2018-08-17
By Hon. Alison Xamon, MLC, Member for North Metropolitan Region
Parliament has now finished for the first half of the year – and the Greens have managed to fill in a lot of work whilst we still have so much more to do! On the final day of sitting, I introduced my Equal Opportunity (LGBTIQ Anti-Discrimination) Amendment Bill 2018, which will prevent private religious schools from discriminating against LGBTIQA+ students, teachers and parents. It is very important that, in a post-marriage equality Western Australia, this final remaining law which allows legal discrimination against people on the basis of their sexuality or gender history, is repealed and replaced. See my separate article elaborating on this in this Green Issue.
In my Electorate, I have been following up on the recommendations of multiple reviews and audits to establish how much work has been done to achieving the objectives set out in the Swan Canning River Protection Strategy. I also recently met with the Professional Abalone Fishers’ Association, who raised some serious concerns about the impact of the Ocean Reef Marina on abalone fishing. I have begun investigations into what can be done to protect the species from the impacts of the build.
Also during the final week of Parliament, I delivered my budget-in-reply speech. I raised my concerns about the Government’s lack of investment in prevention and early intervention services. The failure to take a long-term view and to recognise that money spent supporting vulnerable people makes the community safer and saves money in the long-term. I share the mental health sector’s distress about the Government’s intention to cut over 40 per cent of funding to mental health prevention services across the forward estimates. The WA Budget also misses an important opportunity to reduce imprisonment rates and to use savings for more prevention, diversion and in-prison programs. We need to stop locking people up, yet there is no evidence the Government is willing to do the work needed to reduce the horrendous rate of Aboriginal incarceration in Western Australia.
I was pleased to be an invited to speak at an event organised for the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism, and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). IDAHOBIT day is a time when we can come together to celebrate the LGBTIQ community, acknowledge and honour the hard-fought advancements in human rights and recognise that there is still much more work to be done.
I have become increasingly disturbed about the growing trend of suicide in older Australians and questioned the Government about what it was doing to address it. Data has shown that older adults are taking their lives because they feel lonely and isolated. Anecdotal evidence suggests elder abuse may also be a contributing factor. People may be feeling pressure from their families or they feel their lives no longer have purpose. Whatever the reason, it is absolutely devastating and a heartbreaking indictment of where we are as a community and how we treat older people.
We have seen a distressing number of reports of complaints against police being handled poorly. One of the initial problems is the lack of transparency in dealing with the initial complaint and the difficulty in being assured that the investigator is sufficiently independent when looking into the initial complaint. The Corruption and Crime Commission is the body that performs the oversight of how the police handle complaints against themselves. However, this body is not infallible either. We have seen reports tabled in Parliament that show a shocking lack of willingness to exercise their powers in situations that are crying out for a thorough investigation. Repeated reports and investigation raise the same issues, with no solutions presented. The way we handle and oversight complaints against police needs a thorough overhaul.
I was pleased to see the passage of Worker’s Compensational and Injury Management Bill through Parliament during the last sitting period. In the event a worker is killed on the job, this Bill serves to increase the lump sum payable to dependants and more than doubles the child’s allowance to each dependent child. These changes are much needed, and are long overdue and I welcome them. However, they do not detract from the need for a whole suite of other measures to improve safety at work, including industrial manslaughter laws. Good worker’s compensation laws are essential – but it is equally important that we work towards eliminating workplace injuries and fatalities altogether.
I continue to be concerned about the Government’s failure to commit to addressing the ongoing problems with youth justice in our state. It is appalling to hear about young people being confined for months on end with no access to the sort of social interaction they need to be able to develop the skills to be successful on release. Answers to questions I asked in parliament revealed rates of self-harm in young people accommodated at Banksia Hill continue to be unacceptably high. Answers to other questions I asked revealed that there continues to be children and young people detained at Banksia Hill simply because there is no suitable accommodation available for them in the community. It’s just not good enough. Detention should be the absolute last resort for these children, not the place they are left because the government refuses to come up with appropriate alternatives.
I spoke on the Payroll Tax Amendment (Exemption for Trainees) Bill 2018. This bill served two purposes – to close the options for any potential rorting by companies attempting to minimise their payroll tax bill and to raise revenue specifically for the training sector. Now, a payroll tax exemption will apply for employers paying for their new employees earning under $100,000 to undertake training. This is a good outcome, ensuring that an extra incentive exists for employers to train their new employees, but also that these incentives are aimed to assist the employees most in need of training.
