2023-07-02
Querying the state budget and addressing housing and homelessness, First Nations Reconciliation, youth justice, political donations, crackdown on protesters and saving our black cockatoos
By Hon Brad Pettitt, MLC, Member for South Metropolitan
Mid-year is always a very busy time for us with the Budget and Budget Estimates revealing the Government’s priorities and plans for the coming year...much of which needs a critical eye! The Estimate Committee I sit on also concluded a major report on homelessness that I hope is acted upon, and as the housing and cost of living situation continue to worsen for many, we are piling pressure on this government to act intelligently and fast to ease the unprecedented impacts of these crises on our communities. We also saw the unexpected departure of Mark McGowan from the Premiership and the appointment of Roger Cook as his replacement, which has seen some (if not many) encouraging shifts on a number of issues.
2023 State Budget
The 2023 State Budget was handed down in May. As I said during my response speech, if we weren’t in the grip of a climate crisis, a housing crisis and a youth justice crisis this might have been a decent budget...but there’s almost nothing in it that really gets to grips with these, and where it does, it completely fails to embrace innovation and leans on unimaginative, poorly targeted big spends.
There are some genuine wins for renewable energy with the SWIS getting its big battery…but for all our sun and wind we’re still the worst state in the nation for renewable investment. Social housing got a boost…for housing that won’t be built for several years, while there’s nothing to free up the thousands of properties sitting empty. There is literally nothing targeted at the third of WA residents who rent, as rents skyrocket.
As usual there is a lake of funding for Main Roads and a comparative pittance for public transport, EVs or cycling infrastructure. The horrific situation in our youth justice system remains underfunded and without a clear trauma-informed plan. And given the ongoing failure of this government to introduce political donation reform, it’s not really a surprise that their donors from the oil and gas industry get unneeded, climate-killing handouts as usual.
Homelessness Funding Report
I sit on the Estimates Committee and for the past 19 months we’ve been working on an inquiry into the funding of homelessness services. This has been the most intensive and thorough inquiry this Parliament has seen. Our report tabled today is one of the most comprehensive in the WA Parliament’s history and tragically confirms Perth’s status as the nation’s capital for rough sleeping. It is a particularly devastating trend for First Nations people who are 10 times more likely to be street-present homeless.
Our report underlines that there is tripartisan support for ending homelessness in WA but we are not sufficiently funding solutions to reduce, let alone end, homelessness at present. But right now, this is being undercut by failures in reporting, funding, and coordination, as well as wider housing and cost of living crises.
Implementing the report’s evidence-based recommendations would address these failures, bring the Housing First approach to the heart of homelessness funding and have a major, lasting positive impact on supporting community members at risk of or experiencing homelessness.
I hope State Government takes this unprecedented report to heart and implements all its recommendations. In the interim, they need to immediately boost funding for emergency accommodation, and implement more innovative policies to unlock unused housing stock to ease the housing crisis.
Political Donation reform
WA Labor has had six years to act on its election commitment to reform political donation laws and get ‘dark money’ out of WA politics. Large, anonymous donations, foreign donations and corporate donations are incredibly corrosive to good government and degrade our democratic process – that’s why The Greens don’t take corporate cash and voluntarily report donations under the current disclosure cap.
In June we finally got sick of Labor sitting on their reform bill since the last election, and used our designated non-government business time to reintroduce it word-for-word. The bill is pretty conservative, and we would go further in restricting some industries (such as developers) from donating at all, but it is a solid start to the reforms we need and we’d be happy to see it in action.
It’s frustrating that I had to use the tiny amount of time we get allocated to try and do the State Government’s job for them. Incredibly, despite it being all their own writing Labor members refused to vote for it. However, we did get a promise from them that a ‘new, better’ version of the bill would be introduced sometime before the next election. Given how long they’ve had to make any effort at cleaning up WA politics, it had better be much better!
Reconciliation Week: A Truth-Telling & Justice Commission for WA, and Compensation for Members of the Stolen Generations
Along with federal colleagues we are supporting Heidi Mippy’s petition calling for the establishment of a Truth-Telling and Justice Commission in WA.
