GEOFF HUTCHINSON
We spoke to a policeman just a few moments ago following on from a...dreadful murder and a dreadful court case involving a woman named Darlene Nielsen and the man who attacked her was sentenced to life with a minimum of 26 years before parole.
But I just wonder, this man breeched his violence restraining order 17 times. Regularly on talkback radio over the years we’ve heard these kinds of stories and I wonder whether it is another area that the Attorney-General might consider looking at the effectiveness of the violence restraining orders at all?
COLIN BARNETT
That was a shocking case – a brutal murder, and I think 17 breeches, whatever the number was – unacceptable. The Attorney-General, Christian Porter is looking at Violence Restraining Orders both the way in which they are applied and the enforcement of them now. Uh clearly what happened there was a massive failure. Now I can’t pre-judge what he’s going to come up with, I mean it’s a technique and as I think someone maybe the policeman you were talking to said it’s not a physical restriction on a person, it’s a legal one but i think out of the that case and others like it we need to have perhaps greater enforcement if people breech it. Maybe they’ve got to be charged...
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
To make it a more effective tool than it is at the moment.
COLIN BARNETT
Yeah.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Um...Newspoll, Premier suggests the Liberals are back in the game and it seems Government policy on asylum seekers is not very popular. I asked Malcolm Turnbull earlier what he would do if he was in charge of the Oceanic Viking situation and what his policy would be and he wouldn’t tell me, because he didn’t want to announce it. What would you do if you were looking after the Oceanic Viking at present?
COLIN BARNETT
Well, I guess I’d say the same things to the extent I don’t have all the facts so it’s easy to be the one side and gratuitous advice. This is now in its third week, 78 Sri Lankans on the boat. The Oceanic Viking is an Australian Customs ship so whether we like it or not – and we probably don’t like it – they are basically under out protection; they are our problem.
I think if this cannot be resolved in the next couple of days, and by resolved I mean they willing return on to land in Indonesia then I believe the Australian Government has no option but to take them to Christmas Island and process them properly.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Yeah. Now the Opposition will then criticise the Government, saying you have again gone the easy option, you’ve signalled that you can protest and complain and threaten to throw yourself in the sea and the Australian Government will eventually renege and take you to Christmas Island. But is that the only reasonable option?
COLIN BARNETT
Well this is a fairly unique situation they were basically rescued from as I recall a sinking boat. But they are on an Australian ship – an Australian Government ship – and now we have to deal with them. Some of them no doubt are genuine refugees and asylum seekers, maybe they all aren’t. I don’t think we’ve got a choice.
It’s not a problem anyone would like to have but now they’re on the ship I think we have to take them to Christmas Island. That does not bring them onto the mainland and doesn’t give them rights under Australian law. But at least then we can determine the case of each individual.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Is there an acknowledgement from you that this is… it’s hard to control because we don’t know what the next day will bring. We’ve got a boat off the West Australian coast near the Cocos Island, many people have drowned. We have aeroplanes scouring those waters for survivors and yesterday we even heard people saying how shall we deal with them. I guess the first thing you do is try and save them from drowning. It’s political, but it’s also about issues of humanity and compassion.
COLIN BARNETT
Yes, and we are a first world nation and we have high standards. When you say Geoff ‘off the West Australian coast’ it is worth just looking at a map. Cocos Island is....
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Sure, it’s a long way.
COLIN BARNETT
It’s really off the Indonesian coast...it is far closer to Java than it is to West Australia or Australia. However, that’s an area that Australia takes on responsibility for.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Should we take comfort then, apply that to Christmas Island as well as Christmas Island is far closer to Indonesia than it is the Australian coastline?
COLIN BARNETT
It is, so taking people to Christmas Island is a long way off bringing them to the Australian mainland.