The Federal Government has left a gaping hole in our training budget. This legislation was one measure by which the Government could keep some TAFE places. Throughout the Estimates process, I have continued to ask questions about how the Government can keep subsidised TAFE places available for our students.
I also spoke on the Terrorism (Extraordinary Powers) Amendment Bill, Corruption, Crime and Misconduct and Criminal Property Confiscation Bill, Liquor Control Amendment Bill, Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill and of course Robin’s Environmental Protection Amendment (Banning Plastic Bags and Other Things) Bill.
The full effect of the cuts handed down by the Government as part of the 2018-19 State Budget is only now becoming clear, following the winter Parliamentary recess, and the pulling of funding from frontline services within the Health portfolio are of particular concern. I have been contacted by a number of constituents who are concerned about the impact on the community of the Government’s decision to cut the state’s Meth Helpline. The Helpline was set up in 2016 with about $200,000 funding and has proved to be a very successful service accessed by meth users, their friends, family members and loved ones, including children.
Reports suggest 4000 calls went unanswered last year. The service was already struggling to meet demand before $154,000 in funding was slashed as part of the 2018-19 State Budget. Shifts undertaken by trained alcohol and drug counsellors have now reduced from 75 to 65, dramatically reducing the Helpline’s capacity. Making cuts to early intervention services that are designed to help people navigate the system is short-sighted. It will cost us in the long-run, both economically and socially. This cut is symptomatic of a worrying trend – a divergence away from the directions outlined in the widely endorsed ‘Western Australian Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drug Services Plan 2015-2025.’
In response to contact from lecturers and support staff, I have been using the Parliamentary tools at my disposal to drill down into the debacle of the implementation of the TAFE student management system. TAFE has been through a major restructure over the last couple of years. One of the planned changes was to standardise the computer systems in use to manage students across the colleges. The new Student Management System is supposed to be a one-stop shop for students and administration and lecturing staff. Instead the implementation has been plagued by poor communication, insufficient training and technical hiccups. Combined, this has led to extreme pressure on lecturers and administration staff as they struggle to get students properly enrolled, try and fail to mark attendance and struggle at the end of the term to get results into the system by the deadline. I have called on the Government to hold off on rolling the system out until the issues have been resolved.
A number of constituents in Subiaco and Nedlands have contacted me to express their outrage at the heavy-handed way the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) has amended Local Planning Scheme Consultation documents to increase R-codes across substantial portions of their cities, effectively doubling infill targets. The communities of both Cities are extremely unsupportive of the plans. The City of Nedlands has refused to make the changes and has resubmitted their original document to the WAPC. The City of Subiaco has received nearly 1000 submissions about the WAPC’s vision of the future of Subiaco, the vast majority of which we anticipate will be opposed to the WAPC’s rezonings. There is no need to rush this process and I have called on the Minister to pause changes to the local planning schemes while the major planning system review takes place.
Elsewhere, it has been business as usual within my portfolios and community work. Two bills passed that significantly increase penalties for workplace safety offences – the Occupational Safety and Health Amendment Bill 2017 and the Mines Safety and Inspection Amendment Bill 2017. These bills are an interim measure while the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Work Health and Safety develops a WA version of the model Work Safety and Health Act. While I wholeheartedly supported the Bills I also drew attention to the woeful delay in adopting the model legislation here. For too long WA workers have been at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the country, except Victoria. I also drew attention to my Bill which seeks to introduce the offence of Industrial Manslaughter in to the Criminal Code – a measure that would also contribute to making WA workplaces safer.
There has been much going on within Corrective Services, notably with the Inspector for Custodial Services’ response an Amnesty International investigation into prisoner treatment at Banksia Hill Detention Centre. I took the opportunity during a motion brought on condemning cuts to the Education budget to, again, urge the Government to reverse its decision to close Moora Residential College and have been happy to see that the Government finally made the decision to reverse these woeful cuts. Now I call on the Government to reverse the rest of the cuts to public education.
Header photo: I had a fantastic time attending the Community Sector Excellence Awards on 2nd May along with Senator Rachel Siewert. I was particularly pleased that Tuart Place, with whom I have long worked, were named the winner of Category 2 ‒ Medium Organisation. Alison Xamon