Question Without Notice No. 502 asked in the Legislative Council on 5 September 2017 by Hon Jacqui Boydell
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
ROYALTIES FOR REGIONS — PROJECT FUNDING
502. Hon JACQUI BOYDELL to the Minister for Regional Development:
The minister is on record stating that the idea of royalties for regions funding is that it is money in addition to that provided for in the forward estimates. Given the minister's comments, will she commit to ensuring that royalties for regions will not fund projects and programs that were previously budgeted for general government expenditure?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I am not sure where the member's quote came from, but our government committed to royalties for regions and we will be following the practices of the past. As we have said, at the last election we made over $1 billion worth of commitments in regional Western Australia and those projects will be prioritised. We will continue to fund schools that we promised would be funded through royalties for regions, just as in the past roads and education and hospitals have been funded through royalties for regions. The member can be assured that just as the Liberal–National government started with hospitals and roads and schools being funded by royalties for regions, she will see that continuing in our budget on Thursday, which I am sure members are all eagerly awaiting. It will be very good news for regional Western Australia. We are now the party that has the most regional members in state Parliament, so quite clearly those plans that we put out into regional WA were overwhelmingly supported by the regional communities.