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Bail act, Crown Perth and Metronet top priority list as WA Parliament resumes after winter break

Bail act, Crown Perth and Metronet top priority list as WA Parliament resumes after winter break

After a six-week winter recess, West Australian politicians will return to parliament today to start the last half of the sitting year.

Plenty has happened since they last agreed, including another COVID-19 wave and controversies involving the Agriculture Minister and Attorney-General.

Even still, the government insists a cabinet reshuffle is not on the cards, with its focus instead on five priorities for the 33 sitting days ahead.

At the top of their list for reforms are long-awaited changes to WA’s Bail Act, largely in response to the death of Annaliesse Ugle in 2020.

The 11-year-old took her own life after the man accused of sexual assaulting her was released on bail.

The reforms are currently sitting in the lower house and will change the act in a variety of ways, including when a person is charged with child sex offences.

A man wearing handcuffs
Labor will use its majority in parliament to pass long-awaited changes to WA’s Bail Act.(AAP Image/David Gray)

Once the new legislation is passed, anyone deciding bail in that situation will have to specifically consider a number of factors, including the “physical and emotional wellbeing” of the child victim.

Another provision will mean that where a child victim raises concerns about their safety and welfare if the accused is not kept in custody, the person deciding bail must be presented with that information by the prosecutor and take it into consideration.

When he introduced the bill into parliament, Attorney-General John Quigley said it struck the right balance “between elevating the voices and concerns of child victims of sexual abuse and maintaining the precepts of our justice system”.

Crown Perth reforms also high priority

It has been around five months since the WA government was handed the Crown Casino Royal Commission’s final report, containing 59 recommendations on how to clean up money laundering, criminal infiltration and problem gambling.

The first swathe of laws designed to start chipping away at those recommendations are yet to pass parliament but are on the priority list.

A sign showing the Crown Resorts logo in front of shrubs beside a road.
The reforms are aimed at tackling money laundering and problem gambling at Perth’s casino.(ABC News: Hugh Sando)

The bill is also still in the lower house, having been introduced just before parliament broke for the winter break.

Once passed, it will establish an independent monitor who will oversee the casino for a two-year remediation period, as recommended in the report.

Questions have been raised about the utility of that monitor though, with one gambling researcher raising concerns the casino would return to “business as usual” at the end of that two-year period.

The bill will also increase maximum penalties under the Casino Control Act from $100,000 to $100 million, and allow the minister to appoint an independent chair of the Gaming and Wagering Commission.

While there are more than a dozen other bills currently on the books for MPs to consider, the government is particularly keen to see three of them pass soon.

One will implement recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by requiring about 4,000 organizations to report allegations or convictions of child abuse.

The silhouette of a child sitting on a bed with an adult sitting alongside them.
The WA government is keen to push through a bill to provide greater protection to child abuse victims.(abcnews)

That is on the list to be debated in the upper house this fortnight, and once passed will also give the state’s ombudsman oversight of how those organizations handle child abuse complaints and allow for independent investigations.

Another bill will provide greater protection for owner-drivers and other small businesses in the road freight sector, including minimum periods for contract termination.

Finally, there’s a bill to allow for the construction of a number of Metronet projects along the Armadale Line, including removing level crossings and raising tracks, and extending the line to Byford.

An artist's impression of the exterior of a train.
Metronet projects along the Armadale line will benefit from the proposed legislation.(Supplied: WA Government)

Opposition piles pressure on ministers

While that is what the government wants to focus on, the state opposition is keen to keep the pressure on a number of ministers who have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons over the winter break.

Among them is Alannah MacTiernan, who apologized after what she described as “clumsy” comments about foot and mouth disease, including that if it landed in WA it could make domestic milk and meat cheaper.

Then there is Mr Quigley, who had to correct evidence he gave in the defamation case between Mr McGowan and Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer earlier this year.

It led to Justice Michael Lee describing Mr Quigley’s evidence as “all over the shop”, although he did make the point that “being a confused witness is a quite different thing from being a dishonest one”.

A tight head shot of WA Attorney-General John Quigley during a media conference.
Justice Michael Lee described John Quigley’s evidence as “confused and confusing.”(ABC News: Eliza Laschon)

Even still, it prompted Deputy Liberal Leader Libby Mettam to yesterday label Mr Quigley a “lame duck.”

“But fair questions could be asked of other members and ministers in the McGowan government cabinet,” she said.

Opposition Leader Mia Davies also piled on the pressure.

Head and shoulder shot of Mia Davies speaking outside WA Parliament.
Mia Davies says several WA ministers have fallen short of the public’s expectations in recent weeks.(ABC News: Keane Bourke)

“The Premier has an Attorney-General that is confused and confusing, an Agriculture Minister who has lost the confidence of the industry, a Health Minister that has overseen the highest ever ambulance ramping in the state, and a Housing Minister with no housing,” she said.

