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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 465 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 7 September 2021 by Ms R.S. Stephens

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

CORONAVIRUS — STATE ECONOMY

465. Ms R.S. STEPHENS to the Premier:

On behalf of the member for Bicton, I acknowledge the principal and head girls, Stella and Lucy, from Santa Maria College.

I refer to the McGowan Labor government's effort in driving the state's economic recovery and creating jobs for Western Australia.

(1) Can the Premier update the house on what the latest economic data shows about this government's effort in delivering a strong WA economy?

(2) Can the Premier outline to the house how a strong response to COVID-19 by Western Australia is good not just for the state, but also for this country?

Mr M. McGOWAN replied:

(1)–(2) I thank the member for Albany for the question. I thank all Western Australians for their effort to keep our economy strong and our state safe and strong and COVID-free over the last 18 months and beyond. We have taken the steps that were necessary to keep the state free of COVID and we will continue to do our best to achieve that outcome. The latest figures have confirmed that remaining COVID-free is good for the state's economy. They showed that state final demand increased by 4.3 per cent last financial year, which is easily the strongest of all the states, and the highest growth in state final demand in eight years. There has been record growth in retail spending and record dwelling investment. Our mining industry continues to deliver, with a 4.3 per cent growth in business investment. For the second year in a row, Western Australia's economy has led the nation. We are the only state that did not go into recession over the COVID period. Our domestic economy is now significantly larger than when we arrived in office and over our time in office, we have produced 107 000 new jobs for Western Australians.

We are determined to do our best to keep ourselves in that position and, obviously, if Western Australia stays in that position as the major export state of the nation, we support the other states across Australia. That is why it is hard to understand or comprehend all this yelling and screaming by the Liberal Party that we should bring down the border and infect ourselves with COVID. I note that Barnaby Joyce also joined in this sort of commentary. The Liberal Party and National Party are out there saying that Western Australians should deliberately infect themselves. What would happen? Large parts of our economy would shut down, including large parts of the mining industry. Therefore, those rivers of gold that run from Western Australia directly to the federal Treasury, which then run directly into New South Wales to support the people of New South Wales, would stop.

I cannot understand this. I cannot understand why people like Senator Michaelia Cash, the federal Attorney-General, are now out there encouraging a further High Court challenge by people like Clive Palmer. This outrageous commentary by the Liberal Party is incredible. Have Liberal members not seen the ads on telly? Has anyone seen Craig Kelly, Clive Palmer's Geppetto, out there advertising against what we have been doing? Obviously, the federal Attorney-General, Michaelia Cash, has been promoting this concept. I cannot understand why they want to wreck the good thing we have going here. I can guarantee members that the Premiers of the non-COVID states agree with me, including the Tasmanian Premier, who on the weekend said exactly the same thing. I am just waiting for the Liberal Party outrage towards the government of Tasmania.

In closing, obviously our good position is something we are very fortunate to have, and we want to keep it that way. But the best way for long-term security is to vaccinate ourselves. We have to get people in Western Australia vaccinated in large numbers as soon as we possibly can. It is a major safety measure for ourselves, for our health and for our economy.

I note finally that over east, they have woken up to the fact that there has been a huge disparity in the distribution of vaccines. We supported New South Wales getting extra vaccines, just like we supported it by giving it N95 masks, all our contact tracers and medical teams. We have done all that for New South Wales and we will continue to support New South Wales during its time of need, but there needs to be a catch-up when it comes to vaccines. I raised with the Prime Minister during the last two national cabinet meetings that there needs to be catch-up for the states that essentially gave their vaccines to New South Wales. Western Australia deserves additional Pfizer vaccines now—well over 100 000 additional doses from what the commonwealth secures—so that we can catch up and we can put an end to the ridiculous criticism that the Liberal Party is running that Western Australia has not vaccinated at the same rate as New South Wales. We have not vaccinated at the same rate as New South Wales because we did not get the one million extra doses that New South Wales got. I mean, der! Is it that hard to understand? Only the commonwealth can secure extra doses from overseas. If we do not get those extra doses, and if they are given to New South Wales, of course New South Wales is going to vaccinate its people quicker than we can. Now that the issue has been exposed nationally, we expect our fair share of Pfizer doses from the commonwealth as soon as possible. We will hold the Liberal Party to account for that.