CORONAVIRUS —
LOCAL GOVERNMENT — STATE GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE
407. Hon PETER COLLIER to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for Local
Government:
I refer to the fact that the
JobKeeper assistance program is not available to local governments. I also
refer to the $395 million provided by the
New South Wales and the Northern Territory governments to assist local
governments in those jurisdictions.
Will the Western Australian
government provide any assistance to local governments to assist them through
the current COVID-19 pandemic; and, if not, why not?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
The McGowan government recently
announced a $100 million short-term lending facility through the Western Australian
Treasury Corporation to support local governments and universities through the
COVID-19 pandemic. The new lending facility will enable local governments to
access short-term loans to support the liquidity of their operations.
Applications will open on 1 June 2020. Local governments will benefit from a further
70 basis point reduction in overall cost of borrowing through the WATC, with
the loan guarantee waived for the facility, saving $700 000. The government has
also frozen the waste levy in 2020–21 to ease pressure on local
government budgets. The new lending facility adds to the McGowan government's
$1.8 billion stimulus and relief package.
This WATC lending facility is complementary to the amendments made to the Local
Government Act 1995 to support and enable local governments to be more
agile in response to the pandemic by removing restrictions and red tape to
support businesses and households.