MERREDIN — STATE
FUNDING
918. Hon MARTIN ALDRIDGE to the Minister for Regional
Development:
I refer to a members'
statement made by Hon Darren West on 15 August 2019 about claims made by him
that a number of important regional projects were initiatives of the McGowan
Labor government.
(1) Given that
the Merredin hospital refurbishment builder was selected and announced by
government media release on 19 December 2016, was this project initiated under
the former Liberal–National government?
(2) Given that
the Central East Aged Care Alliance was awarded $19.98 million for the
construction of 75 age-appropriate homes in the wheatbelt and announced by
government media release on 8 July 2016, was this project initiated under the
former Liberal–National government?
(3) Further to
(2), am I correct in understanding that the Minister for Regional Development
in the McGowan Labor government cut $5 million from the CEACA project upon her
elevation to cabinet?
(4) Given that
the St John Ambulance Merredin sub-centre funding was announced by government
media release on 27 July 2016, was this project initiated under the former
Liberal–National government?
(5) If yes to
(1), (2) and (4), will the minister counsel her parliamentary secretary against
making any further misleading statements to the house?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN
replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1)–(5) I
can assure the member that I will continue to encourage the great enthusiasm of
my parliamentary secretary, Hon Darren West. When he goes into the wheatbelt,
he absolutely connects with the people. Of course, as we know, he is the only
working farmer in Parliament. He goes to Merredin and he is genuinely excited
about the opportunities that are occurring there.
It
is certainly true and we are more than happy to acknowledge that the Merredin
hospital project was initiated under the previous government, but the member
never actually said anything to the contrary—he said that the funding
was made subsequent to the election. As far as I can see, on election day this
was pretty much an empty site with a sign in front of it; therefore, in a strict,
technical sense, the member is quite right. But we assure members opposite that
we and the parliamentary secretary here will make sure that the member is
invited to the opening of the Merredin hospital, because we do acknowledge his
role in this.
The situation with the Central East
Aged Care Alliance Inc is a little bit more interesting and complex. Huge
amounts of money—probably hundreds of millions of dollars—were
shovelled out the door in these financial assistance agreements, often before
projects were anywhere near ready to go. This was a device to stop the money
going back into the consolidated account. Sometimes, these projects had sat
around in FAA grants for three, four or even five years before they were ready
to go, so they were often projects that had not been fully designed, but because
of the blue-on-green war, some money had to be got out the door and it was put
into these funds. When we came to government, as we said, we found we had to
engage in budget repair. We also had a billion dollars' worth of
election commitments to the people of regional Western Australia that we were
going to fund from royalties for regions. We note—I ask the member to
recall this—that before the last election, the Liberal Party
acknowledged that it would have to take out and reallocate $800 million from
the royalties for regions budget. Therefore, the member can say that the
National Party was going to do this, and the National Party was going to do
that, but the reality is that anyone who came into government was going to have
to deal with this issue of budget repair, and the member's coalition
partners were very clear that $800 million was going to come out.
In relation to CEACA, we quite
rightly pride ourselves in and take credit for the fact that we put $15 million
in the budget to allow that project to go forward. I will encourage Hon Darren West
to go out there and talk up the regions, as he always does.