Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak about the concerns of the people in my electorate of Cowan. As all members would be aware, when you are in your office, when you receive your emails, when you are on the street, you encounter a lot of people with a lot of opinions. People will come to you and they will tell you what concerns them. The fact that the majority of people’s concerns are not federal issues has no real bearing on the matter. If you are there, if you are available, they will tell you what they think needs to be done. The majority of things that come before me are clearly not federal issues. People want to talk about their footpaths or they want to talk about graffiti or health or hospital problems or areas like that.

I do not want to linger on the negative today. What I would like to speak about are the changes that have occurred in my home state of Western Australia. I am sure members would be aware that circumstances have prevailed that have seen a change of government in Western Australia. For me in Cowan it has represented a certain change in the landscape. Prior to the state election there were four state MLAs covering the area of Cowan. Now, with the redistribution, there are six state electorates—in whole or in part—within the same area that I cover. But now I have two good friends who have joined the team to work for the interests of the people in the area. I would like to mention the excellent work undertaken by the now member for Kingsley in Western Australia, Andrea Mitchell. Andrea Mitchell is a local resident of the suburb of Woodvale within the electorate of Kingsley. She has a great background of community service and has been a significant board member for Tennis Australia, working on the Hopman Cup. We have worked very closely together through a number of issues within the Kingsley electorate.

The abiding issues for the people there often concern public transport—the lack of buses connecting the suburbs to the major rail line running down the Mitchell Freeway. There are also issues regarding schools in the local area. I have spoken before in this place on Greenwood Primary School, which is being constructed, and some issues regarding how the former state government wanted to take the oval area away from the school site and sell off a hectare of the land. They thought the kids could then just go down to the council oval, which is next door. Of course, that raises a number of issues. With the change in state government, and with Andrea Mitchell now being the member for Kingsley, I look forward to a resolution of that problem. There are also issues for schools in Kingsley regarding security and even maintenance issues. Beyond schools, there is a great problem with graffiti in suburbs like Woodvale and Kingsley. In fact, it is disappointing that graffiti is particularly prevalent at the moment in the northern suburbs of Perth and, I would imagine, elsewhere in the city as well.

Those are some of the issues that I worked on with Andrea Mitchell. The reason why I am going through those will become apparent shortly. But, before moving into what the overall election result will mean, I would like to speak also about the new member for Wanneroo, Mr Paul Miles, a very good friend of mine whom I have known for many years. Paul Miles and I arrived in different parliaments but via a somewhat similar route. He was unsuccessful on his first try as well, but perseverance saw him through. It was good to know that those early morning starts waving corflutes on the side of the road had some effect and were not all just fun for the rest of us! Paul has certainly been working hard on the public transport issues as well—the lack of a continuous or reasonable bus service from the suburb of Landsdale, in the east of my electorate of Cowan, through the Kingsway Shopping Centre, where my electorate office is, and then linking up with the trains as well. The lack of that bus has been a real problem for the local people. Again, there is graffiti. I remember one night that Paul and I and a local resident spent in Willespie Park in Pearsall, where we confronted and had a chat to some under-age drinkers and dealt with that problem. So Paul has shown a great commitment to getting things done. As a councillor for the city of Wanneroo, he did some great work with regard to Willespie Park. I have also worked with him on a number of other issues. So I am very confident that these very good friends of mine, Andrea Mitchell for Kingsley and Paul Miles for Wanneroo, will make a great contribution under the Barnett government.

I will talk about what this election will mean for the people. I will not go through every little policy point that the new government in Western Australia has outlined, but I would like to mention some of the things that really are going to count. They include the re-establishment of the graffiti task force, a state funded force to deal with graffiti and to fight that fight up close. But, of course, along with that commitment there is also the commitment in law to back this up and to impose on these vandals—these criminals—the penalties that need to be there to send a clear message. I have no problem with penalties for graffiti of $26,000 in fines or two years in jail. Similarly, with the tough response on hooning, I again endorse that. The penalty for a first offence of hooning is loss of the vehicle for a week, for a second offence it is loss of the vehicle for three months and for the third offence it is confiscation. I say: carry on, send this clear message, fight that fight and let these people know that their dangerous and risky behaviour is not just a matter of fun. It is not the way to leave your mark on the world by leaving tyre on the roads—a bit of burnt rubber. These people need a clear message because, if they make their mistakes, innocent people could be killed. So they need to be dealt with, and I applaud the plan of the new government in Western Australia.

In the limited time I have left I will talk about the changes in a number of key laws within WA. Recently there was a prostitution bill passed by the former government, with some support from others in Western Australia, that effectively would allow prostitution to take place even in residential suburbs. That again is a fight I think is worth having, and the repeal of the law will see a turnaround, to never giving up the fight. Also there is the repeal of the soft cannabis laws in Western Australia and the introduction of harsher penalties for sale, cultivation and possession, and the sale of drug paraphernalia. The truth in sentencing laws in Western Australia will also be repealed. That is where a third of the sentence is basically taken off immediately. I believe there was a case where a person was shot dead over a $100 drug debt and the offender was given a sentence of something like six or 6½ years, but with truth in sentencing that was rounded down to about four years. For loss of a life to be worth four years, I think, sends a very bad message, and I am glad to see that those truth in sentencing laws are on their way out.

Although I have not had the time to cover all the good policy changes, the changes that are coming in Western Australia are fundamental; they are positive and they give me great hope for the future. I look forward to working with Andrea Mitchell and Paul Miles as well as the rest of the new state government. I look forward to the best result for the people of Cowan and the people of Western Australia through this great change.