Rockingham burglaries prompt McGowan pledge

Rockingham MLA Mark McGowanhas taken the reins at the head of the WA Labor Party as it focuses on new policies in the lead-up to the 2013 State election.

Mr McGowan was elected unopposed as Opposition Leader at Labor’s caucus meeting on Monday.

Kwinana MLA Roger Cook remains Deputy Leader.

Warnbro MLA Paul Papalia is expected to be included in new Shadow Cabinet to be announced on Friday.

Mr McGowan wasted no time in spelling out new directions on a number of key issues, principally Sunday trading, uranium mining and law and order.

He did not shy away from his intention to ban drivers under the age of 21 from driving highperformance cars and he also attacked the State Government’s decision to close the Rockingham train station’s transport police office and transfer 45 officers out of the area.

‘‘Rockingham is under a lot of pressure and this was a bad decision,’’ he said.

Mr McGowan previously said if Labor won the next election he would push for decentralisation of police resources, moving away from big stations serving Perth.

He called recent police statistics, which revealed a 15 per cent rise in burglaries in Rockingham, ‘‘devastating’’.

The biggest changes to Labor policy announced by Mr McGowan on Monday related to Sunday trading and uranium mining.

‘‘Labor will vote for any Bill introduced into Parliament that allowed for Sunday trading, subject to one condition — we would like to see all legislative mechanisms investigated to ensure retail workers can choose whether or not to work on a Sunday,’’ he said.

Mr McGowan said that any uranium mines granted final State approval would be permitted to proceed, open and export its products, in the same manner as other mining ventures, but no new mines would be approved.