Globally there have been numerous Truth Commissions, most notably in South Africa after apartheid. The Commission would have the same powers as a Royal Commission and would look into the historical and ongoing injustices experienced by First Nations peoples in the state. It would be able to make broad recommendations about practical actions and reforms needed to address systemic racial issues and ensure services and systems are designed and operated in a culturally safe way.
The process would be trauma-informed, based on justice and self-determination, and would allow First Nations peoples' experiences to be acknowledged. It is also an opportunity for First Nations peoples to share their culture, heritage, and resilience with broader society. You can sign the petition here.
I also attended a rally outside of Parliament to demand compensation for members of the Stolen Generations, and spoke in favour of it as part of my Budget response speech.
WA is one of the last States not to have such a scheme, over twenty-six years after the Bringing Them Home report recommended it. There's no good reason for the State Government not to get onto this right away.
This month I spoke on the damaging way in which the State Government had pushed through the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage act with little consultation of affected parties, especially First Nations groups, and how it has clearly botched the rollout and created unnecessary division in a vital year for reconciliation. Now that the laws are in place, there is a real need for further stakeholder education and funding to support an equitable rollout.
Housing & Homelessness
I visited some inspiring affordable housing pilot programs recently including the MyHome project in North Fremantle. It’s such a great bit of innovative thinking, having borrowed a bit of land from the Public Transport Authority that had sat empty for decades and using quick to build and highly sustainable methods created 19 small homes for older women facing homelessness.
Although it’s great to see any innovation in the WA property sector, the housing crisis demands large-scale solutions right now. The State Government has budgeted a welcome increase in social housing funding, but nothing to make more housing available to those at risk of or experiencing homelessness right now. Likewise, it has done nothing to ease the burden of renters facing incredible rent increases.
I have advocated strongly for innovative approaches to free up the shameful quantity of investment properties and short-stay accommodation that the government allows to sit empty night after night in WA. These could be returned to the general market if owners and investors were encouraged or pushed to take them off the short-stay market and make a real dent in housing availability.
Banksia Hill & Youth Justice
With the appointment of a new Premier there has been some recognition by the government that our youth justice system is in deep crisis, and encouraging indications that a trauma-informed approach will be instituted in managing the health of the kids locked up at Banksia Hill and Unit 18.
Despite this, the government won’t admit that the system is broken. They desperately need to recognise the bigger picture, properly fund custodial services, move away from archaic notions of punishment, and invest in social reinvestment for these kids to have a chance at rehabilitation and a normal life.
Urban Bushland
The State Government’s own modelling shows that if clearing at Gnangara continues that there will be a catastrophic 57% decline in the northern population of black cockatoos. Our field trip with the community and experts this weekend showed why: huge amounts of clearing and almost no replanting. Most replanting happened prior to 2016 and the McGowan Government has largely dropped the ball on further revegetation.
To stop these beautiful birds from starving the WA Government needs to stop logging the pines *now* and not restart until alternative food sources from replanting have time to grow.
More broadly across the Metro Area, they need to enact real planning guidelines that stop the heedless destruction of remnant bushland and the headlong rush towards this magnificent bird’s extinction.
I’m very happy to report that we supported the people of Canning in standing up to Main Roads and getting their Councillors to reject the proposed Jandakot East Link Road, which would have destroyed some of the area’s last biodiverse bushland and severed what remained in two.
Climate and Crackdown on Protesters
In early May we hosted a special Politics at the Pub Q&A with climate, heritage and human rights activists Violet Coco, Joana Partyka, Josie Alec and Sophie McNeill. With the theme of ‘Your Right To Protest’ we discussed the urgent need for climate action and the recent lurch into authoritarianism by the WA and other governments in policing climate activism.
It has been appalling to see courageous climate activists – including two of our panellists – raided, arrested and threatened with major sentences for highlighting the single worst threat to our way of life and the ongoing role of WA’s resources sector (and government) in exacerbating this threat.
Perhaps it’s encouraging to know that the fossil giants and their enablers are rattled enough to try this kind of overreach, but it is also deeply disturbing to see them try to stamp on our right to protest. The Greens will always speak up for those who speak out – keep it up!
Header photo: Reconciliation Week march with Dorinda