Legislative Council Wednesday 15 November 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, I note the member for Elwick's contribution.  As the local member for the area, his opinion is well informed and obviously driven by party position as well.

Mr Farrell - Two-thirds of the local area.

Ms FORREST - Sorry, member for Derwent.  Maybe he will speak as well on the third he is responsible for.  Some of us have five councils in our areas.

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Legislative Council Thursday 28 September 2017

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I support this bill.  I notice a proposed amendment has been put forward by the member for Hobart, which we will get to later.

The Acting Leader's second reading speech was very comprehensive and certainly covered all the key aspects of the bill.  It is, in many respects, modernising what is quite old legislation.  It is important that occurs on a regular basis - probably slightly more regularly than it has, one could argue.

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Legislative Council Tuesday 26 September 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, as members would know finfish farming is an important part of my electorate and has been for a very long time.  Macquarie Harbour has been a matter raised with me a number of times over the last 12 and a half years, since my election and being in this place.  What made me really stand up and take notice was when we started hearing from some of the old timers on the west coast.  I call them 'old timers' because they have lived there all their lives.  They were starting to express grave concern about the health of the harbour. 

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Legislative Council Wednesday 20 September 2017

Resumed from 16 August 2017 

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, I support this bill.  I do so for many reasons.  Before I go into those, I would like to quote an article from the ABC that reflects my reasons for support and acknowledges the work done by our Leader, the honourable Vanessa Goodwin.  I wish to thank her for her dedication to righting, as much as we can, some terrible wrongs done at a time before many of us were in this place.  Many of those wrongs resulted from the delay in decriminalising homosexuality in Tasmania, a move blocked by the Legislative Council, this place, a number of times.  I will come to that shortly.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 23rd August

Resumed from 22 August 2017 

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr Deputy President, I will be supporting this legislation, but I want to reflect on the process that sees us here.  It is important at the outset not to revisit the debate we had a year ago, but to discuss the key reasons we are here. 

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Legislative Council Wednesday 16 August 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Thank you, Madam Acting President.

I will not go over all the matters the member for Rumney raised, particularly her comments regarding the difficulty in understanding what is the best way forward with this bill.

I consulted some time ago with people who are actively engaged in this area in terms of dealing with workers' rehabilitation and compensation claims.  In my view, it is about keeping lawyers out of it as much as we can because that is where the costs and all the - sometimes - challenges lie. 

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT AMENDMENT (RATES) BILL 2017 (No. 7)

Legislative Council Wednesday 31 May 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, I intend to make a brief contribution and then seek to adjourn the debate.  We have received a lot of information at the last minute, which concerns me and other members in this place, particularly given the implications of the legislation's retrospectivity and the exemption for marine farming.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 24th May 

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, I support the adjournment for a further briefing.  The issue is - and I respond to the honourable member for Apsley's comments - that normally there is consultation on a bill and we get feedback on it.  When this bill was tabled, I did not get much chance during the election period to have a look at all the legislation coming up.  I might not have needed to and it could have saved me a lot of work.

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Legislative Council Tuesday 23 May 2017

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I welcome back the honourable member for Launceston on her election.  It is nice for us both to be returned.  I appreciate the ongoing contribution she will make.  Also, the new member for Rumney - I am sure she will find her feet very quickly.  She has a couple of colleagues here to see her on the right path.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 24 May 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, it will come as no surprise to anybody that I am not going to support this bill.  I have been consistent since this bill was tabled.  As soon as it was tabled in the other place, I made it my business to contact the key employers in my electorate involved in the forest industry.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 12 April 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, I do not support that amendment.  I hope to make a contribution on the bill as other members may wish to.  The contribution of the member for Huon related to section 17 and his view that it goes too far and needs amendment.  That is not part of this bill.  Go back to the second reading speech that the Acting Leader delivered in this place a couple of weeks ago to grant religious exemption.  It is not about amending section 17.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 5 April 2017 

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr Deputy President, I also support the legislation.  It would be good to see a lot of these vehicles off the road, or at least have their slogans removed.  It is quite okay for them to still be on the road if they remain registered.  To remain registered, they will have to remove the slogans.  It is pretty simple.  It might take a few weeks, a couple of months perhaps, to get to that point, but it is appropriate.

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Legislative Council Thursday 13 April 2017

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, once again in this place, I commend the Government for its leadership in our relationship with Aboriginal people.  It has taken far too long.  I commend the Government for actually getting on with that, although I acknowledge, as we were told in the briefing, that more work needs to be done.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 21 June 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - I will refer to a range of information here.  I think it is important to explore this very serious topic quite broadly.  As the member for Rumney pointed out, this is a serious issue and a really important matter.  I do not think anyone in our community - and certainly not in our Parliament - would not do whatever they can to assist keeping children safe.

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Legislative Council Wednesday 15 March 2017

Ms  FORREST (Murchison ) - Mr President, I feel we are between a rock and a hard place.  I do not support mandatory sentencing.  When we had the bill regarding the police, offences against police officers of a similar nature to what we are dealing with now, I supported the amendments put forward by the member for Launceston.  It removed the mandatory sentencing component, and that was on the advice of the Law Society and a range of other people who hold very strong views on this.  The member for Hobart read their communications and I am not going to go back over that.

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Legislative Council Thursday 16 March 2017

Ms  FORREST  ( Murchison ) - Mr President, I am not opposed to spending TT-Line funds on TT-Line business.  I ask, is this bill the only way to do it?  Some of the questions the member for Apsley and others asked may be answered in some respect.  This proposal was put forward in the 2016-17 Budget, as the Leader said in her speech.  When I did my budget reply I made it very clear that my support for the budget did not guarantee my support for everything that flowed from it.  There were a number of reasons I gave at the time, and I will not go back over those now.  I want to focus on this bill before us.

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Legislative Council Tuesday 14 March 2017

12.52 p.m.]

Ms  FORREST  (Murchison) - Mr President, I have a number of concerns about the process as much as the bill itself.  Unfortunately I was out of the Chamber when members sought suspension of Standing Orders to enable this bill to be debated today and I would have spoken against that.  We received this bill and bill package on Friday and there has been a long weekend, which means it is very difficult to consult with people in the meantime. 

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Legislative Council Thursday 10 November 2016

GAMING CONTROL AMENDMENT (COMMUNITY INTEREST) BILL 2016 (No. 65)

[12.40 p.m.]  Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I will make a brief contribution and I will speak further in the Committee stage.  

To give members the heads up, the amendment has to be redrafted slightly to properly reflect my request to have retrospective nature removed from this bill.

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Legislative Council Tuesday 18 October 2016

EDUCATION BILL 2016 (No. 55)    Second Reading

[5.28 p.m.]

Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, the education of our children is the most important thing we can, and must, do for the future of our society, our families and our state.  In my mind, there is nothing more important than education.

Education has the power to liberate individuals in a way that nothing else can.  You only have to observe what has occurred with women and girls throughout history.  They were denied access to education, and access to education has changed their lives.  The results are astounding, and the positive impacts on society are real and measurable.

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Ms FORREST (Murchison) - Mr President, I support the bill.  I do not consider it contentious legislation.  It is quite appropriate legislation.  It is putting the decision back in the hands of the court, more so than the current law, which only allows petitions for mercy from the Attorney-General and ultimately the Governor on advice of the Premier.

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