Page 3744 - Week 12 - Thursday, 25 November 2021

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cause here, in that people in our community probably have something to be concerned about when it comes to mowing in the suburbs.

Apart from a little bit of light-hearted banter here, it is a very serious issue, as Mr Milligan pointed out, when it comes to people suffering from hay fever, snakes not being visible in the grass, visibility on our roads and, importantly, the ability to use our recreational space and be proud of our suburbs.

We will not be supporting the amendment. It is very important that, as the situation varies, we do surge when required. Being militantly opposed to any people working in other than full-time jobs, when you have something like mowing, which is seasonal, is a bit like saying that fruit picking or any other job must always be done by full-time employees.

It is a good intent to have as many full-time jobs as possible, but there are circumstances where casualised, part-time, seasonal employment is absolutely the right way to go. The Greens’ position seems to be that, because they are so militantly opposed to anybody having a casual, part-time or seasonal job, they will let the grass grow because they do not want to have anyone that is other than a full-time mower of the grass. That is crazy. It probably explains a lot. If that is the mindset that we see from those opposite, it explains why we have such a problem not just with mowing but with so many areas of basic government services.

Mr Steel’s amendment waters down what Ms Lawder has put before us. It takes away the very important elements of providing more resources, and waters down the call to investigate the program so that residents are not concerned about overgrown grass in the neighbourhood each year.

We fundamentally believe that residents are concerned, and they want to know how it can be improved. This government seems not to support that. That is disappointing. We will not be supporting the amendment. I commend Ms Lawder’s motion to this Assembly.

Question put:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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