G’day folks,
It has been a very busy fortnight in Parliament.
Over the last two weeks I have made some significant contributions in the Assembly chamber, including presenting a petition on the firearms laws and taking part in the subsequent debate, as well as introducing a bill to lower costs of running a heavy vehicle in the country, and seeing one on protecting police memorials pass in the lower house.
Over April, while parliament is not sitting, I will be doing quite a bit of travel, mainly around Barwon.
I hope to see you on the road somewhere.
Fuel Supplies
One of the major issues over the last few weeks has been the threat to fuel supplies due to the war with Iran. Within two weeks of the outbreak of war there were already signs of the impact, particularly in the bush.
We heard stories of prices rising over $3 a litre and shortages of fuel, especially diesel, in many regional areas.
The problem is felt more acutely in the country, because unlike in the cities where people don’t have far to go to shop around for cheaper fuel, or to find another station where it is readily available, or to take public transport, those are not options in rural and remote areas.
This becomes a bigger problem when you consider that agriculture, and other regionally based industries, rely on diesel for planting, harvesting, operating mine trucks, and transporting produce and livestock.
There is already a noticeable impact on another industry that sustains many country towns and that is tourism. People from the cities have cancelled accommodation out west fearing they might not have enough fuel to get back home. But the NSW FuelCheck app can tell you about fuel availability and help you plan your trip.
During the March sitting weeks, I delivered a Private Members Statement talking about the seriousness of the problem, warning that if the country grinds to a halt it will affect food supplies to the cities.
In my statement, I also mentioned how I had investors who were ready to go with a fuel reserve scheme that would have created major storage centres in regional areas, guaranteeing 50 days’ supply of fuel. The federal and state governments both rejected the plan.
I also moved a Notice of Motion, urging the government to acknowledge the importance of ensuring regional communities have fuel security, asking them to penalise people who are price gouging through supporting taxes that would remove incentive to do so and to work on ways to ensure better fuel security in regional areas.
Something needs to be done, not just now for the motorists and industries that are suffering.
To see the video of the Notice of Motion or the Private Members Statement go to https://www.roybutler.com.au/video_clips
The text of the Notice of Motion is available at https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/papers/pages/notice-tracking-details.aspx?pk=21325
And the Private Members Statement https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Hansard/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-1323879322-162465/link/2239
Firearms Petition Debate
In the March sitting weeks, I presented to parliament a petition I sponsored asking for “proportionate, evidence-based and consultative firearms policies”.
Around 100,000 people put their name to the petition, it was the fastest that an online e-petition has ever reached the required number of 20,000 signatures to trigger a debate.
The response to the petition shows the depth of anger about the changes to firearms laws, which were hastily passed by the government last year in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack.
In the debate I talked about how the changes to firearms laws do not make the public any safer and would not have prevented the shootings in Bondi, had they existed before then. They were rushed through because the government needed to look like it was doing something tough and decisive after the shooting.
Up to then we already had some of the toughest firearms laws in the world, these new laws only punish people who have been diligently obeying those laws.
There was a lack of consultation in the creation of these laws and it is already showing in a number of unintended consequences, applications for licences have soared and the registry is bogged down in processing the applications.
The debate was telling in that that the government was unable to refute any of the arguments put forward by myself and my parliamentary colleagues, including Phil Donato, Dr Joe McGirr, Anthony Roberts, Steph Cooke, Judy Hannan and Wendy Tuckerman.
Driven by the public, petitions are a way of getting an issue debated in parliament. They work best when members are already in discussion with the government to address the issue raised by the petition. A government can choose not to act on a petition, but it is unwise for a government to ignore the will of the people (see the civics lesson on petitions in this newsletter).
You can watch the full debate on my website https://www.roybutler.com.au/
Biodiversity Offsets and Water Infrastructure
There seems to be a serious inequity in the way infrastructure is delivered in New South Wales. While we see the government foot the bill for the blowout in the costs of the recently opened new Sydney Fish Market, they seem to baulk at spending a fraction of that cost on essential things like water infrastructure in regional areas.
I recently gave a Private Members Statement talking about how several vital projects, ensuring water supplies to bush communities, have become bogged down by red tape and green rules, caught in a cycle of endless reviews, consultation sessions and calls for business cases.
The projects include the Wilcannia Weir, Burrendong Dam’s flood mitigation zone, the Dubbo to Nyngan Pipeline and the Gin Gin Weir.
There are layers of difficulty slowing down these projects, but one common thread seems to be the extra layer of difficulty and cost burden placed on them by biodiversity offsets.
The biodiversity offset scheme, introduced by the Liberal-National Government in 2016, places onus on developers to offset the environmental impact of their project. This often adds millions to the cost of a project, leading to delays, or cutbacks, and in several cases, it has led to projects being scrapped altogether.
Part of the problem is that it is never clear exactly how much the offsets are going to cost, there is no transparency on them, the agencies seem to be reluctant to share the information, with the result that a project gets halted or paused and we are left none the wiser.
The Wilcannia Weir is currently paused, awaiting a business case to secure federal funding of around $60 million, on top of the $70 million that will be provided by the state government. It is a project that has been dogged for decades by delays, the estimated cost of biodiversity offsets is around $20 million, but could be much more if it continues to be delayed for longer.
The bush seems to bear an inequitable amount of the burden for environmental compliance, having vital infrastructure hampered by biodiversity offsets, while we see many hugely costly city projects being completed despite cost blowouts.
I will continue to push for the Wilcannia Weir to be built, but more needs to be done to redress the country/city divide when it comes to delivering essential projects.
Civics – Petitions and Petition Debates
At times, it seems like there is very little a person can do to make their voice heard directly among members of Parliament to make change, outside of voting in an election.
Apart from writing an email or letter to your local member, another effective way of conveying your concerns is through a petition.
Because a petition contains signatures of thousands of citizens who show their support for the issue addressed by the petitioner, it is a more effective way of telling a government that the issue affects more than just one person.
There are certain rules that must be adhered to for a petition to be presented to NSW Parliament. The petition must not refer to any debate happening in parliament, it must be addressed to “the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly”, clearly set out what it is presenting to the parliament and contain some sort of request for specific action that the parliament can take. The language needs to be “respectful, decorous and temperate” or else it will not even be considered.
The petition also needs to be signed by a Member of Parliament who becomes its sponsor and who will then present it in Parliament.
A paper petition has to get 10,000 signatures before it can be presented to Parliament and debated, an online or “ePetition” must get at least 20,000.
Once it has the required number of signatures, it will then be formally presented to Parliament on any day after Question Time, when it will be announced by the clerk. Debate on the petition will then take place in the next sitting week (on Thursday at 4pm in the NSW Parliament).
As I have said the government is not legally obliged to act on whatever the petition asks, but it can be politically dangerous to ignore a petition. The publicity surrounding petitions, and the debate in parliament, are normally widely reported in the media and help immensely to raise the profile of an issue.
Petitions work best when the member presenting it, or other members aware of the petition, are already in discussion with the government about the issue.
Facts:
Petitions go back to ancient times. Egyptian workers building the tombs of the Pharaohs at Deir el-Medina petitioned a vizier of the Pharaoh Rameses III for better working conditions. The petition was successful.
One of the most famous petitions in history was the 260-metre-long petition presented by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union to Victoria’s Parliament in 1891 for women’s suffrage. It contained the signatures of 30,000 women demanding the right to vote. It had an impact, but it still took another seventeen years before women were given the vote in Victoria.
Got something on your mind? Go on then, engage. Submit your opinion piece, letter to the editor, or Quick Word now.