COST OF LIVING — FEES AND CHARGES
577. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. Why
is the Premier refusing to act when the rising cost of living was the lead
cause of food insecurity for the first time since the report began, and the
government could provide relief to those households by freezing fees and
charges immediately?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I
welcome the new member for North West Central. I think this is perhaps a lesson
for that member: members opposite need to listen to the answer before
they ask a supplementary. As I explained to the Leader of the Opposition
before, in the budget we put down fees and charges, and we are the only
government in Australia to have done so. We looked at all the fees and charges
in the basket of goods and services and then the Western Australian government
gave every household a $400 credit. Inflation is running at what? It is five or
six per cent. The actual increase in fees and charges in the budget was 2.5 per
cent, so naturally it was significantly less than the inflation rate, and then, on top of that, we gave people a $400 credit.
As I just outlined, we also provided significant additional support to charities around the state that provide food
assistance and so forth to people. I am aware of the organisations that
provide that support to people; I have visited them many times in my own
electorate. The government significantly boosted that funding.
As
the Minister for Transport just pointed out to me, we put in place the two-zone
fare cap—nowhere else in Australia has done that. To go to the
airport on the recently opened Forrestfield line is a $5 rail charge; to catch
a train to the airport in Sydney is $20. We put in place capped airfares to
regional communities around Western Australia for regional people who fly to the city—no other state in Australia
has done that. Although how expensive rapid antigen tests were across
Australia was a subject of some moment six or eight months ago, this government
provided them free to everyone. That did not happen in any other state in
Australia. That is another thing that we provided because we manage the
finances well and we make sure needs are targeted.
I
might also add—I think this is often lost—that the energy
assistance payment is on top of the $400 credit. If a person is on a commonwealth Health Care Card—I
think 300 000 or so families around the state are beneficiaries of that—they get another $318 on top of the $400. These
initiatives are in place all over Western Australia. When we came to
office, the Nationals WA members argued that we were going to abolish the
Country Age Pension and Emergency Services Volunteer Fuel Cards. They were
wrong again; we did not. That assistance is out there as well for pensioners
around Western Australia and volunteer organisations.
All those things are out there. We
are providing more support to families across the state than any other state in
Australia. I might add one last thing: our wages policy supports public sector
workers who earn the least. The pay increases under our wages policy for people
at the bottom is, I think, the strongest anyone has seen. We are making sure
those people who are suffering the most get the biggest pay increases.