“It just doesn’t add up when you consider the strength of numbers Labor have in the parliament and the wealth the Premier has at his fingertips as Treasurer.”

Metronet ‘behind schedule and over budget’

Ms Davies said the opposition would also “maintain its focus on a Labor Government that is failing to deliver on promises made to the people of Western Australia”.

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Australia

WA unions warn of more industrial action as they reject McGowan government’s latest wage offer

WA unions warn of more industrial action as they reject McGowan government's latest wage offer

The standoff between public sector unions and the McGowan Labor government is set to escalate after unions decided to continue their campaign for better pay in a rejection of the government’s latest wage offer.

They described the latest offer as inadequate and said it did not offset inflation, declaring they would go ahead with a mass rally outside state parliament on August 17.

Unions WA Secretary Owen Whittle warned the government it had “entrenched industrial strife through the rest of their term of government.”

A joint meeting of public sector unions representing police, firefighters, prison officers, teachers, child protection, health and other public sector workers decided to press on for a “fair pay” deal for the public sector workforce.

A generic photograph of an unidentified WA Police officer wearing a high visibility police vest over a blue uniform.
Police are among the workers represented by the unions fighting for a better deal.(ABC News: Kenith Png)

Mr Whittle said the government’s revised offer was an acknowledgment the workers deserved a pay rise but it was not good enough, as interest rates and cost of living soared.

Unions want at least 5 per cent a year

The McGowan government has offered a three per cent increase in salaries this year and next, plus a $2,500 one-off payment. The unions wanted the government to come to the table with an offer of at least five per cent a year.

“The three per cent is a low wage offer in the current economic environment, it doesn’t recognize the hard work of the public sector through the pandemic and doesn’t recognize the extremely high cost of living pressures that workers are currently facing,” Mr Whittle said.

Unions WA secretary Owen Whittle speaks to journalists.
Owen Whittle says the offer does not offset the skyrocketing cost of living. (ABC News: Tabarak Al Jrood)

“The new policy does not adequately offset inflation over the two years it covers.

“Further, it comes off the back of pay going backwards in real terms for most over the past five years.”

The government upped its pay offer to public sector employees on Sunday following the ongoing campaign by unions and in acknowledgment of rising cost of living pressures.

Premier Mark McGowan said the $2,500 payment was to reflect current pressures, which he expected to ease over the next year.

WA Premier Mark McGowan speaks at a media conference wearing a suit and tie.
Mark McGowan says the payment would help workers cope with the “temporary” spike in inflation.(ABC News: Keane Bourke)

Perth currently tops all capital cities with a whopping 7.4 per cent inflation rate.

Unions also said the one-off bonus was just that, a one-off, and would be gone in a year. What was needed instead, the union argued, was a further percentage increase to base salaries.

Mr Whittle today granted the revised offer may be approved by some groups of union members “as the one-off payment does deliver benefits to low wage public sector workers”.

But for others, he said, real wage cuts will continue in the second year of the agreement.

“There is a serious problem in the second year when the one-off payment that is not on the base wage is long gone and the three per cent rise fails to keep pace with inflation.”

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Australia

Three new marine parks announced for Buccaneer Archipelago in WA’s Kimberley region

Aboriginal men in ceremonial garb dancing on the Dampier Peninsula

The WA government has announced three new marine parks, covering thousands of kilometers of the Kimberley coastline in Western Australia’s far north.

Formally unveiled this morning, the Bardi Jawi Garra, Mayala and Maiyalam Marine Parks cover more than 600,000 hectares of the Buccaneer Archipelago.

In a first for Western Australia, the parks have been co-designed and will be jointly managed by the area’s Bardi Jawi, Mayala and Dambeemangarddee traditional owners.

The new parks cover waters surrounding the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome, land and coastline to the north of Derby, and the thousands of islands that make up the Buccaneer Archipelago.

A rocky island surrounded by mangroves, surrounded by blue water at high tide
This island in Yaloon (Cone Bay) is part of the newly created Maiyalam Marine Park.(Supplied: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions)

Through amalgamations with existing parks, the new reserve includes high-profile Kimberley locations such as Horizontal Falls and Yaloon on the shore of Cone Bay.

Speaking at this morning’s announcement in Broome, Bardi Jawi traditional owner Kevin George said the formal recognition was a significant step forward.

“We’ve got a duty of care to the environment, and a duty of care to our people,” he said.

“It’s very much important to our people to be part and parcel of designing all of this … and we’re pretty happy with the process.”

Dambimangari Corporation director Leah Umbagi said the park was an important recognition of her people’s connection with the sea.