[ABC Phone numbers and time call]
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GEOFF HUTCHINSON
The oil rig continues to burn off our coast, all be it a fair way off our coast. It continues to leak and no end in sight. It’s a disaster on many levels but in what way do you say it’s damaged our international reputation? How, what has it shown the world?
COLIN BARNETT
Well first, simply because it has happened um.... and mainly because of the isolation its taken a long time to fix and of course it’s not fixed yet, and during that process of trying to close off the well we’ve now got this massive, uncontrolled fireball on top of the rig which must be weakening the integrity of the whole rig structure itself which will pose another problem if that collapses.
Um... it ah, any incident – this is a world scale failing, no doubt about this is world news, so it will cast doubt about the operators of the drilling rig initially, it will also raise questions about the supervision and the regulatory framework around that. And in particular when the initial hole was drilled, was it properly plugged. This should not have happened.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Have you or your ministers spoken with the management of PTTEP Australasia?
COLIN BARNETT
Ah I haven’t directly, but they have kept my office informed of developments and they go along. Look I think that after this incident occurred I have no criticism. I think they have done all that is possible and continue to do so. But, you know, there are various bright suggestions as to what they should do.
This is an extraordinarily dangerous situation and uh, the safety of people working out there has to be the first consideration. Hopefully today they may have success.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
So are you as a State Government doing anything more here than the rest of us, just watching and waiting and hoping?
COLIN BARNETT
Ah, well we are taking precautionary measures. We have um... officers on Ashmore Reef making sure, monitoring the environment there. We also have a… emergency groups on readiness in Broome if any oil does come toward the West Australian coast that we can act quickly. And all of our technical expertises is available if required. Again Geoff, and I think everyone realises this now, this is in Commonwealth-Northern Territory waters. We have no jurisdiction over it at all.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Yep, there’s also uh.. no one, and I know early on you understood very quickly the technical difficulties associated here. No one imagined that two and a half months in we would see a situation that if anything has deteriorated from those… that initial period. Is the legacy of this going to be there is a public perception that everyone acted slowly? Everyone acted… help was offered early, it was not taken. Much of this has been kept quite secretive...?
COLIN BARNETT
Look, I....
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Does the public deserve to be better informed?
COLIN BARNETT
I don’t know that it was slow. The rig that was needed to drill had to be one that could be absolutely stable in the water, you can’t have it bobbing around in the waves. And just if you think about it, to drill 2.6 kilometres beneath the ocean bed to intercept a hole which is the diameter of a bread and butter plate is an extraordinarily demanding task.
So if the rig on which the drill is located is moving around, even slight movements, you’re going to miss it. So they had to get a rig that could be stationed and locked on to the sea floor. And that took, you know, six or seven weeks to come from Singapore, so that delay was always going to be there. I guess the unforseen and now disaster is the explosion. What caused that, we need to know that at some stage.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Is it appropriate that you stand on the sidelines? Why isn’t perhaps your Energy Minister and you, why aren’t you in close contact with this company?
COLIN BARNETT
Oh, we are, no no as I say I haven’t spoken to them, they do keep my office informed every day with what is going on. There’s been daily conversations basically taking place. We’re also in close contact with the federal agency that’s got responsibility for this. But look it is not in our waters it is not off our coast, so most of our effort has been on ensuring we can protect the West Australian coast line if the oil comes towards us.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
This is [caller], good morning.
[CALLER]
Good morning Premier. My questions is, what do you think would happen if that happened off the Ningaloo coast? There’s enough rigs sitting out there that um, you know, this sort of thing is bound to happen.
COLIN BARNETT
[Caller], if this had happened at Ningaloo or indeed anywhere along our coast line, close in, or if the um tidal or wind conditions had brought the slick to our coast we would have had a major environmental disaster on our hands, no doubt about it.
[CALLER]
But I mean what are you looking at to make sure it doesn’t happen?
