Ms. Davies questions the Premier's timing and transparency regarding electoral reforms impacting regional representation, accusing him of using 'sneaky, evasive language'. The Premier denies a reduction in representation and defends the reforms as democratic.

AnsweredQoN 541Legislative Assembly
Asked
16 September 2021
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QuestionView source ↗

ELECTORAL REFORM — REPRESENTATION — REGIONS
541. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
The SPEAKER : A supplementary
question that hopefully will be heard in silence.
Ms M.J. DAVIES : Thank you,
Madam Speaker.
Why
did the Premier choose not to put these significant reforms to the electorate
before the election and instead use sneaky, evasive language to avoid
revealing his plans to reduce regional representation in the state's
Parliament?
Ms S. Winton interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for
Wanneroo, leave it to the Premier, please.

AnswerView source ↗

I repeat again: there is no
reduction. If a person lives in a regional community, their upper house
representatives will go from six to 37. The regional representatives put into
Parliament by the conservatives, like Hon Jim Chown, are pretty poor
representatives. Instead, people will now have 37 representatives representing
the entire state. That is the reality of what will occur under these changes.
It is just democratic practice, as occurs in the Liberal–National run
states of New South Wales and South Australia.

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