WORKER ACCOMMODATION —
REGIONS
966. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Minister for Tourism:
He will get the chance, because I am
seeking clarification as part of my supplementary question. Just so I am
absolutely clear, can the minister confirm that all he has done is hold a series
of talkfests and blamed the federal government for worker shortages? In effect,
he has done nothing.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Members!
Mr P.
PAPALIA replied:
Member,
honestly, as I said, I have spoken personally to hundreds of small businesses
across regional Western Australia. The
last meeting to which the member refers was in Albany with I think some 20 or
so local businesses. Sitting across the table from me was a farmstay operator.
What he said to me was exactly what the member said—that our biggest challenge
is getting people to work. But do members know what he said to me after that?
His very next sentence was ''I'd rather have this problem than
the problem they're having elsewhere in the world.'' That is the
truth.