2022-11-02
Proceeding with Net Zero Perth, expressing concerns about homelessness, prison conditions and threatened ecology and facilitating petitions on Stolen Generation reparations, greyhound welfare and LGBTQIA+ rights
By Hon Brad Pettitt, MLC, Member for South Metropolitan
It's been a busy last two months for my team and I as we've navigated 5 more sitting weeks in the Legislative Council and worked to support a range of community groups and constituents on various issues. Here is some of what we have been up to:
Climate and Net-Zero Perth
I attended the Conservation Council of WA’s Annual Conference at the beginning of September. The theme this year was “Stronger Together: Collaboration for Conservation and Climate”. It was excellent to catch up with many old friends and colleagues from the WA environmental movement. I also spoke on a panel at the Western Australian Local Government Association's convention about our Net Zero Perth project and how Local Governments can lead the way on climate resilient communities.
The themes for both the CCWA and WALGA events felt perfectly timed to coincide with our second Net Zero Perth expert roundtable. Our office hosted dozens of housing, planning, energy, environmental, transport, and building experts at Parliament for the second time this year to keep progressing our plan for a vibrant, liveable, low-carbon Perth. I would like to give a special thank you to the Curtin regional group, who have been very kindly letterboxing flyers about our Net-Zero Perth community survey.
If you haven't completed our survey yet, here's the link: https://forms.office.com/r/BEeHtfTWfE
Housing and Homelessness
As a member of the Estimates Committee, I have continued working on our Parliamentary Inquiry into Homelessness. Our committee recently visited Kalgoorlie and Boulder to conduct site visits and learn about the challenges that service providers in the regions face in ending homelessness.
The Estimates Committee also conducted hearings this month for researchers and people with lived experiences of homelessness. If I'm honest, a lot of the testimony from the lived experience advocates was outright heartbreaking. Hearing stories from people who are enduring homelessness daily reiterated how important it is that the State Government is not only building more social housing, but also urgently rolling out housing solutions for people in crisis right now.
Youth Justice
My team and I have been continuing our advocacy for children incarcerated in Western Australia. As part of this, I attended the Disability Royal Commission public hearing in Perth at the end of October. This hearing focused on the conditions in WA's prisons and gave an opportunity for the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA to testify about the conditions that children are facing at Banksia Hill and the adult maximum-security Casuarina Prison's Unit 18.
Additionally, I have been asking numerous questions in Parliament these last weeks to assist our youth justice stakeholders and inform our office's advocacy plan.
Other Parliamentary happenings
There have been other bits and pieces happening at Parliament. The hard-working Free the Hounds did their official petition handover on the steps of Parliament in September. The petition ended up having a whopping 18,677 signatures, making it the largest petition the 41st Parliament had seen so far. We also finalised the petition asking for a reparations scheme for Stolen Generation survivors in WA as well as attended Rainbow Futures' handover of their petition for better LGBTQIA+ rights in WA.
Additionally, our Estimates Committee hosted Annual Report Hearings for the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. During these hearings I questioned DBCA about the utter lack of funding and monitoring of recovery plans for endangered species and threatened ecological communities.
As you may know, I have been collaborating with stakeholders, informing the media, and using Parliamentary levers to pressure the State Government into installing air conditioning at Roebourne Prison, a place that experiences summer temperatures in excess of 50°. Questions that I recently asked in the Upper House show that, despite having finalised the costing report, the State Government still has no plans to install air con ahead of summer at Roebourne Prison. To keep the pressure on, I am facilitating a newly-launched Parliamentary petition calling on the State Government to install air con in all cells at Roebourne. Please sign the petition if you haven't yet: https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/LCePetitions.nsf/($All)/E14BE21C8AF29DE0482588E900058F05?opendocument
Header photo: A Free the Hounds greyhound petition handover at Parliament House.