COLIN BARNETT
Well, out of any disaster like this, something will be learnt. The industry in Western Australia has an exceptionally good record. Probably the exception would be, only a year ago, the explosion on Varanus Island. That was onshore, didn’t threaten the marine environment directly, and I think it will make all of us have a rethink. For example, there’s been proposals recently to have floating LNG plants. Well, you know, I guess I sort of wonder, imagine what would happen if one of those went up. We’d have a major problem again.
So, there’s also a proposal to have a sub-sea pipeline of 800 kilometres from the Browse Basin, off our northern coast, to Darwin. I think you’ve got to question the safety of that too.
[CALLER]
But I mean, it’s well and good to question it, but what are your proposals to put in to guarantee it doesn’t happen?
COLIN BARNETT
Well [caller], I’ve got confidence in the inspectorial and a regulatory regime that apply in the Western Australian offshore petroleum industry. And that has been successful because we use both Commonwealth and State expertise.
This situation has been basically Commonwealth alone. Now I’m not pointing the finger at the Commonwealth, I just don’t think we had, maybe, the level of supervision in the waters off the Northern Territory that you do have in the waters off our coast over which we have a joint control.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
[Caller], thank you for your call.
On the subject of violence restraining orders, I had an interim VRO granted by Justice of Peace and it wasn’t served until seven days later. The guy lived at the end of the street. I feel more seriousness is needed with VROs.
[Caller], you want to talk about that subject. [greetings not transcribed]
[CALLER]
Perhaps...there’s obviously a correlation between the number of times that people break these and it’s historically, you can look back, at the violence levels.
Could we not actually make them more like a parole system where, set a level, at say if you break it five times, then basically there’s a sentence involved and if you break it more than you can actually...in other words make it a prison sentence so it’s actually not just enforceable, but has some direct impact on the person that’s breaking the orders?
COLIN BARNETT
[Caller], I think that’s a good suggestion and some similar thoughts were going through my mind when I was listening to the account of Doleen....Doreen Nielsen, I just got the name wrong.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
Danielle.
COLIN BARNETT
Danielle, oh sorry.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
Darlene, I mean.
COLIN BARNETT
Yeah, okay, unusual name, but tragic case. I think something along those lines certainly has got merit, and as I said to Geoff, a moment ago, Christian Porter is having a review, looking into the way in which they’d issued and administered and maybe what you’re suggesting is part of a solution.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
[Caller], thank you. We had a forum about Northbridge last Thursday, with Lisa Scaffidi, the Lord Mayor of Perth, Bradley Woods from the Hotels Association and [Caller] from the Nightclubs Association.
[Caller] has rung in with a question.
[greetings not transcribed]
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[CALLER]
In April the police commissioner released a report dealing with Northbridge and the alcohol associated problems in there. In that report he clearly identified that 80 per cent of the problems, alcohol related problems, in Northbridge are occurring before 3.00am. The police commissioner made some very clear recommendations to do with trading restrictions.
My question is why have you disregarded the police commissioner’s evidence and recommendations and now come out with a policy that only imposes trading restrictions on nightclubs and only after the peak time when any alcohol related incidents are occurring?
COLIN BARNETT
Well [caller], first can I say the police commissioner has been fully involved in what we came out with two weeks ago. Now we have imposed restrictions on nightclubs, some are complying. I suggest all of them will and should comply. We’re also looking at some restrictions on the special licence facilities.
There is no doubt excessive consumption of alcohol is a major cause of the antisocial, violence and injuries that take place in Northbridge. So those measures are being progressively put in place and we hope to have them all operational by the beginning of December.
[CALLER]
Yes, but Premier, 11.00pm to 3.00am was identified by the police commissioner, in his report, as the time two thirds of all alcohol related incidents are occurring. This also coincides with extended trading for hotels between 12 and two and, you know, the Police have been saying for a long time that the 2.00am closing for hotels in Northbridge is a big problem.
