Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take this opportunity to reflect on the year 2009. As I, the member for Swan, know and as you, Madam Deputy Speaker Moylan, would know, we have a fantastic airport in Perth and Perth is probably a better place in which to have a holiday than Cairns, and we welcome everyone to come to Perth. I congratulate you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on the work that you have done as the member for Pearce in getting an inquiry up in the Senate about Airservices Australia and their lack of performance in dealing with the constituents in both our electorates. I will leave that there because I think that at this time of year it is the last opportunity to speak and I have just come from the main chamber, where I heard both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition speak and they were very generous to each other, so I will take this opportunity as well to be generous to members on the other side of the place when we talk about some of the achievements that have occurred in my electorate. Unfortunately, I do not have the same ability to get funding that the member for Leichhardt has.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there pork-barrelling up there?

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is that what you call it? As you know, airport noise has certainly been a major issue for the people in my electorate and in the electorates of Pearce and Canning, and the member for Stirling tells me it is an issue for him as well. Just after the beginning of the year, in early January, we started receiving phone calls from residents who were noticing changes in the air traffic noise above their houses. It soon emerged that in November 2008 Airservices Australia had made significant changes to the flight paths in the Perth metropolitan area without any community consultation. I did call for the Western Australia route review project to be reopened. However, to date the government has refused to do that.

Residents need to be compensated for these changes. I have been campaigning, along with the members for Pearce and Canning, for an airport noise insulation scheme in Perth that would be similar to the ones that operate in Adelaide and Sydney. I do note that members on the other side heavily campaigned, when they were in opposition, for noise insulation and amelioration programs in both Adelaide and Sydney. If such schemes are good enough for Adelaide and Sydney they should be good enough for Perth as well. I am pleased to see that yesterday the Senate agreed to an inquiry into the practices of Airservices Australia. If this inquiry shows that the government is at fault, the case for compensation will be boosted. I hope there will be a public hearing in Perth. Along with the member for Pearce I will certainly be happy to present to that inquiry.

I am also happy to report on the Belmont Medicare office. It has been announced five times since the last election as being opened. It is the office that is always being announced but is never actually opened. The last announcement that we heard was that it was going to be opened in January 2010, but my sources tell me it is now going to be secretly opened next week or the week after in December. I thank people in my electorate for informing me of that. It is great that the people of the Belmont have finally got a Medicare office. To all of my constituents who wrote back to me about the Medicare office, I am sure it will be a welcome service to them as they will no longer have to travel to Booragoon or to Cannington to get services.

We still have problems with the roads. It would be great if we could get some funding for the Great Eastern Highway, which was promised by both parties at the last election. I know the people of my electorate are looking forward to getting some action in that area.

The 2009 budget was a disappointment for people in Swan, but I must congratulate the government, particularly Gary Gray, the member for Brand, on his efforts to continue the funding to Southcare that was promised by the Howard government prior to the election. This particular group do an enormous amount of work for the local community, particularly in aged care, and I do thank the member for Brand for his support in getting that funding over the line and making sure it continued as per the Howard government’s promise.

I just want to finish off the end of the year for me by thanking my staff, who have been an enormous help to me in my office, particularly Karen McGrath and Helen Leslie and Jonathan Martin. In the Swan electorate office there are Kelly May, Alex Butterworth and Trish Rust, who have been of enormous service to me. I would also like to say hello to my son and wish him all the best for Christmas. I know he is down at schoolies this week, and I hope he survived. I know, as a parent, it is a worrying time for all of us. I would also like to thank Sarah Wylie from 2GB for her encouraging comments recently—(Time expired)