McGOWAN GOVERNMENT — FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT
158. Mr H.T. JONES to the Premier:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitment to continue the
strong and responsible financial management it exercised during its
first term in government.
(1) Can the
Premier outline to the house what this strong and sensible financial management
has meant for the Western Australian budget, in particular state debt?
(2) Can the Premier outline how this strong and
responsible financial management has helped contain increases in fees
and charges?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for Darling Range for the question and congratulate him on his
success in the state election. Is it not nice to have such a positive and
decent person as the member for Darling Range? Is that not a nice change, Madam
Speaker?
When we came to office in 2017, the
state's finances were a complete mess. The Liberals and Nationals had
debt climbing to unsustainable levels. The AAA credit rating was lost by the
Liberals and Nationals in government. They
very nearly bankrupted Western Australia. Of course, we have worked extremely
hard to repair the state's finances and this was recognised in the
lead-up to the state election by Standard and Poor's. A couple
of months ago, this international credit rating agency that examines governments
all over the world said that Western Australia
is by far the best performing state in terms of fiscal metrics right
now, and not just in Australia; indeed, it is probably one of the best
performing subnational governments in the
world. The Quarterly financial results report, which was released
yesterday, shows that net debt has fallen
to $33.6 billion, down $1.8 billion since June 2020, which is $10 billion lower
than the debt projection we inherited under the Liberals and Nationals.
Over the course of the last eight months, we committed $7 billion in direct and
indirect support to combat COVID and these figures take that into account. The
quarterly report released yesterday also outlines additional expenditure—$670
million in subsidies for the $600 electricity credit for households; $469 million
in resourcing for frontline agencies to combat COVID; and $106 million in small
business support.
Our strong financial management has
meant that we were able to limit the basket of household goods fees and charges
increases to less than the rate of inflation over the coming financial year. We
have invested $377 million to keep rises in fees and charges below inflation.
Indeed, we are freezing Transperth and Transwa fares in the coming year; there
will be no increase in the cost. The average residential charge for the emergency services levy will be lower than
pre-COVID levels. We can compare that with what happened in the eight
and a half years prior to this government arriving in office: fees and charges
increased by $2 100 each and every year, so
going forward they went $2 100 higher per household each year. Electricity
prices rose by 90 per cent. At the same
time, debt levels were being taken to $44 billion. What we saw with the
Liberals and Nationals during the most recent election campaign was around $26 billion
worth of commitments, including $16 billion worth of energy commitments that
the member for Cottesloe brought forward—the back-of-the-envelope plan
that emerged during the campaign and sank very quickly a few days later. That
was the state Liberal and National Parties' performance and the public
recognised it; that is why there are only two Liberal members of this house!
They were so incompetent over the course of the last four, indeed eight, years and
that was reflected in the state election campaign, particularly in the
commitments they launched, which were worth $26 billion and which would have
basically bankrupted Western Australia. Our commitments were a carefully
targeted $2.4 billion worth and because of that, we have been able to keep
electricity, water and other fees and charges—the basket of household
goods—very low, below the rate of inflation.