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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 918 asked in the Legislative Council on 22 August 2019 by Hon Martin Aldridge

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

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.