one would quite reasonably believe should be provided by the state system. The Kalbarri District High School received $121,786 for school grounds improvement and a motor vehicle. The Kununurra District High School received $94,506 for play equipment and for drama and performing arts equipment. The list goes on and on. I am pleased to say that on a very frequent basis I have the pleasure of acknowledging those improvements to schools within the state school system that, reasonably, ought to be addressed by the state education department.

In the area of health, the state once again underfunded from their budget for 2007. They provided a measly $4 billion for the state health system and, justifiably, copped a great deal of criticism from doctors in Western Australia. It is rather fortunate that across the Kalgoorlie electorate I have a rather healthy bunch of constituents, because God knows that there are very, very few GPs located at state government hospitals to provide a medical service. Only today I heard from the shire president in Leonora, who is complaining vehemently about the lack of a doctor provided by the state medical service at the local Leonora Hospital. In fact, the Shire of Leonora is having to obtain a doctor from another agency and is having to pay and guarantee $10,000 a week to make sure that there is a GP available to local residents.

If it were not for the funding provided by the federal government, access to GPs across the Kalgoorlie electorate would be virtually nonexistent. The federal budget is providing $9.6 million for the Rural Retention Program for GPs and $156.6 million, the largest budget allocation ever from the federal government, for the very necessary and relied on Royal Flying Doctor Service. I do not believe I have to underline the importance of the RFDS across the Kalgoorlie electorate. I have bases in Meekatharra, Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland and of course Derby, all in my electorate. The services provided out of those bases, those headquarters, are vital so that people are able to reside across the Kalgoorlie electorate, because otherwise, if they were relying on the state medical system and the provision of GPs, they would be without GPs.

In this latest budget there is $377.6 million for dental services for people with chronic and complex orthodontic conditions. This is greatly appreciated, because it simply requires now that, if your GP determines that your health is at risk because of your dental problems, you can access—for the first time—that funding.

In addition, there is $51.7 million to improve access to mental health services in rural and remote areas. Anyone living anywhere in the Kalgoorlie electorate will know full well that mental health is an area that has been repeatedly neglected by the state Labor government. People suffering from mental health problems suffer on an ongoing basis because of the attitude of the state government and the way it is treating the whole area of mental health. Those people suffer unnecessarily. The state needs to place assistance for those people throughout the regions, because many of the problems suffered by individuals can be easily overcome with some appropriate funding from the state for health. Unfortunately, that does not happen. As a result, we see that the federal government is having to provide $51.7 million to improve the mental health of the population of Australia.

In relation to health, one of the great beneficial programs that operates across my electorate is of course the PATS, the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme. Fortunately, our Senate is currently carrying out an inquiry into the operation of the PATS system, and I have called on my constituents to contact me with their criticism or their compliments in relation to the PATS. I am sorry to say that the contact that has been made from across the electorate is nearly all in the negative. As a result, I am presently compiling a submission to that Senate inquiry, to hopefully have a far better outcome so that patients in future can rely on their GP to determine whether they should access the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme and what mode of transport they might enjoy. I have received ample evidence of that state administered system dictating that a patient will travel to a Perth specialist by road or by public bus transport when in fact they desperately need to travel quickly by air. If the Senate inquiry can address that issue alone, it will have gone a long way to making life much better for my constituents across the Kalgoorlie electorate. The PATS of course was designed to help country people travel to their nearest specialist, and all of those specialists are in Perth. The compensation they are receiving presently is pitiful. It does not do the job, and there needs to be a great deal of improvement.

The state government of course, over the last two budgets, have promised funds to upgrade the Kalgoorlie Hospital and the Esperance Hospital. However, after their having made those promises in the past, we find that there is no allocation in the 2006-07 state budget to carry out those works. Why? They say they can blame it on the resources boom in Western Australia. I ask you, Mr Deputy Speaker! One would have thought that the resources boom in Western Australia and all of the increased dollars they are receiving from royalties as a result of the improvement of the resources industry would have meant that it was easier to afford that funding for hospitals that are much needed and upgrades that are urgently required. But, no, the state government say that the resources boom has resulted in a shortage of contractors. I hasten to add that at this stage the state government have not even issued tenders to test the market, so how they can say there is a shortage of contractors I do not know.

Fortunately for Western Australia and for the people of the Kalgoorlie electorate, the latest federal budget has contributed $3 million to the Kalgoorlie area to act as seed funding for an intermodal hub, something that has been urgently required in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder area to facilitate both east-west and north-south transportation of goods in a more efficient manner. However, that once again calls on a contribution from the state government to see the completion of the project. I am not going to hold my breath, but I do remain hopeful that they will come to the party. This latest budget has seen a contribution for the Gibb River Road of $3.25 million. Once again, it relies on a contribution from state government.

The point I make is that, in almost every department and in almost every important area of service and infrastructure, the state government is failing the people of regional Western Australia. It has been going on for the duration of this Labor government in the state. I have no reason to suspect it will not continue, and I condemn it. If it were not for the enormous contribution by the federal government in its budget, the people of the Kalgoorlie electorate would be in dire straits indeed.

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