I welcome you to my website.  

I am the endorsed candidate for the Liberal Party for the new Electoral District of Eyre at the coming State Election which will be held on the 6th of September 2008. The Eyre district is one of five districts in the Mining and Pastoral Region with an area of 292,240 square kilometers. I am privileged to represent the new seat encompassing Southern Cross, Coolgardie, Kambalda, Boulder, Norseman, Marvel Loch, Eyre Highway, Eucla. It also includes the shires of Esperance and Ravensthorpe which I have represented since the 2005 general State election.

In the three and half years I have been in Parliament, I was appointed as Opposition Whip from March 2005 to August 2006 and then again from January 2008 to June 2008. I have been the Shadow Spokesperson for Drug Abuse Strategy, Shadow Minister for Disability Services, Goldfields-Esperance, Seniors, Environment and Climate Change.

Recently, I have been asked to be the Shadow Minister for Water. Water is our most precious resource and we are a dry state. Also, with the challenge of climate change we have to think of ways of increasing that resource and using that resource more wisely and effectively. I do believe we have to employ multiple ways including improving runoff of our catchments, addressing the rising water tables and large amounts of saline and semi-saline water in our large agricultural region while having a deficiency on the coastal plain, and where necessary sensible and affordable desalination management.

On the local scene, there are still some clean up to be done pertaining to the lead pollution that Esperance suffered in 2007. I will be holding the government to account so that the clean up particularly of houses within 2kms of the port properly cleaned and safe including their ceiling spaces.

I will also be demanding the government true to their commitments of spending $13 million and $42 million on the Esperance and Kalgoorlie hospitals respectively. We also need adequate funding of the RFDS with 3 new airplanes and crew to service our ever growing and demanding regions.

I will continue to Speak Your Mind in Parliament.

I intend to be a major contributor in a Liberal Party government of the future.

On a personal note, I came to Western Australia as a seven-year old boy with my engineer father looking for farming land. My only sister and I went to school in Esperance after two years correspondence school with my mum as the road developed and school bus route extended. My parents put a high priority on achieving our best in school. I did a lot of farmhand work and later was accepted into medical school at University of Western Australia. I graduated as a doctor in 1976, and from 1979, I set up a General Practice in Esperance and subsequently obtained my Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRAGP), did my Surgical Training and received Fellowship to the Australian College of Remote and Rural Medicine (FACRRM). I have been part of the community ever since.

My wife Kathryn is a qualified midwife and a long distance runner extraordinaire. We have five grown up children, 4 boys and 1 girl. Kathryn has been supportive to me especially in my career as a Parliament Member and is passionate about this as I am. I have enjoyed my years as a physician, surgeon, obstetrician and family counsellor. I thought however I needed to take my extensive experience in rural living and doctoring into politics in order to get closer to the “engine room” where decisions are made that affect our lives whether that is for our hospitals, schools, roads, power, water and affordable housing.

The role I see is for me to insist that bureaucracy delivers for the people of my region. After all we do pay taxes and we do contribute substantially to the Gross State Product. And the other role that I think is important is to help people through the ‘maze’ presented to us today in seeking answers and solutions to our problems.

Well, that's a bit about me and my activities and position. Please respond to me and/or discuss your concerns.

Please look further into my Hansard speeches on differing subjects.

If you have queries on further access please contact Pat Ivers or Irene Obales at my office.

If you would like to visit Parliament while you are in Perth contact me at Parliament House - Ph: 9222 7458.