Pomp, ceremony – and dire warnings, as Parliament returns and Zempilas faces Cook

The long-awaited showdown between newly minted Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas and the wall of Labor MPs has lived up to the hype with an animated first question time, chock-full of stumbles and jibes.

Zempilas, Nationals leader Shane Love and Deputy Opposition Leader Libby Mettam used their three questions in Parliament on Tuesday morning to attack the government’s record on spending, the election debacle and ambulance ramping.

Zempilas in Parliament on Tuesday.Credit: Hamish Hastie

It looked like the same well-oiled Labor machine in operation as last term, honing its attack on Zempilas’s record as Perth lord mayor.

The greenness of the new opposition was on show with MPs not yet across the all-important standing orders of the Lower House.

Zempilas’s trial by fire started with a stumble after failing to stand quickly enough to ask a question following the call from Speaker Stephen Price.

Technically, the MP that stands up fastest gets the call, and Dawesville MP Lisa Munday stood up like lightning – to the cheers of her Labor colleagues.

But the convention is that the opposition gets to ask the first question, so the call was given to Zempilas, who directed it at WA Premier Roger Cook.

The former TV and radio broadcaster started asking about wasteful government spending, but was quickly shouted down by the Labor wall for including a preamble in his question – against standing orders.

Eventually, Zempilas did get his question out: “Will the government shift its focus away from fantasy projects like rugby teams and race tracks, and to things that matter to West Australians, like fixing our hospitals and addressing crime in our suburbs and our towns?”

Cook said his government had a mandate for every policy it put to the public ahead of the election.

Zempilas followed up with a question over whether the premier would concede money would be better spent on police and hospitals than “fantasy” projects.

Roger Cook shakes Shane Love’s hand.Credit: Hamish Hastie

This set Cook off on an attack about the projects Zempilas talked up when he was lord mayor, repeating comments he made in jest on ABC radio during the campaign about “doubling or tripling” the size of the Bell Tower and placing it on a podium in the Swan River.

He also took aim at Zempilas’ comments as mayor that Perth needed its own dance festival like Coachella.

Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti also had a jibe about the protracted women’s shelter controversy that took place while Zempilas led the city.

Amidst the pomp and ceremony that comes with the swearing in of a new parliament, 21 new MPs were sworn into the chamber.

New Legislative Assembly speaker Stephen Price dragged to his position.Credit: Hamish Hastie

Earlier proceedings were not without a sobering warning about the fragility of our democracy from the state’s top judge.

Chief Justice Peter Quinlan oversaw the MPs making their oaths and affirmations on Tuesday morning, and before leaving the chamber warned that public institutions in Western democracies were under threat.

“We live at a time when in other Western democracies with whom we share a common heritage, public institutions such as ours are under significant threat, and where public confidence in those institutions is deliberately sought to be undermined,” he said.

“Often, those threats come from the very people who have been entrusted with responsibility to uphold those institutions.

“It is a stark reminder of the sometimes fragility of our institutions of government: either the parliament, the executive or the court.”

First orders of business include a treasurer’s advance bill, which the government needs to pass to have the cash flow to pay for its $150-$250 student assistance promise.

With 46 MPs, Labor still has a sizeable majority in the lower house but Cook said they would treat the parliament with respect.

“We will continue to do what we’ve always done, which is to treat the parliament with respect, staying humble, making sure that we undertake the process of government with respect for the parliament, and we’ll continue to do that regardless of the numbers,” he said.

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