Again, this...the restrictions that you have recommended that we comply to voluntarily, are disregarding 80 per cent of the problems, because only 20 per cent of the alcohol related incidents are occurring after 3.00am. So any restrictions after that time can only address a very small amount, 20 per cent of the entire problem.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
Essentially [caller] is saying you’re punishing the nightclubs and the Hotels Association have got off easy.
COLIN BARNETT
No, and look, we’re putting restrictions on nightclubs, in terms of trading hours, and also lockouts, the same on special licence facilities and if we need to act on the hotels, we will.
[Caller], don’t fight this mate. Get onboard and play a constructive role in improving Northbridge.
[CALLER]
Mr Premier, I was the first licensee to stand up when lockouts... when a lockout trial was first mooted two years ago, and say, I’m willing to have these conditions voluntarily if everyone else co-operates.
When trading restrictions first came...were introd...were mentioned six months ago, again, I was the first licensee to stand up and say: I will voluntarily close my premises at 5.00am, as long as everyone comes back an hour. Everyone, every licensee in the area, if there is a problem, every licensee, just by the fact of selling alcohol, is contributing somewhat to the problem.
Your policy only targets a very small number of licensees and why are the hotels always the last cab off the rank?
COLIN BARNETT
Well, you’re implying some favoured treatment for hotels, that is not the case, and I’m also trying to balance the lifestyle of particularly young people. You know, I don’t want to be able to say to people, you can’t go out at night and enjoy yourselves, so we’re trying to get that right.
This is the first step in restricting hours. If it doesn’t work, or is insufficient, then we will take further restrictions which will extend across into the hours of the hotel trade.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
[Caller], thank you for your call.
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Eddie Withnell in the paper today saying that he’s five year nightclub ban is like a life sentence. Do you have any sympathy for Mr Withnell, who says he was targeted by the Liquor Commission?
COLIN BARNETT
No I don’t. Simple as that. I don’t. He has a colourful, chequered history and he’s been associated with a lot of mischief and misconduct in the area, so he’s been banned for five years. Good result.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
[Caller], good morning.
[greetings not transcribed]
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[CALLER]
My first question and I’ll be… I’ve been asked to be brief and I will be as brief as I can.
Mr Premier, as far as daylight saving’s concerned, I think it’s fair to say that you’re a proponent of it. Is that correct?
COLIN BARNETT
Look, personally I don’t like it, but I did vote for it, but look I think that issue’s gone, hasn’t it?
[CALLER]
Well, no I don’t think it has… it’s a secondary question I’ve got, but the thing is you are a… if you voted ‘yes’ for it you are a proponent of it, in a sense.
COLIN BARNETT
Well, yep.
[CALLER]
Is that a fair comment?
COLIN BARNETT
Well I voted ‘yes’… I got to say…. I voted ‘yes’ because I think a lot of the young families wanted it and I voted for them. Personally I don’t like it.
[CALLER]
Right. Well why didn’t you put in legislation that, you know, that had happened?
GEOFF HUTCHISON
[Caller], can we move past daylight saving?
[CALLER]
Well… well, Geoff, the question I have is, I have a second clanger here, obviously you’re not going to answer that, but a second question I’ve got is, we’re talking about late night shopping. I mean, is the reason why the Premier didn’t take on daylight saving was because there was a vote on...there was a substantial ‘no’ vote? And that being the case, there was a substantial ‘no’ vote for late night shopping. Do you understand where I’m coming from?
COLIN BARNETT
Yeah I do. Look, you won’t agree with me, I guess, but daylight saving is a lifestyle issue. It had been to referendum before. I… you know, and another referendum was held and I think it was a convincing result.
The so-called referendum on shopping hours, I think, was a farce. It was a confused question, it was manipulated, and in any case time has moved on. I’ve got no doubt that an overwhelming proportion of Perth residents, particularly people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, strongly want the right to go shopping and, [caller], if you don’t want to go shopping at night, don’t. Stay home.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
And, can…and…you confirm, today, that the shops will be open from January the 1st in North Perth, South Perth, West Perth, Mount Lawley, Subiaco, Vic Park, all those councillors, and all those councils, said: yes, we want to hop on board?
