COST OF LIVING — FEES AND CHARGES
576. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I refer to the Foodbank hunger
report 2022 released yesterday, which paints a shocking picture of the
degree of food insecurity across Australia and particularly in Western Australia,
with the Foodbank WA CEO confirming that demand for its services has risen
dramatically. With 208 000 households going hungry and 116 000 children
suffering severe food insecurity in our state, will the Premier immediately
freeze government fees and charges to assist in easing the pressure of the cost-of-living
emergency in Western Australia?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
I
will explain it to the opposition again: in the last budget, we actually put
fees and charges down. We were the only government in Australia to do that. We
put them down by 3.8 per cent. Based upon last year's basket of goods
and services, they went down by 3.8 per cent because we gave every household
across the state a $400 electricity credit.
Dr D.J. Honey interjected.
The SPEAKER: Member for
Cottesloe, we do not need you to incessantly interject.
Mr
M. McGOWAN: That is a benefit
that this government has provided to every household across Western Australia
that no other government in Australia has provided.
As
members may have seen recently, we commissioned a report, I think it was by Deloitte,
that looked at cost-of-living pressures in Western Australia compared
with other states. The average cost of a home in Western Australia is less than
half the cost of a home in New South Wales. In Perth, a home is less than half
the cost of a home in Sydney. People can buy
a home for less than half what it would cost in Sydney. Compared with
Melbourne, it is about two-thirds more expensive to buy a home in
Melbourne than in Western Australia. It is the same with Brisbane. In fact,
housing costs in Western Australia are the lowest of any state or territory in
Australia, so cost-of-living pressures here are not as great as they are in the
other states.
Recently, I contacted Lotterywest
and asked it to ensure additional support would be provided to organisations like Foodbank. From memory, it is an injection of
around $20 million into those programs this year and I think over the
next couple of years at least. That is one of the additional initiatives we
have provided, supporting organisations like Foodbank with support from
Lotterywest. It was a direct request from the state government, and I am very pleased Lotterywest saw the wisdom of that. We are
in an environment, not through any fault of our own but because of a combination
of factors, in particular the international situation, in which there has been
an increase in inflation, so providing support for people on lower incomes is
what we are all about.