A man and two women standing in front of blue water, all with Aboriginal corporation shirts on
Rowena Mouda, Kevin George, and Leah Umbagi at the signing on Sunday morning.(ABC Kimberly)

“By doing this in collaboration with the other groups … I think coming forward as a group as the saltwater people it’s a big [step] forward,” she said.

Mayala Inninalang Aboriginal Corporation chair Rowena Mouda said the cultural health of the coastline was imperative to the health of traditional owners.

“The cultural belonging, the cultural maintenance and preservation is so important. If we lose sight of that, then we’ve lost sight of our identity of who we are,” she said.

“With this process, there have been families that have returned to the country for the first time.

“There’ve been families that have returned after many years and been able to plant their feet on that country, and we’ve seen healing take place with people who have not gone back to country since they were there as a child.

“There’s a healing in oneself, your body, your spirit, your mind that comes into play, and it’s hard to explain when you don’t have that belonging.”

Six people on an isolated beach conducting a traditional smoking ceremony.
Dambeemangarddee traditional owners hold a smoking ceremony at Yaloon Bay.(Supplied: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions)

Parks’ troubled birth

While the mood at today’s announcement was celebratory, the planning process for the marine parks had been divisive.

Draft plans to ban and restrict recreational fishing from nearly 40 per cent of the park were met with a tense reaction from local and statewide fishing groups, who argued they had been left out of the consultation process.

The government returned to the drawing board to consider their concerns, which ended in concessions including access to Dam Creek, the Graveyard, Kimbolton Creek, Strickland Bay, and areas of reef near the Cone Bay Barramundi Farm.

A large group of mostly men.
Broome fishing club members were briefed on the proposed marine park for the Buccaneer Archipelago.(ABC Kimberley: Erin Parke)

Recfishwest chief executive Andrew Rowland says the government needed to learn lessons from the process.

“We were really disappointed with the original draft plan. The government essentially railroaded the process and fishers were excluded from putting in comment,” Dr Rowland said.

“We’re pleased fishers got to sit down with traditional owners following the draft plans, and we’ve now, as of today, seen a much better outcome for fishing.”

But the conservation group Environs Kimberley dismissed concerns from the recreational fishers’ lobby about access restrictions.

“We’ve got a very balanced marine park,” Environs director Martin Prichard said.

“More than half of it is open to recreational fishers.”

Mr Pritchard said the co-design process involving traditional owners was a “shining light” for the rest of Australia when it came to designing conservation areas with Indigenous people.

“This is an outstanding win for conservation in the Kimberley and conservation in Australia,” he said.

“The thousand islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago have coral reef systems, seagrass beds, really productive river mouths, very important cultural areas.”

A man in a wide brim hat standing in front of a beach background
Martin Pritchard says the marine parks are a welcome first step in protecting at-risk parts of the Kimberley.(ABC Kimberley: Andrew Seabourne)

Mr Pritchard said the group was now lobbying for the state government to extend protections to more areas of the Kimberley coast.

“What we’ve got left now is an opportunity for the McGowan government to actually put the whole of the Kimberley coast in a marine park,” he said.

“What we would have would be the Great Kimberley Marine Park to rival the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.”

One million hectares protected

Environment Minister Reece Whitby said he understood the concerns of fishing groups but said he made no apologies for the government’s commitment to the co-design process.

“All stakeholders are involved, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

“The traditional owners have said that they’ve found time to listen to the commercial fishers, the recreational fishers, and the other users of this country.

“It needs to be managed in a way that everyone’s interests are taken note of. There will be areas that are set aside in terms of zones to protect conservation values ​​and Aboriginal heritage values.

Minister Tony Buti and Reece Whitby watch on as two Mayala representatives sign papers
Traditional owners sign official marine park declarations at an event on Sunday.(ABC Kimberly)

“But there are zones also that acknowledge that this is about recreation, it’s about tourism, it’s about commercial businesses.

“My experience with commercial operators is they actually want this environment protected for the long term so that their industry is sustainable — the best way to do that is with the marine park where the conservation estate is recognized and protected.”

As part of the government’s plan, a sector support package will be provided to support commercial, charter, and recreational fishers operating in the park and impacted by its boundaries.

“[The package] will be developed with the community to ensure the continuation of sustainable fisheries, high-quality fishing experiences, and support for local industries,” Fisheries Minister Don Punch said.

Sunset over a bay and islands.
Cascade Bay is a popular destination for recreational fishers in the archipelago.(ABC Kimberley: Ben Collins)

The creation of the parks also marks a key milestone for the McGowan government, with more than 1 million hectares of new conservation estate established since it took office in 2017.

The government has set a target of 5 million hectares in total.

The three marine parks’ borders take effect on July 1, 2023.

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