INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT
778. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Premier:
I
have a supplementary question. It is an authoritative report and I am sure
ministers have read it, even if the Premier has not. Why has Western Australia
remained in last place in the budget monitoring rankings for the sixth —
Mr M. McGowan: I cannot
understand you; you speak too quickly.
Mr R.S. LOVE: Why has Western
Australia remained in last place in this budget monitoring rankings for the
sixth consecutive year?
Mr W.J. Johnston: Because
they are a privatisation business.
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
According to the minister behind me,
Infrastructure Partnerships Australia is into privatising things. The Deputy Leader
of the Opposition might recall that when he was last in office, his government
had a policy to privatise Western Power. That is exactly what occurred in
Victoria and New South Wales. Their electricity systems are now in complete
chaos—so much so that the government in Victoria is promising to
renationalise the electricity system over there. If that is what the member is
advocating and saying, he should be honest about it. Of course, the last
government said that the only way to pay off debt was to sell off all the
assets. That occurred in New South Wales: it sold off all its assets on the
basis that it would pay off debt. What has happened now? NSW's debt is
climbing to $150 billion or thereabouts. Its credit rating is in freefall. Its
deficits are massive. It sold off its assets and still blew out debt. We have
not sold off our assets; we kept our electricity and water assets in public
ownership and we have paid down debt. Ours is the only government in Australia
to have done so. When members opposite left office, debt was heading to $44 billion;
it is now down to $29 billion. When members opposite left office, the
unemployment rate was 6.4 per cent; it is now down near three per cent. Our
participation rate—the number of people engaged in the workforce—is
the highest of any state in the history of Australia ever. It is a remarkable
story in Western Australia, basically because we did not follow the ideas that
members opposite put forward.