DRIVING ACCESS AND EQUITY PROGRAM — REGIONS
570. Ms A.E. KENT to the Minister for Transport:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's efforts to support disadvantaged Western Australians who
are living in regional parts of the state to obtain their driver's
licence.
Can the minister please update the
house on the driving access and equity program and outline how it is helping
people facing disadvantage in regional WA to overcome the barriers that are
preventing them from gaining their licence?
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
I thank the member for Kalgoorlie
for that question.
This is a very, very good program being
delivered currently in regional WA. Last year as part of understanding how we
need to try to get more employment and more training opportunities in Western Australia,
we identified the need for more people in remote and regional WA to get their
driver's licence. We know that access to vehicles is hard and access to
instructors is very difficult. There are simply not the support structures to
enable people to get their required hours of training and access to vehicles,
and that is why we embarked on the driving access and equity program. We have
already allocated $3.5 million to 12 organisations across the Kimberley and the
Pilbara. We have made 21 vehicles available to 12 projects. We have doubled the
number of remote officers undertaking the assessments through the Kimberley,
Pilbara and midwest. As a result, there has been an 80 per cent increase in the
number of instructors in the Kimberley and Pilbara, with 34 having completed
their certificate IV training. More instructors mean that more people can access
their driver's licence. Over the past two weeks, an additional 10
people have received their driver's licence. In fact, in the Kimberley,
86 driver's licences were issued between January and June this year, a 40
per cent increase from the same time last year. In addition, 108 learner's
permits have been issued, which is a 26 per cent increase. This is an
incredible program that is delivering and we want to continue to expand the program. We are already seeing success in the
Kimberley and the Pilbara and we are expanding it through the Gascoyne
and the midwest. We have also funded and soon take in consultation through
Kalgoorlie and the goldfields.
This is about practical initiatives
supporting regional WA. We know that WA Labor delivers for regional WA. We have
never played this regional country divide card like the Nationals WA. Every day
we hear members opposite try to create a division between metropolitan and
regional WA, but now we know that their policy has shifted. Now they are going
after densely populated areas; they are developing policies to target densely
populated areas. I think people in densely populated areas would understand
that members opposite would be a threat to people in the suburbs of WA. They
have spent their entire existence saying that people in the suburbs deserve
nothing, but now they are trying to attract them to try to save some votes at
the next election. In WA, there is one party that delivers for all Western Australians,
and that is the Labor Party. Regional or metropolitan areas, densely populated
areas or not densely populated areas, we deliver for everybody, and we will
continue to do so through proven programs like this.