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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-06-03 Daily Xml
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT (WASTE COLLECTION) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 13 May 2009. Page 2297.)

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH (17:04): I can understand the intent behind this bill. The idea of fortnight-old nappies is not a very appealing one, but I do not think it is necessary. We do have public health regulations that control this sort of thing and there is a question about whether in fact they have been applied. There are also very clear political controls. Local councils have their own voting base and they can react politically; in fact, they already have on this matter. Local government is a separate level of government and we should not micromanage it just because we can. I think that is unnecessary and heavy-handed.

The other thing to keep in mind is that, although we often treat it as the object of criticism (and I am critical of local government at different times), it has also been a source of great policy innovation over the years. The best local councils were light years ahead of state and federal governments in their approach to matters of greenhouse gas reductions and so forth. The best local councils also held onto ideas of community capacity building when state governments had lost interest in them for a long time.

We should avoid trying to crush every initiative. As I said, there are controls; we have public health regulations, and we have political controls. I think that, rather than micromanaging local government, we should leave it at that and let those existing regulations and those existing political sanctions control such matters.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. R.P. Wortley.

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