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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 778 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 24 November 2022 by Mr R.S. Love

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

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.