2025-09-01
Having the post and boast bill referred to committee, replying to the June budget and, importantly, connecting with the community to find out what really matters.
By Hon Tim Clifford, MLC
After the flurry of the first month of the term, I was looking forward to a slower pace over Parliament’s five-week winter break – one during which my team and I could zoom out from the day-to-day and turn our minds to developing the long-term strategies underpinning our work.
I should have known there would be no such breathing space!
In fact, July and August have been such a blur of Parliamentary work, meetings, events, media and other opportunities that it’s hard to believe it’s only been three months on the job.
Homelessness Week
The first week of August marked National Homelessness Week, during which I attended a number of events put on by Shelter WA. A particular highlight was the Lived Experience Homelessness Forum, where I was incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to hear from folks with lived experience of homelessness.
It goes without saying that the experts on homelessness are people who have lived or are living it. Yet the overwhelming takeaway from the sessions I attended is that the community is systematically left out of the decisions that directly impact them.
We can and must do better. As parliamentarians – as people occupying positions of great privilege and power – we have a responsibility to ensure lived experience lies at the heart of our work. It’s the only way we will meaningfully address the homelessness crisis in WA, and it speaks volumes to why it continues to spiral on the Cook Labor Government’s watch.
Parliamentary happenings
It was all systems go in mid-August when Parliament resumed for two weeks of sitting, immediately followed by a week of budget estimates.
Across the four of us in the Greens WA parliamentary team, I’m really proud of how much we achieved together. Early in the sitting fortnight, we successfully moved a motion to refer the government’s post and boast bill to committee, which will review the draft legislation over the next three months.
My colleague Sophie McNeill also brought on the Greens’ climate bill during our non-government business allocation in August. While it wasn’t successful, I applaud Sophie and her team for their work on the bill. It made very clear to the Parliament that the Greens will take every possible opportunity to put climate on the agenda and push for the action we urgently need.
In week two I delivered my speech in reply to the June state budget – which, as we know, a budget which left much to be desired. I took the opportunity to call out the Cook Labor Government for failing to fund what actually matters to Western Australians in favour of yet another multi-billion-dollar surplus that does nothing to make people’s lives better.
A surplus won’t cover another rent increase you can’t afford. A surplus won’t get you seen faster in the Emergency Room. We need services, not surpluses.
Connecting with community
As we keep getting up to speed on our portfolio areas, my team and I have continued to make it a priority to connect with the community I was elected to serve. Just as people with lived experience of homelessness have the clearest insights into the respective problems and solutions in the space, so too do other individuals and advocates in their own areas of lived experience.
I’ve found it incredibly eye-opening, humbling and energising to sit down with various community organisations and constituents to learn about what matters to them. It’s a privilege to be able to carry their stories into the work we do, and I’m excited for what lies ahead.
Header photo: Shelter WA Homelessness Week 2025 image by Russell Barton