❓ Ms. Davies questions the Premier about potential future policies impacting regional communities, given perceived pre-election inconsistencies regarding electoral reform and native forestry. The Premier defends the government's record of regional investment and forest management.
AnsweredQoN 523Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ELECTORAL REFORM AND
NATIVE FORESTRY — REGIONS
523. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I
refer to the release of Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform:
Final report and the legislation about to be debated in this
Parliament and the decision last week to shut down the native forestry sector.
Given the Premier raised neither of these
issues before the election and outright denied multiple times that electoral
reform was on the agenda, what other attacks on regional communities can we
expect from his government over the next three years?
NATIVE FORESTRY — REGIONS
523. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I
refer to the release of Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform:
Final report and the legislation about to be debated in this
Parliament and the decision last week to shut down the native forestry sector.
Given the Premier raised neither of these
issues before the election and outright denied multiple times that electoral
reform was on the agenda, what other attacks on regional communities can we
expect from his government over the next three years?
AnswerView source ↗
Just to address the question: we
handed down the budget last week—$9 billion of infrastructure will be
spent in regional WA, the biggest road-building program in history across
regional WA. Hospitals are being built all over regional WA. There is funding for an upgrade to the patient assisted
travel scheme to provide people from the regions with additional resources to come to the city. More permanent full-time
paramedics will be employed in regional WA , more full-time firefighters
will be employed in regional WA and we will retain the royalties for regions
scheme in regional WA. All those things are
part of regional WA and on top of that there is a $400 million package for
softwood timber planting; part of that is a $50 million transition plan
out of native hardwood forest.
To address the forest issue, the
forest management plan comes up every 10 years or so. We provided two years'
notice of our intentions on the forest management plan and consulted people
across the board in June this year. The
overwhelming feedback was that people did not want us to log native forests
anymore. From the questions asked by the Leader of the Liberal Party and
the Leader of the National Party, they do want to log native forests again.
They want to keep logging native forests. I will tell the people of Cottesloe
that is the Leader of the Liberal Party's plan. I will tell the people of Vasse that the Liberal Party wants to
continue to log these ancient and beautiful forests , and that is its plan.
We are investing heavily in regional
WA. We will preserve native forests. We will invest $350 million in new softwood plantations and, as the Minister for
Forestry pointed out the other day, during the term in office of members opposite, in some years they did not plant a single tree. What does that mean?
It means that in future years— admittedly
very few of us will still be in this chamber at that time—there would
be no supply. That is what that means . They did not put in place the
effort to fund it, so we have used the state's good economic and
financial management to fund that important program.
This government has many regional
members in this chamber and in the upper house of state Parliament and we will
continue to do the right thing by the people of regional WA.
handed down the budget last week—$9 billion of infrastructure will be
spent in regional WA, the biggest road-building program in history across
regional WA. Hospitals are being built all over regional WA. There is funding for an upgrade to the patient assisted
travel scheme to provide people from the regions with additional resources to come to the city. More permanent full-time
paramedics will be employed in regional WA , more full-time firefighters
will be employed in regional WA and we will retain the royalties for regions
scheme in regional WA. All those things are
part of regional WA and on top of that there is a $400 million package for
softwood timber planting; part of that is a $50 million transition plan
out of native hardwood forest.
To address the forest issue, the
forest management plan comes up every 10 years or so. We provided two years'
notice of our intentions on the forest management plan and consulted people
across the board in June this year. The
overwhelming feedback was that people did not want us to log native forests
anymore. From the questions asked by the Leader of the Liberal Party and
the Leader of the National Party, they do want to log native forests again.
They want to keep logging native forests. I will tell the people of Cottesloe
that is the Leader of the Liberal Party's plan. I will tell the people of Vasse that the Liberal Party wants to
continue to log these ancient and beautiful forests , and that is its plan.
We are investing heavily in regional
WA. We will preserve native forests. We will invest $350 million in new softwood plantations and, as the Minister for
Forestry pointed out the other day, during the term in office of members opposite, in some years they did not plant a single tree. What does that mean?
It means that in future years— admittedly
very few of us will still be in this chamber at that time—there would
be no supply. That is what that means . They did not put in place the
effort to fund it, so we have used the state's good economic and
financial management to fund that important program.
This government has many regional
members in this chamber and in the upper house of state Parliament and we will
continue to do the right thing by the people of regional WA.
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