Shelley Payne ends term as WA Labor MLC
My time as a member of the Legislative Council came to an end on May 21.
It's been an honour to serve you as a member for the Agricultural Region during the last four years.
It's been a busy job, but one I've thoroughly enjoyed.
It was with great pride that I was able to establish the first WA Labor electorate office in Esperance in more than 30 years when former Premier Mark McGowan officially opened my office in 2021.
I'm grateful to have met so many wonderful and hardworking people across our electorate during this time, listening to your concerns, and advocating for the needs of the many communities across the region.
I am thankful to the many volunteers I've met that keep our communities safe and keep all our community groups running.
Without you all, our communities wouldn't be what they are.
As one of the few women to have had the pleasure of representing this region, it has been an absolute privilege to advocate for women, seniors, our First Nations people and those doing it tough.
Our grant funding has supported many local sports clubs including new night lights at Esperance and Ports football clubs, Beach Volleyball Club and Esperance Kart Club.
I'm excited to see there is new funding on the way for artificial turf at the hockey club.
Our State-run Lotterywest has been a great help with funding for infrastructure upgrades at Esperance Goldfields Surf Lifesaving Club, funding to help Esperance Civic Centre bring more shows to town, and funding to help Esperance Care Services, Esperance Crisis Accommodation, Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, Esperance Mechanical Restoration Group and many more.
We've seen some wonderful new bike paths constructed across town, in partnership with the Shire of Esperance, thanks to the WA Bicycle Network Grants Program.
Other local infrastructure projects that I was happy to see completed were the new Tafe building and the new jetty at Bandy Creek.
I'm looking forward to the completion of the new Taylor Street jetty.
It's been great to see the benefits of our Regional Economic Development grants awarded to local businesses to help with our booming tourism industry, such as Lucky Bay Brewery, Esperance Distillery and Bread Local.
We've also helped local businesses such as Esperance Smash Repairs, Bedford Harbour Engineering, and Drake-Brockman Building and Construction.
Our animal welfare grants have helped Lori-Ann and Colin to set up the new Esperance Wildlife Hospital, and Lynn at Roo Haven.
It has been fantastic to see the implementation our nation-leading Plan for Plastics aimed at removing single-use plastics.
We've also seen the implementation of our Containers for Change program which has saved more than three billion containers from landfill, with more than $12 million donated to schools, charities and community groups.
I've done lots of driving across Esperance, the Great Southern and the Wheatbelt during the past four years, and had many trips to Perth for parliamentary sittings.
Being on the road a lot, I am so thankful we've been able to invest more than $1 billion into regional road safety upgrades, with more than 10,000km completed already.
This investment has been crucial to making our regional roads safer.
We've seen the installation of four new electric vehicle chargers in town thanks to our State Government-run entity Horizon Power, and the completion of our EV Network, Australia's longest EV network.
I've been delighted to see local residents experience the benefits of the introduction of the Regional Airfares Cap helping to connect those in the regions to Perth.
We've also delivered a new Esperance bus service and reduced the prices of TransWA bus fares.
Please use the local bus service so we can keep it operating. It is free for seniors with a seniors card.
Attending medical appointments in the city is costly and it has been so good to see more Patient Assisted Travel Scheme funding, with increases to the overnight accommodation rate and per kilometre travel rebate.
We've helped out seniors with the $400 Seniors' Safety and Security Rebate and we've announced our second increase to the Regional Pensioner Travel card — to $775 on July 1.
I was pleased to be able to distribute an Esperance Seniors Directory to every senior in Esperance.
We've delivered $2100 in electricity rebates to every household. I know this has made a big difference to help with the cost of living.
We all know how expensive it is to keep up with school expenses, so I'm happy to see that we are delivering the second round of the Student Assistance Payment, giving another $150 to every kindy or pre-primary school student and $250 to primary and secondary school students.
Along with the Country Week Assistance payment of $500 for Esperance students, this extra funding should really help.
I look forward to the work that will soon get under way for planning of the new Esperance Senior High School.
Further supporting those in need, we've delivered the rent relief program, slashed stamp duty for first-homebuyers, and expanded the school breakfast program to five days a week, in partnership with Foodbank.
We've also invested significantly in support for mental health and domestic violence prevention.
Our Government has achieved a lot this past term, making the biggest investment into regional WA than any other government in history.
We've achieved a lot in Parliament, too, passing more than 140 pieces of legislation during the term, including making important legislative changes to modernise our abortion laws.
With WA Labor elected for a third term, we are able to continue some of our great work supporting communities across WA.
Particularly, I am pleased we can continue our investment into regional road safety upgrades, and continue the regional airfares cap, helping to connect regional people to the city.
I wish everyone and their families all the best and look forward to seeing you around town.
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