As many of you know the seat of Windermere in the Legislative Council or Upper House, is up for re-election on the same day as the House of Assembly (Government) elections - May 1 2021.

I have chosen that it is my time to move on from the role of Member of the Legislative Council and so I am not re-contesting the position.

The role of the Legislative Council is very different to the role of the Government.

The Government's main role is to govern by way of writing legislation that will benefit both the community and the state.

The Legislative Council's main role is to scrutinise this legislation to ensure that it is sound, practical and includes, where possible, the sentiments of the community.

As an Independent member I was free to express both my opinions, and the opinions of my electorate and was able to ensure that community concerns were addressed.

As a member of a Party - Liberal/Labor, those members have to align their thoughts and decisions with Party policy - and often this policy contradicts the concerns of the community.

The Party policy requires any member of the Legislative Council who is a member of the same party who is in Government, to vote FOR the legislation, and any member who is in the opposing party, if it does not align with their Party position - to vote against the legislation - regardless of how much merit and worth is in that legislation.

The fact that the Government may have been given a mandate by the people to bring forward the legislation has no bearing on that decision.

This bypasses the main role of the Legislative Council - which is to scrutinise the legislation based on its merits and practicality, as well as allowing the voice and opinions of the community to be heard.

I was at a public meeting in Hillwood recently, where a Party member was strongly promoting the Party's position at all times.

He mentioned that the only personal input or opinions he was able to give on legislation, was at private Party meetings.

As soon as he was in the chamber, he had to align every thought and spoken word, with the Party position.

This again results in the needs and concerns of the community being ignored in the entire process.

Now we live in a supposed democratic society - but the ignoring of the voices in the community seems to go against that democracy in my opinion.

It is my personal view that in order for the voice of the community to be heard and acted upon - the members of the Legislative Council need to be Independent members who can freely speak their own mind and pass on the opinions of the community they represent.

Otherwise there seems to be no point to the Legislative Council at all.

It is true as I heard the Labor candidate for Windermere say on April 21, that parties have been part of the Legislative Council forever and a day.

However, it is also a fact of life Party members have not dominated the Legislative Council for many decades, if ever.

The dominance of Independent members allows the Legislative Council to properly and effectively apply the brakes on the Government and review the legislation coming into the chamber, as intended as a part of the Westminster system under which we operate.

The current make-up of the Legislative Council (at the time the election was called) is five Labor members and three Liberal members which leaves only seven Independent members - so already there is Party dominance.

Of these seven Independent members there are some who closely align with Labor ideals and that is evidenced from their voting patterns.

In fact, one such member, to my knowledge, has never voted against the Labor party.

In the coming Windermere election, should a Party member come out on top of the poll, the Legislative Council will have nine Party members and worse still, if it was a Labor member then Labor will have six members in the chamber- that is supposing the current Labor member for Derwent is returned to office.

This simply means that Labor will only need one Independent to vote with them to overthrow any legislation coming into the chamber.

It would also require the Labor party to gain the support of two Independents only to push any matter through the Legislative Council.

To me this would be a dangerous situation for the Legislative Council because in effect the Labor party would become a de-facto government in the Legislative Council.

This does not align with the functions of the Legislative Council.

I have been the representing member for Windermere for the past 18 years.

During that time the people of Windermere have supported me and I have done my very best to support them.

It is a wonderful electorate.

I have made many friends over my time representing the electorate in the Legislative Council and I plan on continuing to serve the people in any way I can. I am not retiring - I intend to enter another phase of life.

Windermere needs an energetic Independent member who gets out into the community and listens to the voice of the community, and has the freedom and ability to express that community concern at the Legislative level of Parliament.

The community deserves no less.

Thank you for your support during the past 18 years.