❓ Opposition Leader Buswell questions Premier Carpenter on the state of education, health, and law & order, accusing the government of failing to plan for the future and wasting money. The Premier dismisses the claims, defends his government's record, and attacks the Opposition's credibility.
AnsweredQoN 1Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
EDUCATION, HEALTH, AND LAW AND ORDER — GOVERNMENT ACTION
(1) Does the Premier accept that despite an economic boom delivering record surpluses, Western Australian families are faced with an education system in crisis, with teachers threatening to strike; a health system in crisis, with massive overcrowding of emergency departments; and a breakdown in law and order, to the extent that Western Australian police are routinely bashed while going about their business? (2) Does the Premier accept that after two years as Premier, and after the Labor Party’s seven years in government, the Labor Party’s failure to plan for the future is hurting the lives of families right across Western Australia? (3) Will the Premier explain why, instead of addressing these problems, he chose to waste almost half a billion dollars on a failed computer system for the Office of Shared Services? Mr A.J. CARPENTER
(1) Does the Premier accept that despite an economic boom delivering record surpluses, Western Australian families are faced with an education system in crisis, with teachers threatening to strike; a health system in crisis, with massive overcrowding of emergency departments; and a breakdown in law and order, to the extent that Western Australian police are routinely bashed while going about their business? (2) Does the Premier accept that after two years as Premier, and after the Labor Party’s seven years in government, the Labor Party’s failure to plan for the future is hurting the lives of families right across Western Australia? (3) Will the Premier explain why, instead of addressing these problems, he chose to waste almost half a billion dollars on a failed computer system for the Office of Shared Services? Mr A.J. CARPENTER
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
(2) Does the Premier accept that after two years as Premier, and after the Labor Party’s seven years in government, the Labor Party’s failure to plan for the future is hurting the lives of families right across Western Australia? (3) Will the Premier explain why, instead of addressing these problems, he chose to waste almost half a billion dollars on a failed computer system for the Office of Shared Services? Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: (1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
(3) Will the Premier explain why, instead of addressing these problems, he chose to waste almost half a billion dollars on a failed computer system for the Office of Shared Services? Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: (1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: (1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
(1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
(2) Does the Premier accept that after two years as Premier, and after the Labor Party’s seven years in government, the Labor Party’s failure to plan for the future is hurting the lives of families right across Western Australia? (3) Will the Premier explain why, instead of addressing these problems, he chose to waste almost half a billion dollars on a failed computer system for the Office of Shared Services? Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: (1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
(3) Will the Premier explain why, instead of addressing these problems, he chose to waste almost half a billion dollars on a failed computer system for the Office of Shared Services? Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: (1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER replied: (1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
(1)-(3) I should not say that some things never change because, quite clearly, they do. There has been another change, because the member for Vasse is now the Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, he is the third opposition leader with whom I have had to deal during my short time as Premier. I have previously said that the Liberal Party was reaching a low ebb. Surely it cannot get much lower—the nadir of the Western Australian Liberal Party. No is the brief answer to the preposterous suggestions put by the inexperienced and immature opposition leader, who has little grasp of the issues that confront Western Australia. I will start with education, an area with which I have some familiarity. I became the education minister in 2001 when the retention to year 12 was less than 60 per cent and declining, when there was between 27 per cent and 30 per cent youth unemployment and when 50 per cent of our boys were exiting school into an unemployment market because there were no jobs for them. Indeed, there was no strategy or training system. Last year, after a year of having raised the school leaving age to 16, we achieved a 97 per cent engagement of the state’s 16-year-olds in employment, education and training. This year we have raised the school leaving — Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr T. Buswell interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
The SPEAKER : I call the Leader of the Opposition to order for the first time. Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The Leader of the Opposition has a complete lack of maturity. This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
This year the government raised the school leaving age to 17 so that, by compulsion, our young people will be engaged in education, training and/or employment until the end of their seventeenth year. It is now against the law to exit education and training and do nothing. The education system and the performance of the education system is light years ahead of where it was just six years ago. Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr T. Buswell : Tell that to the parents! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER : I am a parent of four children who are in or who have recently been in the education system. I understand it because I have had personal experience. I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
I turn to health. Do I recall the state of the health system when we came to government? Yes, I do. There was an unending parade of tragedies. People were waiting months and months and months to get treated. We have dramatically reduced surgery waiting lists in our hospitals. We have employed — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
The SPEAKER : Order, members! Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
Mr A.J. CARPENTER : The opposition asked the question but it does not like the answer, because the comparison provides us with a record that we can hold up against the previous government any day of the week. There is no comparison with the reform measures that we put in place to effectively rebuild and restructure our health system compared with the ramshackle, directionless system that we inherited in which a succession of failed health ministers paraded through the Parliament, some of them occasionally breaking into tears such was the stress. Yes, there are challenges in education and training and in law and order. However, the state of Western Australia is now a vastly better place than the one we inherited when we came to government.
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