Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

RICK WILSON () (): I rise today to raise several grievances my electorate of O'Connor has with the WA state Labor government. This is a state government whose Premier and Treasurer boasts about a budget surplus in the midst of unprecedented support from the federal government during the COVID pandemic. In fact, in 2021 WA received $7.2 billion in COVID support and a further $2.1 billion in GST top-up. This Premier is happy to take credit for many projects funded by the federal government, yet underdelivers when it comes to state funding commitments, including in health, where, despite the state's assertions to the contrary, the federal government has achieved COVID vaccination levels of 80 to 100 per cent in some of O'Connor's most remote communities, while most WA hospitals remain underprepared for when coronavirus finally reaches our not-so-closed borders—borders which in my electorate have witnessed an influx of interstate travellers by unmanned border crossings and underpoliced thoroughfares through some of the most remote and vulnerable Aboriginal communities in Australia.

When it comes to infrastructure projects, I'll cite the example of the $175 million Albany Ring Road project. The federal government stumped up $140 million for this game-changing project for Albany while the state government dragged its heels in committing the remainder, but now conveniently claims the credit. This is a pattern repeated time and time again, not only in my electorate but in those of my federal colleagues throughout WA.

While in Albany, I have a grievance with the glacial pace at which WA Labor is moving in providing operational funding for a much-needed crisis centre. Back in November, ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I rose to draw members' attention to an inconsistency in Labor's rhetoric on this very serious issue. I explained that in Albany the Southern Aboriginal Corporation received more than $3 million from the Morrison government to build a six-unit crisis centre to support women and children attempting to escape violence.

The CEO, Asha Bhat, visited Parliament House last year and said the cooperation's current refuge was at full capacity. Ms Bhat said that people were being housed in other regional areas, where they did not necessarily feel safe or welcome. She said a crisis centre in Albany would greatly alleviate the situation. In November, Ms Bhat told me the cooperation's planned project, which includes an outdoor kitchen, adventure playground and healing and counselling rooms, was under threat. This was because WA Labor is yet to come to the party with operational funding. Southern Aboriginal Corporation wishes to partner with Anglicare, which has experience in running similar services in Albany and in acquitting state government funding. Federal funding for the centre was announced back in May last year, under the Commonwealth's $72.6 million Safe Places Emergency Accommodation Program.

In parliament in November, I implored federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese to pull whatever levers he could to get his WA Labor colleagues to fund the operation of the planned crisis centre by Christmas. I wrote to Simone McGurk, the Western Australian Minister for Child Protection; Women's Interests; Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence; Community Services, to inform her of the situation. I received a reply rich in rhetoric but very light on action. It's now February and still no state funding has been forthcoming. That's zero operational funding for a project that would support 166 women and children each and every year. That's zero operational funding for a project that the women and children of WA's Great Southern Region are crying out for. That's zero operational funding to address a serious issue about which Labor waxes lyrical but, in this case, is falling well short of expectations. With Christmas come and gone, I implore WA Labor to do the right thing and provide operational funding well before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in 2022 from Albany, the biggest city in my electorate, to one of the smallest and remote towns, O'Connor, where this experience is echoed.

I recently visited Warburton, the main town servicing the Aboriginal communities on the Western Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory border. The president of the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku, Damian McLean, hosted me on a tour of the town. Mr McLean pointed out the enormous piles of refuse in household gardens and on vacant land, and detritus accumulated in the four years since the WA government took over responsibility for waste services and other town utilities. Throughout the town, broken irrigation pipes have left precious water lying unused and being wasted. This has attracted wild camels, which further damages the ageing water infrastructure that is the lifeblood of this desert community.

Last year, the shire put in a budget proposal for state funding to repair the water infrastructure and it was denied. In desperation, the shire approached Minister Ken Wyatt, who tasked the National Indigenous Australians Agency with engaging the WA government to secure accurate costings for repair, acknowledging that estimates anywhere between $2 million and $6 million in extra federal support would be required. Meanwhile, more than $900,000 in local roads and community infrastructure funding remains unspent, as the shire needs to repair the ongoing water leakage before embarking on planned upgrades to the town's 21-year-old road infrastructure.

While in Warburton I met with Daniel Tucker of Carey mining and Craig Patterson of Central Earthmoving. These men are actively involved in Indigenous training and procurement for the construction of the trans-Australian route the Outback Way, known as 'Australia's longest shortcut'. Running from western Queensland through the shires of Ngaanyatjarraku and Laverton, the Outback Way is, literally, paving a pathway off welfare and into employment for people living in these remote communities.

Whilst the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku is a pilot program for the federal government's remote engagement program, the adjacent shires of Laverton, Leonora and Menzies, right down to the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the Shire of Coolgardie, are all part of the cashless card trial. This very effective trial would end should the people of Australia this year elect a Labor government at the upcoming federal election, so I take this opportunity to commend the Morrison government on continuing with the trial.

Most city folk assume it only involves quarantining 80 per cent of a participant's welfare payment onto a Visa debit card that cannot be used to buy alcohol, drugs or gambling products, but the trial is so much more than that. Let me tell you what I've seen in the years since its introduction. I've seen children being fed before going to school such that school breakfasts are no longer required; parents with shopping trolleys full of food, children's toys and clothes where once there were slabs of beer; elders confident to loan their cars to their children and grandchildren, knowing that money can only be spent responsibly; and wraparound services, including financial capability and wellbeing counselling that have helped participants manage their bills and save their money.

This brings me to the latest federal Jobs Fund, a job-ready initiative in the Goldfields and a program tailored to help transition cashless debit card participants into meaningful job training and potential employment. Last week I opened the cashless debit card employment support hub in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. It is the first of four hubs that will service the five local government authorities in the cashless debit card trial sites. Each hub will be funded to provide tailored solutions to meet individual cashless debit card participants' capabilities and aspirations towards availing themselves of job opportunities that abound in many parts of the Goldfields trial site.

I met with Jessica, the regional project manager for cashless debit card services. Jessica explained that the hub coordinator's role is to engage with employers and industry on job availability and the skill sets required, then refer participants to existing job-training programs or bespoke skills training. She pointed out that more than 7.5 per cent of Goldfields residents have an educational achievement of year 9 or below, so some of the job preparedness training would be aimed at achieving year 10 equivalence and securing essential qualifications such as a drivers licence and identification.

I commend the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and the shires of Coolgardie, Menzies, Leonora and Laverton for embracing this new initiative and expanding the suite of services associated with the cashless debit card trial in their communities. These LGAs and their community leaders all agree the trials provide an opportunity to address some of the wider social issues fuelled by alcohol and drug abuse. I share in their frustrations at not being able to call on a collaborative state government to provide the data needed to underpin the improvements they've seen in school attendance, child welfare, domestic and family violence, hospital presentations, local crime and other social harm. I thank the community leaders for observing that recent COVID-induced pauses on the cashless debit card activations and community development program compliance activities, among other matters, have had negative effects on the communities. This provides a degree of foresight of what we can expect if a Labor government is elected and scraps the cashless debit card trial in the vast Goldfields region of my electorate.

I close by renewing my call for the WA government to step up and share the load of improving the lives of the people in my communities across O'Connor.

See this speech in context