CLEO
SMITH — CARNARVON COMMUNITY
709. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. Will the Premier consider
resourcing the town of Carnarvon to help with any counselling services that the community may need to rebuild, and to
ensure that the united community of Carnarvon continues to be united in a way to promote to the rest of Western Australia
to come and visit Carnarvon into the future?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
The main thing here—I
made this offer in person to Cleo's family—is that we want to
support the family with what they might need. That is the main group of
people whom I think we need to focus on. The family themselves—I met
them after meeting the police officers—were very grateful for all the
work that had been done for them. I sat in
the backyard and we discussed other opportunities that might be available to
them. The government will obviously provide that support to that family.
As I outlined earlier, we are enhancing tourism infrastructure in Carnarvon. We
are enhancing social and educational infrastructure, and, more broadly in the
region, we are making important improvements to tourism infrastructure, which
will obviously attract people to the region. Naturally, people will visit
Carnarvon as part of that.
I just want to say to the member and to everyone else that I think
Western Australians are pretty fair. We are pretty fair people. People in this
state do not blame a town because something happened in that town. I do not
think people will say, ''I'm not going to visit Carnarvon now.''
I do not really think that that would be a pervasive attitude in Western Australia
amongst anyone, tourists or otherwise. Carnarvon is a great town; it will
continue to be a great town, and we are putting a lot of support into it.