COLIN BARNETT
Well, Troy Buswell’s still talking to the councils. I’ve spoken to a couple of them, and they are in favour, but…you know, I’m not…that may not be ex..the exact boundary, but I hope that we would have an expanded central city tourism precinct, that’s what it’s called at the moment…
GEOFF HUTCHISON
Yep.
COLIN BARNETT
…and give more choice. But, Geoff, this is very much my second best option. I would much prefer the Labor Party to…to join the 21st Century, and support 9, or even 8 o’clock weeknight trading across all of Perth so it’s fair to every retailer and every consumer.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
If that doesn’t happen…so you…you achieve this through regulation and through the Councils will you then look at other areas, like…like Midland and Armadale and Joondalup, so is there…is there…I know Brendon Grylls calls it stealth, but there is a policy direction that you will…you can say to the people who live in those places, you know, we intend to extend your trading hours there soon?
COLIN BARNETT
Well, we…we gave a commitment four, five months ago to extend tourism precincts to Joondalup, so that’s about to happen. And since then, both Midland and Armadale have formally approached the Government wanting that status. That may not happen in this first round, but we’ll certainly look at that, and look at it favourably. And, Geoff, can I just say…and…it’s not stealth, this is exactly the same process that gave extended trading hours to 40 country towns.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
Is…has Alan Carpenter scheduled a meeting with you yet, on behalf of Wesfarmers?
COLIN BARNETT
No, he hasn’t, and I doubt that he’ll rush to do that. But, look, I wish Alan and his family well. You know, we were political rivals. If he ever needs to deal with me, we will simply deal with each other, I’m sure, on a…a professional basis.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
This is [caller].
[greetings not transcribed]
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[CALLER]
I’m an owner/driver, and I’m just ringing regarding the Owner/Driver Contracts and Disputes Act of 2007, which was passed back… around 2007. Part of it was enacted in August ’08, and the second part was supposed to be enacted in February ’09. I’ve…I agree, you know, that with the election and everything, that was delayed a bit, but it seems to have…nothing seems to be happening on the second part, which is most important, you know, for owner/drivers, on their…their safety and pay rates and, sort of, conditions and everything. I’m just wondering if you know anything about when the second, sort of, part of the legislation will be enacted?
COLIN BARNETT
[Caller], I can’t answer that off the top of my head, but if you can leave your contact details I will follow up, and let you know exactly where that’s at.
GEOFF HUTCHISON
[Caller], we’ll…we’ll pass those things on. Thank you very much.
[Caller], good morning.
[CALLER]
Ahm, good morning Geoff, good morning Mr Premier.
COLIN BARNETT
Hi [caller].
[CALLER]
Um... now I tuned in fairly late, so I’m not too sure what has been said about the late night trading issue. I realise that there are valid arguments to and for... to and against. My concern is that the major retailers, being Woolworths and Coles, will be the ones who will mostly benefit from that late night trading and they are the ones who promote increasingly their home brands at the cost of the many truly excellent small suppliers who are battling to keep going.
And I think this is really very regrettable. It’s well documented, it’s well recognised now that that’s the way it goes, because the shareholder has to be covered first of all.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
[Caller], thanks.
COLIN BARNETT
[Caller], you know, that’s an argument and a lot of people will argue that and there’s certainly some truth to it. But the competitors, the IGAs are not small businesses any more, it’s a large international group. Now I don’t think you help local products or choice by restricting trading hours and the evidence from the other states is that I don’t think you’ll see that sort of fear that you’ve got becoming reality.
And my concern is for the consumer. The retailers can battle it out among themselves but we really should be focusing on choice for Perth residents.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Premier, a couple of thing to get to before 9.30, how is it that the Education Department can justify big salary increases for senior executives at a time the lowest paid – the school gardeners and the cleaners – are being strangled over a pay claim? And how can it be that a gardener who decides he won’t rake a sand pit now has his pay stopped?
