❓ Question regarding the Minister's response to fish kills in the Swan River and a request for an apology due to perceived flippancy. The Minister defends the government's actions and accuses the opposition of hypocrisy.
AnsweredQoN 144Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
SWAN RIVER - FISH KILLS
I refer to the minister’s comments in this house last week regarding fish kills in the Swan River that - I had the matter looked into, and one dead fish was found. And - . . . let me put to bed the issue of the fish . . . Hopefully, the member for Capel will not see fit to raise that issue again. I do intend to raise it again. I also refer the minister to the thousands of fish deaths in the Swan River over the past few days. Given that there have been thousands of confirmed fish deaths, will the minister now apologise to this house and to the people of Western Australia for his flippant remarks on what is a serious issue for the people of Western Australia? Mr M. McGOWAN
I refer to the minister’s comments in this house last week regarding fish kills in the Swan River that - I had the matter looked into, and one dead fish was found. And - . . . let me put to bed the issue of the fish . . . Hopefully, the member for Capel will not see fit to raise that issue again. I do intend to raise it again. I also refer the minister to the thousands of fish deaths in the Swan River over the past few days. Given that there have been thousands of confirmed fish deaths, will the minister now apologise to this house and to the people of Western Australia for his flippant remarks on what is a serious issue for the people of Western Australia? Mr M. McGOWAN
AnswerView source ↗
I think we have discovered a new water source for the Swan River, and that is the crocodile tears of the opposition, because that is all they are - crocodile tears. We were debating last week a new act of Parliament, which is designed to put in place the best enforcement mechanisms in the country to deal with the Swan River and its very large catchment. What happened? Although some metropolitan members of the opposition said to me privately that they supported it, when it came before the Parliament, they brought in amendments that would have gutted the legislation. They then went out and publicly complained about the government not doing anything about the issue. I will tell members what we are doing about the issue. First, we have increased the budget by 70 per cent per annum; that is, from just over $5 million in the last Liberal government’s budget to nearly $9 million. That is a real increase. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : That is a nonsense. You know it, and we know it. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
Mr M. McGOWAN replied: I think we have discovered a new water source for the Swan River, and that is the crocodile tears of the opposition, because that is all they are - crocodile tears. We were debating last week a new act of Parliament, which is designed to put in place the best enforcement mechanisms in the country to deal with the Swan River and its very large catchment. What happened? Although some metropolitan members of the opposition said to me privately that they supported it, when it came before the Parliament, they brought in amendments that would have gutted the legislation. They then went out and publicly complained about the government not doing anything about the issue. I will tell members what we are doing about the issue. First, we have increased the budget by 70 per cent per annum; that is, from just over $5 million in the last Liberal government’s budget to nearly $9 million. That is a real increase. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : That is a nonsense. You know it, and we know it. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
I think we have discovered a new water source for the Swan River, and that is the crocodile tears of the opposition, because that is all they are - crocodile tears. We were debating last week a new act of Parliament, which is designed to put in place the best enforcement mechanisms in the country to deal with the Swan River and its very large catchment. What happened? Although some metropolitan members of the opposition said to me privately that they supported it, when it came before the Parliament, they brought in amendments that would have gutted the legislation. They then went out and publicly complained about the government not doing anything about the issue. I will tell members what we are doing about the issue. First, we have increased the budget by 70 per cent per annum; that is, from just over $5 million in the last Liberal government’s budget to nearly $9 million. That is a real increase. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : That is a nonsense. You know it, and we know it. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : That is a nonsense. You know it, and we know it. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
Mr M. McGOWAN replied: I think we have discovered a new water source for the Swan River, and that is the crocodile tears of the opposition, because that is all they are - crocodile tears. We were debating last week a new act of Parliament, which is designed to put in place the best enforcement mechanisms in the country to deal with the Swan River and its very large catchment. What happened? Although some metropolitan members of the opposition said to me privately that they supported it, when it came before the Parliament, they brought in amendments that would have gutted the legislation. They then went out and publicly complained about the government not doing anything about the issue. I will tell members what we are doing about the issue. First, we have increased the budget by 70 per cent per annum; that is, from just over $5 million in the last Liberal government’s budget to nearly $9 million. That is a real increase. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : That is a nonsense. You know it, and we know it. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
I think we have discovered a new water source for the Swan River, and that is the crocodile tears of the opposition, because that is all they are - crocodile tears. We were debating last week a new act of Parliament, which is designed to put in place the best enforcement mechanisms in the country to deal with the Swan River and its very large catchment. What happened? Although some metropolitan members of the opposition said to me privately that they supported it, when it came before the Parliament, they brought in amendments that would have gutted the legislation. They then went out and publicly complained about the government not doing anything about the issue. I will tell members what we are doing about the issue. First, we have increased the budget by 70 per cent per annum; that is, from just over $5 million in the last Liberal government’s budget to nearly $9 million. That is a real increase. Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : That is a nonsense. You know it, and we know it. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
Ms K. Hodson-Thomas : That is a nonsense. You know it, and we know it. The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
The SPEAKER : Order, member for Carine! Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
Mr M. McGOWAN : The second point is that the government is bringing in strong legislation that will make sure we deal with this issue seriously. The opposition in this Parliament last week attempted to exempt agriculture from that legislation. The third point, after the comments by the opposition, is that one would think this is an amazing new occurrence and that algal blooms had not occurred before. I show members the headline of an article that reads “River Closed”. Do members know when that article was written? It was written in 2000. The first time the river had to be closed because of algal bloom was during the period of the last government. We are bringing in legislation, putting more money in and fixing the problem. We are adopting a long-term strategy for this issue.
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