❓ A parliamentary question regarding the funding and staffing of St John Ambulance, with the opposition questioning the adequacy of the government's financial commitment and potential misleading of the public. The Minister defends the government's approach, citing St John's figures and ongoing review.
AnsweredQoN 1Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
ST JOHN AMBULANCE — INDEPENDENT INQUIRY
I refer to the independent WA ambulance service inquiry and the minister’s media statement yesterday in which he claimed that the St John Ambulance service would be able to employ 37 new staff immediately as a result of the cash injection of $1.028 million. (1) Can the minister confirm that the public sector standard for the full cost of establishing a single full-time equivalent employee is a minimum of $100 000? (2) Can the minister explain how he expects to fund 37 full-time employees on a permanent basis with an allocation of $1 million? (3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES
I refer to the independent WA ambulance service inquiry and the minister’s media statement yesterday in which he claimed that the St John Ambulance service would be able to employ 37 new staff immediately as a result of the cash injection of $1.028 million. (1) Can the minister confirm that the public sector standard for the full cost of establishing a single full-time equivalent employee is a minimum of $100 000? (2) Can the minister explain how he expects to fund 37 full-time employees on a permanent basis with an allocation of $1 million? (3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(1) Can the minister confirm that the public sector standard for the full cost of establishing a single full-time equivalent employee is a minimum of $100 000? (2) Can the minister explain how he expects to fund 37 full-time employees on a permanent basis with an allocation of $1 million? (3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(2) Can the minister explain how he expects to fund 37 full-time employees on a permanent basis with an allocation of $1 million? (3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
<003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
*spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
*chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
<004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
<004> G/1
(1) Can the minister confirm that the public sector standard for the full cost of establishing a single full-time equivalent employee is a minimum of $100 000? (2) Can the minister explain how he expects to fund 37 full-time employees on a permanent basis with an allocation of $1 million? (3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(2) Can the minister explain how he expects to fund 37 full-time employees on a permanent basis with an allocation of $1 million? (3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(3) When does the minister expect these additional to staff to commence work? (4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(4) Has the minister set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that he is providing a boost to St John’s resources, when he knows that the scale of this problem demands a minimum injection of at least $20 million? Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dr K.D. HAMES replied: (1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
(1)-(4) I cannot confirm that the figure of $100 000 is exact, but I suspect that it is; that seems to be about the right amount. What the member is failing to take into account is the training time required for some of those positions. We did not make up those figures. All those times and numbers were given to us directly by St John Ambulance. I told St John that the government would work with Treasury to work out the total amount of money needed. I asked St John to give us an indicative figure of what amount it thought was needed to do that, and it has done that. Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Mr R.H. Cook : Sixty million? Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dr K.D. HAMES : That is a large amount of money. That is the amount in four years’ time; it certainly is not the immediate amount. That is St John’s request based on its estimate. What do we do? We are not about to hand over that amount of money. I am sure that the former Treasurer would not have done that either. He would not have said, “We have St John Ambulance or the Royal Flying Doctor Service requesting X number of dollars. Okay, sure, here you are.” There obviously has to be scrutiny. We have already set up a team with Greg Joyce, Dr Simon Towler and some financial experts to go through those figures and tease them out to see if that is exactly what is required. I said publicly that Greg Joyce will also look at the country system and how it works with the volunteer system. We will see whether we need to expand paramedic services in the country and we will look at other ways to make the service work better. They are going to do an evaluation of what is required to make that service a first-class service. Some of those positions—for example, the call centre operators—need three months’ training. They will start in three months, as we were advised by St John. Some of the transport drivers can begin relatively quickly. I think it will take about four or five weeks to get the first tranche in place, which I think is 12 drivers, and the rest will start a month or two later. Again, that has been requested by St John. St John has told us what it needs to do urgently to address the issues that are presented in the report. We have responded directly to St John’s request and have said that we will put in the money that it asked for straightaway and we will immediately start working out much extra will be needed. <003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
<003> L Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dummy test material sourced from transcript (three paragraphs). Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Mr P. ABETZ : Do you think there is need for a children’s shelter–type of house where children can go when parents are drunk? *spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
*spin: We have been asking for a long, long time for a hostel so I can get these kids off the streets at night and every time we ask it, it goes over there somehow. *chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
*chai: Who have you asked and when have you asked? Has it just been like talking to us asking or has it ever been a formal request in writing to someone? <004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
<004> O DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
DR G.G. JACOBS (Eyre — Minister for Water) [2.12 pm]: I rise to inform the house that work on the infill sewerage project in Spearwood will commence in approximately two months. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
The SPEAKER : Order! Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Dr G.G. JACOBS : I am glad of the response, Mr Speaker! Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
Today I had the pleasure of announcing that the state government will call for tenders from next Tuesday, 17 November to commence work on the Spearwood infill project. We expect the tender process to be completed by late this year. I have visited Spearwood on a number of occasions and have spoken with residents and my colleague Hon Phil Edman, MLC, who presented a very strong case for sewerage infill. I have been urgently seeking a strategy to allow the Spearwood infill project to be completed. Many of the Spearwood residents have been waiting for up to 40 years to be able to connect to deep sewerage and I am acutely aware of the particular public health concerns that have arisen as the ageing leach drains have broken down. The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
The infill sewerage program was introduced in 1994 by the Richard Court Liberal government and has been running for 15 years. In 2001, Labor was elected to office and the program started to be slowed down; in fact, spending on the infill program was halved. In the 2009-10 state budget the program was deferred, to be reconsidered once the current financial environment improved. The program’s original targets were $800 million and 100 000 connections. Currently, more than 89 000 properties have been connected to the system, with approximately 62 500 being in Perth and the balance in various regional towns. The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
The Department of Health prepared a confidential report for the previous Labor Minister for Health in 2006, which detailed serious concerns from both a health and environmental perspective in Spearwood. However, no work had commenced on this project. My colleague the Deputy Premier and Minister for Health, Dr Kim Hames, wrote to me last week confirming the reported concerns and indicating that these health issues have now worsened. Due to the concerns identified in the report, the state government will build infill sewerage in Spearwood and, as a result, all Spearwood residents will have access to sewerage infill by June 2011—even in these tough economic times. I must stress that any decisions on future infill sewerage projects will be taken in context of the 2010-11 state budget process. <004> G/1
<004> G/1
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