Incumbent Liberal Member for Murray-Wellington Murray Cowper has laid out his election policies ahead of the March state election, focusing on his aims to create an Independent Fire Service for regional Western Australia.
Other key election policies include an upgrade of Pinjarra Hospital to include emergency, maternity, aged care and possibly oncology services, the advancement of the Nambeelup Industrial Development and a “complete review” of state planning law in relaiton to farmer’s land access rights.
Mr Cowper said he was one of very few candidates in the forthcoming March State election with a unique personal allegiance to his constituents.
“I will certainly not be backing the unions in their quest to maintain a destructive hold on rural fire services in WA, nor am I likely to lessen my support for a range of issues right through to keeping Logue Brook dam and other amenities open for public use.”
Mr Cowper, an outspoken member of the Liberal Party of WA, said he believed the government should have shown more decisive leadership in implementing the country fire management structure recommended in the Ferguson Report, but he agreed a decision will be worth the wait if the required levels of rural autonomy and financial independence are achieved.
Mr Cowper said WA’s planning industry was another of his major concerns, with the rights of farmers to protect their land rights a high priority.
“Former labor premier Brian Burke claimed the WA Planning Commission (WAPC) would give him total management control of the State when he set it up in 1986. He was correct,” Mr Cowper said.
“[The] WAPC now pervades every level of State decision-making, right through to basic levels of local government.
“The Liberal party condemns serious downsides of the process but as Brian Burke also predicted, his opposition has been unable, or unprepared, to bring the system under control.”
Mr Cowper said the future direction of ALCOA would be one of the biggest single issues for the Murray Wellington electorate and for the State over the next decade.
“The long-standing State/ALCOA mining agreement is based on the local refining of bauxite ore,” he said.
“If the company intends to shift its emphasis from refining to exporting ore, there will be massive impacts not only on local employment but on State royalties, revegetation arrangements and the refinery buffer zones that currently take up huge tracts of valuable farmland around Waroona and Pinjarra.
“An ‘environmental pall’ over the future of Yarloop would also be considerably reduced if adverse impacts from the nearby Wagerup refinery were to be reduced,” he said.
Mr Cowper also listed health issues in the region as a major concern, particularly for workers in emergency services.
He said Pinjarra had lost its emergency ward and been re-badged as a centre for palliative care, when the Health Department decided to refocus on Rockingham.
“But we have major aged care facilities like Belswan and Benningfield rapidly growing in a local community that is now dependent on health services at Mandurah, Rockingham and Bunbury,” Mr Cowper said.
“As Harvey has shown, a relatively small budget to upgrade the existing hospital can make an enormous positive difference to local people.”