❓ A Labor MP praises the Cook government's economic management, prompting the Treasurer to highlight the state's AAA credit rating, infrastructure projects, and perceived opposition shortcomings in supporting growth-related initiatives.
AnsweredQoN 614Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
COOK
GOVERNMENT — PERFORMANCE
614. Dr J. KRISHNAN to the Treasurer:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
strong financial and economic management.
(1) Can the Treasurer outline to the house what action
the government is taking to ensure that Western Australia can meet the
needs of our growing population?
(2) Can the
Treasurer advise the house whether she is aware of any threats to the state's
finances, economy and future opportunities?
GOVERNMENT — PERFORMANCE
614. Dr J. KRISHNAN to the Treasurer:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's
strong financial and economic management.
(1) Can the Treasurer outline to the house what action
the government is taking to ensure that Western Australia can meet the
needs of our growing population?
(2) Can the
Treasurer advise the house whether she is aware of any threats to the state's
finances, economy and future opportunities?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) That
is a nice question, member for Riverton. Thank you very much for that question.
To help facilitate such strong population growth, we need to focus on key
areas. One of them, of course, is the strong management of the state's
finances. I am pleased to report that today, Moody's has reaffirmed the
state's AAA credit rating for Western Australia. We are the only state
to have a AAA credit rating from both Moody's
and S&P Global Ratings. They are tough to attain and tough to hold because
these ratings agencies go through every line of the budget to make sure that we
are doing a good job managing the budget. Despite all
the pressures, which are enormous, on funding not only social services, but
also economic infrastructure, and although it is very tough to get
that balance right, we are, and we are delivering for the state.
Of course, it is also about making
sure we continue to provide opportunities in the state and continue to create
jobs for Western Australians. With a bigger population, there is more demand
for jobs. We have to ensure that we continue to facilitate economic growth. As
part of the diversification program headed by the Premier, we have different
initiatives out there to fuel development and create jobs.
The other key point is delivering
infrastructure around the state, whether it relates to health, schools or
transport. We have already seen an opposition that opposes public transport
infrastructure. When we go up to Yanchep or
Ellenbrook, down to Byford, across to Thornlie and Armadale or down to
Cockburn, we see the enormous infrastructure that we have put in place
to keep up with population growth. We know that the opposition does not support
investment in public transport. If it could, it would probably rip up a few
Metronet lines just to spite the population of WA. Now we are seeing this in
health. As we heard in the Parliament today,
outlined by both the Minister for Health and the Premier, the opposition will
delay a new women's and babies' hospital, which will
mean that these new services will not be able to help feed the extraordinary
population growth in this state.
I want to highlight education. The
Liberal Party opposes a new high school in Brabham in my electorate. What we heard last week in relation to a new East
Perth primary school would mean hundreds of millions of dollars of extra costs and delay upon delay in delivering a new
school in East Perth. The member for Cottesloe highlighted that school,
but the Liberal Party voted against building a new primary school in East
Perth. The alternative that it put forward—its option—is to
build a new school in ''Silver City'' in East Perth. Is that the
Liberal Party's policy? Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the
Opposition, is that your policy? That is what they said last week.
Several members interjected.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : Did they say,
''We haven't got a policy?'' What did they say?
Point of Order
Mr R.S. LOVE : Point of order,
Deputy Speaker.
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Points of
order will be heard in silence.
Mr R.S. LOVE : This is clearly
heading off track from this minister's area of responsibility. We are
now turning this into ''questioning
the opposition time'' rather than the opposition questioning the
government. This is ridiculous.
The
DEPUTY SPEAKER : Thank you, Leader
of the Opposition. I will not uphold that point of order. The Treasurer will carry on responding to the question.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : As Treasurer,
I am very keen to see value for money in our infrastructure. That is why the
policy put forward by the Minister for Education is value for money. The
reality is that building —
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Members!
