Broken Promises and Dishonesty

Somehow missing from media coverage (at least, any that I saw) was Tuesday's debate on a "Matter of Public Interest" in which Mark McGowan moved:
"That this house condemns the Premier for his numerous broken promises and dishonesty in misleading the people of Western Australia before the election in relation to the issue of forced council amalgamations." 

Tedious though parliamentary debates often are, this one is well worth reading (http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Hansard/hansard.nsf/0/c20cc26db0fd91fa48257bbf0069d275/$FILE/A39%20S1%2020130806%20p15e-27a.pdf) as it highlights the extent to which the Premier engages in linguistic gymnastics to obscure the undeniable fact that he is forcing his version of amalgamations on local governments and their communities. He continually reverts to the argument that 30 councils is too many for the metropolitan area while ignoring the non-sensical outcomes of his simplistic solutions.

Reducing the number of local governments in the metropolitan area might be desirable, but let those who live there have a say and you would end up with boundaries that had some semblance of community of interest about them.

Just for the record, here are the recorded votes - along party lines as one would expect. It will be interesting to see whether any LibNats are willing to stand up to Bully Barnett in later votes on substantial issues - but I'm not holding my breath.

Ayes (17 - all Labor) 

Ms L.L. Baker       Mr M. McGowan      Ms M.M. Quirk      Mr B.S. Wyatt 

Mr R.H. Cook       Ms S.F. McGurk       Mrs M.H. Roberts   Mr D.A. Templeman (Teller) 

Ms J.M. Freeman   Mr M.P. Murray       Ms R. Saffioti 

Mr D.J. Kelly        Mr P. Papalia            Mr C.J. Tallentire 

Mr F.M. Logan     Mr J.R. Quigley        Mr P.B. Watson 

Noes (34 - all Liberal/National) 

Mr P. Abetz          Ms M.J. Davies         Mr C.D. Hatton          Mr D.C. Nalder 

Mr F.A. Alban      Mr J.H.D. Day          Mr A.P. Jacob            Mr J. Norberger 

Mr C.J. Barnett     Ms W.M. Duncan      Dr G.G. Jacobs          Mr D.T. Redman 

Mr I.C. Blayney    Ms E. Evangel           Mr S.K. L’Estrange   Mr A.J. Simpson 

Mr I.M. Britza       Mr J.M. Francis         Mr R.S. Love             Mr M.H. Taylor 

Mr T.R. Buswell   Mrs G.J. Godfrey      Mr W.R. Marmion     Mr T.K. Waldron 

Mr G.M. Castrilli   Mr B.J. Grylls           Mr P.T. Miles            Mr J.E. McGrath (Teller) 

Mr V.A. Catania    Dr K.D. Hames         Ms A.R. Mitchell 

Mr M.J. Cowper    Mrs L.M. Harvey      Mr N.W. Morton

Pairs (balanced absence from the House for approved reasons)

Ms J. Farrer (ALP)                                Dr M.D. Nahan (Liberal)

Mr W.J. Johnston (ALP)                       Mr R.F. Johnson  (Liberal)

Dr A.D. Buti (ALP)                              Mr A. Krsticevic  (Liberal)

Not recorded (presumably absent)

Mr P C Tinley (ALP)