COLIN BARNETT
Well, first... the salaries pay, I guess, for senior executives in the Education Department is the result of a process. Having said that, I’ve got to say I’m somewhat irritated that the senior people are getting a big pay rise when we are calling and implementing low wage increases across the public service, including zero increase for Members of Parliament. So we’re trying to set an example in this case it’s contradicted.
With respect to cleaners/teacher assistants, I recognise they are lower paid than most workers in the public sector. If people refuse to do their jobs they won’t be paid.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
One aspect of their job that they refuse to do it as protest about their pay rates. Bad luck, you reckon?
COLIN BARNETT
Well it may sound harsh but I don’t think people can pick and choose what part of their job... they’ve got proper avenues through the union to make claims and we are negotiating, we’ve made an offer. That’s been rejected so I guess we go on negotiating. So, I don’t think that individual protest is a good idea and raking sandpits, that can be pretty important in schools, to actually rake and make sure the sand pit is safe.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
You’ve talked a lot about the faults of the previous Government, its reliance on spin and media. Troy Buswell wanted to slash millions and millions of dollars from that part of the propaganda machine. Last week Parliament said that you had 430 working in that area.
COLIN BARNETT
Yeah look, it’s wrong and look we’ve cut so far about $30 million off advertising, I’ve got half – I’ve got two press secretaries, Alan Carpenter had four..
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
But across the board...
COLIN BARNETT
No, no…
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
It’s like you talk tough on these things and then, then the result comes out and it’s exactly the same, or even greater.
COLIN BARNETT
Look I think it’s a case of apples and oranges here. A lot of what were counted in those figures were support staff, clerical, receptionists and all sorts of things. Having said that, having said that Geoff I concede the point and if I look at some of the major agencies such as you know, Police where there is a lot of news content, health and others, I am amazed to find out how many media personnel and public relations people they have employed.
So, we will cont… we’ve taken… if there’s any fat we’ve taken it out of the political side of government. That’s lean and mean. We’ve cut back on advertising – you don’t see, um, sort of taxpayer funded spin advertisements in The West Australian or on television. They have stopped and that saved $30 million.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Is that because you haven’t done much?
COLIN BARNETT
No because we’re not that sort of Government, Geoff, to be honest. We just don’t do that. I’m not running ads saying how wonderful we are. The people will decide whether we’re any good or not. And in the bureaucracy I think there are too many public relations units and we are gradually working our way through that.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
Our last caller today is [caller], hello [caller].
[CALLER]
G’day Geoff. How you going there Mr Premier?
COLIN BARNETT
G’day [caller].
[CALLER]
Colin and Geoff my point is there’s been a bit of stuff in the media about the violence in the northern suburbs of Perth. The kids, people are scared to use the trains and stuff. Um... I’ve got one daughter that’s at Murdoch Uni and another that wants to go in a year or two and I am very worried about the safety down there, just from these little hoodlums and I just want to know when something is going to be done about them.
And stop wasting money and chasing the bikies around and do something about some of the bloody youths of Perth.
COLIN BARNETT
There are some problems and there’s also some ethnically based gangs that you might or might not be referring to. Um...we are doing a lot. Stop and search powers for police will be important.
A thing called a prohibited behaviour order which for example could be used to ban them from public transport, plus yesterday we announced progress on substantial increases in extra security on the buses. So, people should be able to get on our public transport system on the busses and the trains and feel safe. And regrettably [caller] I agree with you, many people, particularly students, young women, elderly people do not feel safe on out public transport system.
GEOFF HUTCHINSON
[Caller], thank you for your call.
Premier, thank you for your time today and I hope Roman Emperor gets up.
COLIN BARNETT
So do I, Geoff. Thank you.
Ends…