South West MLC Adele Farina reflects on her long career

It was a baptism of fire for the first two terms as Ms Farina learnt the ways of a parliamentary secretary in 2001.

While the upper house member never secured a portfolio during her time in politics, she has a stack of achievements through the committees she chaired as well as helping individual constituents.

As chair of the Native Timber Industry Strategy Group, Ms Farina was tasked with dealing unhappy residents over the WA Labor government's decision to stop old growth logging in 99 per cent of the state.

Ms Farina said this meant a lot of job losses and people were scared because they did not have any other skills at the time.

"The level of rage was palpable," she said.

Community meetings were held so the residents could show their concern for the plan and Ms Farina said she tried to go to all of them as she felt it was her responsibility as a politician to at least listen to her constituents.

"It was uncomfortable and hard to sit there while they hurled abuse at me," she said.

So Ms Farina tried to find ways for the workers to be able to transition into other employment and with that came the idea for a tourist attraction. While the attraction never eventuated the Cherry Harmony Festival was born and Ms Farina said to this day the event was a success.

Other committees that Ms Farina has been chair of include the Ministerial Tourism Planning Taskforce, Transport, Planning and Housing Working Group to the WA Greenhouse Taskforce and Ministerial Fishing Industry Advisroy Group.

Chairing the Busselton Jetty and Foreshore Redevelopment Committee was particularly satisfying for Ms Farina as their planning started the process for the jetty rebuild.

"I was stunned when I was told about the gap in revenue for the jetty and what needed to be spent to rebuild it," she said.

While Ms Farina couldn't persuade the government at the time to commit money to the jetty, she was able to form the committee which looked at how redeveloping the foreshore could bring in revenue to pay for the rebuild.

During this time, Ms Farina helped develop the plan for the jetty which would see it have a 50 year life cycle but maintenance would keep going on different sections of the jetty to keep extending its life.

The design for the new foreshore did not go down well in the community and then came an election where Labor lost government.

Troy Buswell became the MLA for Vasse and treasurer and was able to secure $24 million for the jetty rebuild.

Ms Farina said this was a great outcome for the community and the Liberal government used her plan for the jetty rebuild.

"It took me no time at all to realise the jetty was the heart and soul of Busselton and I was able to get the ball rolling on the discussion for the rebuild," she told the Mail.

Ms Farina was also the chair of the Port Geographe Working Group and the Port Geographe Deed Working Group.

She said this was a particularly challenging role because she needed to convince the government to invest in re-locating the groynes in Port Geographe in order to stop the massive build up of seagrass.

However, after engineering advice, the government believed they could annually remove the seagrass rather than moving the groynes.

So Ms Farina was tasked with convincing the residents that a four year trial of this was a good idea.

The trial proved that groyne re-location needed to be done and Ms Farina's committee started working on the plans. Designs were drawn up and Ms Farina felt like they were getting somewhere and then WA Labor lost the election.

She said the Liberals did take on the plans and Barry House became chair of the committee.

"While they chose one of our designs they made the fatal flaw of having a sand trap without filling it up," Ms Farina said.

Instead of the trap naturally filling up with sand, the seagrass came back into the area.

As she spoke to the Mail, she said being on the Leavers Planning Committee was a task she was surprised she enjoyed.

Ms Farina admitted that she never realised until she went into parliament that it was a well known thing for year 12 students to go away and party as a celebration of finishing high school.

With Busselton and Dunsborough having a lot of holiday homes, the towns would become inundated by teenagers and cause problems.

"They would come down with a boot load booze and party and have a good time, but they would also cause property damage, so there became a real community opposition to them," Ms Farina said.

She also said the police were struggling with the influx of people with no extra resources, so something needed to be done.

From this came the idea of the Leavers tent which is now known as the zone.

"We wanted to create something that would occupy their time in a positive way," Ms Farina said.

Ms Farina was able to secure funding for buses which would take the teenagers from their accommodation to the tent as well as additional police resources for the week.

"I was really proud to be part of this and I was able to be at the launch as well," she said.

There are many highlights for Ms Farina during her time as MLC but her tireless work in the health and mental health sector was one of them.

"The work I have done for the South West is not something I have done for glory or prestige but I am certainly proud to have helped deliver many great outcomes for the region," she said.

Ms Farina was a strong advocate for a residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre in the South West.

"Having 33 new alcohol and drug rehabilitation beds delivered in the region, at the newly established Palmerston run centre at Brunswick and in Nannup, was a big win for the region and for those struggling with alcohol and drug dependency," she said.

"I was also able to secure additional funding for the South West Community Alcohol and Drug Service and Doors Wide Open."

Ms Farina was part of the decision making for not using the Yarragadee as a water source for Perth.

When the option of putting in a pipeline from the Yarragadee to Perth was touted, Ms Farina knew it was not the best solution.

"I proposed the question that persuaded then Premier Geoff Gallop that it was not the solution to Perth's water problems," Ms Farina said.

"The question being, it's great that the Water Corporation have committed to monitor water levels in the Yarragadee, but will they give a guarantee to turning off the tap if monitoring detects a detrimental impact on the Yarragadee? They couldn't."

Another highlight was helping Bunbury mother Jess Bevan who was discriminated against for breastfeeding her baby at a local cafe.

"I tabled Mrs Bevan's petition in Parliament and persuaded the then Labor government to introduce a bill to Parliament to change the Equal Opportunity Act to provide legislative protection for a mother to breast or bottle feed her child in public," Ms Farina said.

Ms Farina is one of WA's longest serving female politicians which she said wasn't easy.

"It has been an honour to represent women and provide a female perspective to issues within Parliament," she said.

"There is no doubt that it is a man's world where women are expected to work harder to be recognised, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

"Being the first woman to hold the position Chair of Committees (Deputy President) in the Legislative Council, Parliament of WA is something I am immensely proud of. You could say it was my contribution to breaking the glass ceiling and I hope that female representation at all levels of government continues to grow."

Ms Farina said she has loved every minute of representing the region she loves.

"There are so many incredible people throughout the South West who are doing amazing things," she said.