Legislative Council Wednesday 10 April 2019

Ms FORREST - Mr President, I support the bill.  I want to make some comments on it and talk about some of my concerns about getting access to mental health care when people are requiring this level of treatment.

The Mental Health Bill, when it was introduced in Tasmania many years ago - I think it was 1996 - was deemed to be revolutionary in some respects.  It had a 12-month review clause in it because of that.  That 12-month review took 13 years.  This was when the Labor Party was in power.  I moved to establish a select committee to look at it.  That was vehemently opposed by the then minister for health, Lara Giddings.  But we pushed on, as we do in this House, and inquired into the provisions of the Mental Health Act, and undertook that long overdue review. 

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Legislative Council Thursday 21 March 2019

We have a Bill before us that seeks to achieve a number of changes, the intent of which I fully support. Tasmania does need to be compliant with Commonwealth Law, in this case, the Marriage Act 1961, so the so-called ‘no forced divorce’ provision contained within this Bill does need to proceed as soon as possible as we are already non-compliant since December 10th last year.

When the debate last year didn’t occur on the second reading, all Members of this place made speeches on the adjournment regarding this and I won’t revisit that matter at this time. I was, like I assume most other Members were, ready to debate the second reading of the Bill but we didn’t even get that far. 

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Legislative Council Thursday 1 November 2018

Ms FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President - 

On average at least one woman is killed every week at the hands of a current or former partner in Australia.  Last month the numbers were even more alarming.  Nine women were killed in October - seven allegedly in the context of a current or former intimate relationship, the other two also suspected to have died at the hands of male perpetrators.

What are we doing?  We are trying to do some more here.  That was a quote from today's edition of The Conversation.  It goes on -

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Legislative Council Wednesday 31 October 2018

Ms  FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, I will take a word out of the Government's playbook when it comes to amendments in this place.  I will not be opposing this legislation.  As we mentioned in the briefing, it remains a concern when governments interfere in energy pricing.  I understand the volatility in the wholesale energy price, particularly the Victorian wholesale energy price, and some of the factors behind that.  This response from the Government is to give effect to a policy to keep energy prices low for Tasmanians.  That is a really good thing because many Tasmanians are struggling to pay their energy bills. 

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Legislative Council Wednesday 31 October 2018

Ms  FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, I was not planning to say much on this bill but the member for Hobart was so encouraging I thought I would.

I support the bill.  I supported the process being dealt with and the first facilitation of this process to allow the councils, the owners of TasWater, to make a decision about whether they would accept this proposal.

As I said by interjection a moment ago, we could have saved 18 months of pain and uncertainty and frustration for many people had the Government considered this option earlier when it was proposed to them.

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Legislative Council Thursday 27 September 2018

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I agree with the member for Elwick and other members who said this is a good piece of legislation.  I commend the Government on bringing it forward.

Some of the amendments are necessary to deal with the changes the NDIS has brought, which is fine.  I understand other legislation will come forward dealing with similar aspects related to the NDIS.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 26 September 2018

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, when we deal with legislation taking away some personal liberties, it is important we fully consider it fully and in doing so not only weigh up the potential benefits to the broader community, but the rights, privileges and protections individuals should be able to expect and access in our society.

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Legislative Council - Thursday 20 September 2018

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, this is an important step forward in many respects because a number of healthcare providers are not subject to this review process.  A few years ago when we debated the national health practitioner regulation process and adopted the national law, a number of professions, such as medical practitioners, nurses and physiotherapists, were initially put into that lot.  Another cohort was then added to that regime. 

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Legislative Council - Wednesday 19 September 2018

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I will be supporting the legislation because it gives certainty about the use of the information that can be recorded.

I was trying to remember during the briefing whether it was two years ago when Mr Hidding was minister for police and emergency services.  He brought along one of these cameras to our budget Estimates committee meeting.  It was similar to the one that has been decided upon - it was bigger and heavier but had the same sort of design. 

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Legislative Council - Wednesday 19 September 2018

Ms  FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, I am pleased we are moving down this path.  Every time I think about the whole situation I become very tense and upset, because of the blatant disregard of our children in the past.  It is still happening around the world and, unfortunately, around our country.

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Legislative Council - Thursday 30 August 2018

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) – Mr President, I support the bill.  It is important and timely to look at the actual framework that governs justices of the peace.  The member of Mersey talked about the issue of updating the website and I would be interested to hear what the Leader has to say.

I wanted to focus a bit on the second reading speech, which says – 

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Legislative Council - Thursday 30 August 2018

Ms FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, all of us are aware of the real concern about and risk of terrorism in this country.  Thankfully, we have not been subject to some of the pretty abhorrent acts of terrorism seen in some other countries but when you travel to those places you are very well aware.  Even in our major cities we see big bollards being put up and other measures being taken to try to prevent it.  If you are trying to go to an AFL match these days in Melbourne you have to have your bag searched and you have to go through the metal detector. 

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Legislative Council - Wednesday 29 August 2018

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, this bill has generated much interest and many emails.  I cannot recall getting any more than one or two at most in support of the bill.  In saying that, it is clear that some people who have contacted us, predominantly by email, do not fully understand the extent and nature of the bill presented to us.

I have taken the time to communicate with people who have contacted me to try to point out where that has been the case.  In the last couple of days I have not been able to get to all those people.  There have been too many.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 22 August, 2018

Ms  FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, overall this bill is a sensible way forward.  There are a few areas I would like to drill down into, but we hope that governments of any colour can focus on long-term infrastructure planning.  The Minister for Infrastructure seems to have taken up a suggestion I made last year - which the Government then voted against - to look at a long-term infrastructure plan.  Anyway, we seem to be working on that now.  I commend the Minister for Infrastructure for doing that.  I have said that publicly and I have said that to him personally.  To me, this fits into that sort of framework - we want our public transport to be as efficient, effective and future-thinking as it can be.

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Legislative Council Thursday 12 July, 2018

Ms  FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, I commend the Government for taking this action. It is an effective and clever solution to draft the bill by putting the Home Act into it and making it a less cumbersome bill. All power to the people in the planning department and the policy unit who worked on this legislation.

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Legislative Council Thursday 21 June, 2018

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, it hardly needs to be said that the time given to scrutinise this bill is completely unsatisfactory.  I know some people believe we should just tick off everything the Government states it has a mandate for, but I am not one of them.  To suggest that because this was a pre-election promise - or predominantly pre-election promises - it should be simply accepted and passed without full and proper scrutiny denies the role and importance of this House.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 13 June

Ms  FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, supply bills are not unusual in an election year to tide over the actions of government.  Nurses, police, teachers and treasury officials want to be paid in the intervening period between the end of the financial year and the new budget.  The appropriation associated with that is approved by the parliament.  It was to be expected. 

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Legislative Council Wednesday 13 June 2018

Ms FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, we generally see a supplementary appropriation bill each year around this time, in some years for a single purchase such as the purchase of the Tamar Valley Power Station.  This is quite comprehensive.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 23 May 2018

Ms FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, provision of accessible quality healthcare is a fundamental responsibility of the state government.  It is always a challenging area because demand will always outstrip capacity.  That becomes evident at some peak demand times, such as during the winter in Tasmania, when medical admissions to our acute health services increase significantly.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 29 November 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, I am happy to support this bill.  I have some questions, but I do not know that the Leader will have some responses to them at a later time.  I also wish to declare my interest in the arts.  We all have an interest in the arts.  I am on two arts-based boards, one being Junction, the other being Unconformity.  I am missing a board meeting this evening as we speak.  That is the nature of the beast here.

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