Since I last wrote, the WA Liberal Party’s State Council met and confirmed positions for the Legislative Council ‘ticket’ here in the North Metropolitan Region for the State election to be held on 9 March 2013 (less than a year away now). I was delighted, and honoured, to be re-endorsed as the second-listed candidate on the ballot paper after my colleague Hon Peter Collier MLC, the Minister for Energy, Workforce Training & Development, and Indigenous Affairs. I am looking forward to being re-elected as part of the Liberal team and the opportunity to serve this wonderful part of Western Australia for a further term..

While on the subject of elections, I must congratulate local business manager Jan Norberger, who recently has been endorsed to represent the Liberal Party here in Joondalup at the coming election. I am sure Jan will make a great member of parliament and I wish him well for the coming months. You can read a bit more about my support for Jan on my blog HERE if you wish. Future editions of this newsletter will feature Jan, his background, and his visions for Joondalup.

As we go to ‘press’ the Liberal Party is yet to select a candidate for the nearby seat of Butler (formerly named Mindarie) but we will forward news of that development when it occurs.

 

Now, a lot more has been happening around our Northern suburbs over the past month including the following:

 

EASTER GREETINGS

I take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy and enjoyable Easter. Regardless of one’s individual religious beliefs, ‘holiday’ periods like this afford us all the opportunity to slow down just a little and enjoy the company of family, friends and loved ones.

Of course, with Easter, also comes the school holidays.

Please watch out for children on our roads.

This morning I attended the annual ‘Blessing of the Roads’ hosted by the City of Wanneroo, at the corner of Wanneroo Road and Joondalup Drive, Tapping. As part of the ceremony, which included the planting of white crosses by students of local schools signifying deaths on our roads, the WA Police Chaplain Keith Carmody and the Mayor of Wanneroo Tracey Roberts delivered a blessing and a prayer for the safety of all road users for the next year, and particularly over the Easter period.

It is worth remembering that while we are hopefully enjoying some time off, our police, fire and rescue and ambulance services will still be on duty – it would be wonderful, for a change, to have an Easter long weekend when there was nothing horrible that they had to attend to. 

 

RECREATION GRANTS

Our Government makes regular grants to help improve sporting opportunities for residents. Recently, two more Community Sport and Recreation Facilities Grants were made to the City of Joondalup. These were:

·        $146,578 to help upgrade floodlighting at Penistone Park.

·         $171,000 to construct a skate park at Mirror Park.

 

While on the subject of sports, I’ve been made aware in recent months of a hard-working community group that has a vision for creating a world-class wheeled sports facility in our northern suburbs. This group can use all the help it can get.

The Northern Districts Combined Community Groups Association includes cycling, skate-boarding and skating enthusiasts and is working to get a permanent home for all sorts of wheeled sports. They maintain there has been a need in the North-western Metro region for non-motorised wheeled sport club facilities for the past 30 years. This is highlighted on the Association's website at http://ndccga.org/concept-wheeled-sports-park-wa.html

If you are interested in the group or wheeled sport in the northern suburbs generally, visit this site or email Tim Argus at timothy.argus@gmail.com for more information.

 

WINTER SPORT REGISTRATIONS

Thanks to Beldon Primary School for reminding me, in their recent newsletter, that registrations are now open to children wishing to participate in winter sports here in Joondalup.

Kidsport makes it possible for children aged 5-18 to become engaged in great sporting activities.

There’s also assistance of up to $200 per child for eligible families who want to be part of the action.

More information is available from the City of Joondalup by phoning 9400 4000 or visiting their website HERE.

 

SUPPORT OUR ANZACS

With Anzac Day also close, it’s worth reflecting on the very tough jobs that our men and women in uniform do on our behalf in far-flung parts of the world.

One way to show your support that isn’t that well know, are the dedicated letter boxes that the Department of Defence has once again opened to allow the general public to send care packages to our deployed troops for ANZAC Day.

This is an excellent opportunity to show our support for the hard-working, dedicated and brave diggers on the front line, either in Afghanistan or deployed on one of our many peacekeeping missions.

The dedicated mail-boxes close by the 13th of April to ensure all packages are received in time.

Please see the Department of Defence’s website at http://www.defence.gov.au/anzacday/2012/index.htm for more information.

I thank my Federal colleague, Senator David Johnston for bringing this to my attention.

 

JOONDALUP HEALTH CAMPUS GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

For those of you who don’t regularly drive through Joondalup (or at least along Lakeside Drive), BIG things are happening at the local health campus.

I recently had the pleasure of touring the new operating theatres at the site of the $394 million expansion project. It was certainly an eye-opener.

The emergency department at the hospital is now twice as big as it was (with 12 theatres) and has twice as many intensive care and high-dependency beds!

It’s hard to imagine the scale of these increases unless you go and see for yourself. If you can’t, you can see more information about how the collaborative efforts of the government and Ramsay Health Care are establishing the best hospital facilities that the residents of the Northern Suburbs have ever seen on my blog HERE.

 

 

When we’ve finished this project (it’s a massive one), local residents and their families will have a world-class hospital with more than 600 beds.

We’ll need them too; did you know that the Joondalup hospital attended to 80,000 emergency presentations in 2011! Our city is growing but we need facilities like this one to keep up with that.

