Old Swanbourne Hospital Petition tabled in the WA Parliament

Thank you to each of the 785 people who signed the petition requesting that the Legislative Council of the WA Parliament ask that the WA Minster for Heritage not proceed with the proposal by the Heritage Council of WA to transfer planning control over the Old Swanbourne Hospital to the WA Planning Commission.  I have attached a copy of the WA Parliament Website showing that the petition was the third presented to the Legislative Council this year.

I gave more detail about the content of the petition in an earlier post.

The petition was tabled by Hon Giz Watson on the 17 March 2011 and is now before the Legislative Council's Environment and Public Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Hon Brian Charles Ellis MLC.  The other members of the Committee are shown below.

As I understand it, the WA Parliament is unique in Australian parliaments in having a standing committee whose purpose includes the consideration of petitions.  Sometimes the standing committee will hold hearings into the petitions presented to it if there is a matter of sufficient public interest. 

So now we watch with interest to see if the Minister for Heritage takes note of the petition to the Legislative Council in his consideration of recommendations to him from the Heritage Council of WA on this matter.

We are also waiting for two other outcomes:

1. The decision of the Minister for Heritage after he has received advice from the Heritage Council of WA on the public submissions made in response to the rushed proposal to remove the City of Nedlands from planning control over the Old Swanbourne Hospital.

2.  The City of Nedlands to consider the public submissions made in response to the advertising period for the revised Outline Development plan released a few weeks ago for public comment.

Once again thank you to all who signed the petition - and it is very good to see it tabled in our Parliament.