Congratulations to Joondalup Health Campus CEO Kempton Cowan and all of his staff.

Whereas the former Government has shown us how not to do big projects (think of the disastrous hundreds of millions of dollars wasted in the blow out on Perth’s new arena project for example), the current governments gets them done – and usually on time and within budget.

 

WA LEADS NATION IN PLANNING REFORM

The WA Business News (29 March 2012, page 19) has reported that WA’s planning assessment system is the best of all Australian states.

The paper said WA was a ‘shining light’ for reforms made by the current government that make development easier, simpler and more cost effective.

Planning Minister John Day said that two years of hard work in cutting red tape and making planning issues more transparent and fairer had resulted in WA going from sixth place in 2010 to being the top State (and second jurisdiction only just behind the Northern Territory) in the Property Development Council of Australia’s (PDCA) ranking of where it is best and easiest to do business in Australia.

This shows how WA is moving forward under the Liberal-led government.

Before the Barnett government was elected, Business News and the PDCA said WA had ‘been asleep at the wheel’ when it came to real planning reform.

 

FRESH START

Congratulations to Dr George O’Neil and his hard-working team of supporters and volunteers at Fresh Start.

Our Government has been helping fund this organisation’s ground-breaking work in assisting WA heroin addicts to have a chance to recover. I noted with great interest the Annual Overview for Fresh Start that came across my desk last month. Among the impressive developments it listed about the naltrexone clinic run by Dr O’Neil were that it:

·        Helped 838 people with addiction in 2011; and

·        598 patients were detoxified.

Our thanks for the hard work and persistence of Dr O’Neil and his team.

 

EDUCATION

Did you know?

The WA Government last month announced:

·        Two new child-care centres will be built in Girrawheen and Balga (more information HERE); and

·        Two new primary schools will be built at North Butler ($26.7 million) and North Yanchep ($14 million)!

 

GOOD NEWS

1.    Talkback radio has been full of claims by various unions that local manufacturers are ‘missing’ out on work generated by the current mining boom in the State’s north. Really? Did you know that:

a.    More than $14 billion worth of contracts have been awarded to locally-based companies by the State’s resource sector since July 2011, promising thousands of new jobs for West Australians. 

b.    In the same period,63 WA-based companies have been awarded major contracts to work on the lucrative resource projects under way in the State.  

2.    As mentioned in a related story above, the Government has moved health care back toward the people who use it and away from office-bound technocrats by establishing Community Boards of Advice for our biggest hospitals. Joondalup Health Campus’ Board is chaired by my colleague and Member for Ocean Reef Albert Jacob MLA. Also on the board are Wanneroo Mayor Tracey Roberts and Wanneroo Councillor Ian Goodenough. Having distinguished community-minded people like this actually participating in the decision-making process at our hospitals in another way our Government is empowering the community to take charge of its most vital facilities.

3.    Still on hospital matters, did you know that 2,367 babies were born at our hospital in Joondalup in 2011!

4.    Congratulations to Belridge Senior High School and Currambine Primary School for joining the Joondalup Business Association. As an Independent Public Schools, Belridge and Currambine are showing how schools can do more by partnering with the local business community to build closer ties both for the school students and to help businesses access skill-ready employees when our school student graduate.

5.    Well done to McKinley Plowman (accountants) in Joondalup for the lovely story in a recent issue of WA Business News. The story highlighted how the company is leading the way in assisting people with autism to break into the workforce. Matt Bartels, who suffers from autism, has proven a hardworking and integral part of McKinley Plowman through the Autism Association of WA’s AIM Employment Scheme. You can see more information about this inspirational program HERE.

6.    The recent passing of the Western Australia Day (Renaming) Bill 2011 by the Legislative Council. This renames ‘Foundation Day’ as ‘Western Australia Day’, as proposed by the Premier when he was in Opposition. This move received bi-partisan support in the Parliament. Read an ABC news article about itHERE. It is hoped that the renaming of this event to Western Australia Day will provide for the inclusion and appreciation of even more of the diverse cultures in our State.

7.    Western Australian Seniors Card holders now have longer to apply for $400 in safety and security rebates to make their homes safer. More information HERE.

 

BAD NEWS

1.    Electricity prices! However, we should judge WA’s recent rises in electricity prices by other means than just the grumbling opportunism of the Leader of the WA Opposition. For example, there was an opinion piece in the The West Australian (page 23, 30 March 2012) that outlined how the Queensland Competition Authority is rumoured to be on the verge of recommending a 25% increase to the price of electricity from 1 July, in part to compensate for “many years of politically inspired price suppression”. Sound familiar? WA Labor froze prices for 7 years. It just shows that WA is not alone in having to increase prices to cover the cost of generation and supply after Labor’s irresponsible handling of the issue.

2.    BTW, recent reports indicate that the Gillard Government’s carbon tax (the one she said would never be introduced under a government she led) is expected to increase our power bills by 10%.

 

ON THE BLOG

It’s been a busy month on my blog – the website that tracks my movement around the North Metropolitan Region on your behalf. Among the many entries this month, please consider the following:

·        Chinese women celebrate International Women’s Day

·        WA flag flying over Two Rocks [Primary School]

·        Edgewater [Primary School] gets ‘flashy’ treatment from Government

·        Group to advise on northern suburbs transport

 

THANKS

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