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : How much will
the new school in ''Silver City'' cost? Let us go through the
member for Cottesloe's policy. There are currently about 1 000 people working
in ''Silver City''. Member, where are they going to go? First of
all, the Liberal Party is going to build a new office for everyone working —
Point of Order
Mr P.J. RUNDLE : Deputy
Speaker, this question was about the credit rating and somehow now we are
talking about the East Perth primary school. It is not relevant.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : The
Premier is responding by referring to different budget items. Carry on,
Treasurer.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Mr D.T. Punch : The answer is
very interesting.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : Yes, I think
it is worth going through. The Liberal Party's commitment is to build a
new school at ''Silver City''. That means building a new office
building for all the office workers in ''Silver City''.
Dr D.J. Honey : Landgate.
Sorry; you sold that. You gave it away.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : So you want
to use a Landgate building? Where are you going to put them? We are within six months
of an election, so the member for Cottesloe can sit there and criticise and be
negative, but now it is time to have some solutions. The solution put forward
by the member is ''Silver City''. We are going through that process. The opposition intends to relocate up to
1 000 people from ''Silver City'' to somewhere else. Will that
take about three to four years,
members? It will cost about $300 million. Then it has to build on that site,
with no dedicated public oval for the school. How much will that cost,
member for Cottesloe? If he thinks he is such an economic genius, he should
tell us. Let us talk about the economic geniuses from the other side, the ones
who lost the credit rating, set the state
into recession and nearly bankrupted the state. We have already seen chaos,
dysfunction, instability and inexperience from the other side.
Ms L. Mettam interjected.
Ms
R. SAFFIOTI : The Leader of the
Liberal Party can be as negative as she likes. That is how everyone sees her— a
negative person criticising and criticising. What is her policy? What is her
policy on the school?
Ms L. Mettam : We haven't
stated it yet.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : Oh! But the
member for Cottesloe did last week.
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Members!
Point of Order
Mr R.S. LOVE : Point of order,
Deputy Speaker.
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Members!
Points of order will be heard in silence. I give the call to the Leader of the
Opposition.
Mr R.S. LOVE : We are in
question time; this is not ''have an argument time''.
The
DEPUTY SPEAKER : Yes, I know. But
I will just say your alliance partners are doing the interjecting. Control your own side and you may not get as much response from the Treasurer.
Treasurer, it would be great to wrap it up, thanks.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : If this is
not ''have an argument time'', I need another career! Sorry.
In less than six months, the person
sitting next to the member for Cottesloe is advocating Liberal Party policy —
Ms L. Mettam : It was in a debate.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : To what?
Ms L. Mettam : It was comments
in a debate.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : So it was a comment.
What is the Liberal Party's policy?
Ms L. Mettam : You've
seen our policies.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : The Leader of
the Liberal Policy cannot count. Listening to her trying to count is awful.
Even worse is watching the Leader of the Liberal Party trying to navigate
budget papers. Has anyone ever seen that? Has anyone ever seen the Leader of
the Liberal Party doing that?
Ms L. Mettam : It's
the largest blowout in the state's history.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : So how much
is the Liberal Party's new ''Silver City'' school going
to cost?
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Treasurer!
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : She is
interjecting. The economic geniuses on the other side —
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Treasurer, just wait. Leader of
the Liberal Party, your incessant interjecting is really drowning out the
response because you keep interjecting with different things for the Treasurer
to respond to. If you want to ask a question, you will get the opportunity to
stand up and do that, but we will let the Treasurer finish her response.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : The economic
geniuses on the other side! There are only two of them and they cannot even
agree on where they are going to put a school in East Perth. There are two of
them. They should agree. One says, ''We have no policy''; the
other one says, ''We've got a policy that's going to
delay the school for 10 years and possibly cost more than $400 or $500 million.''
That is the Liberal Party of today—chaos and negativity. I know that
people out there will say, ''What are their policies? What are they on
about? They are very negative, but what do they actually stand for? What are
their commitments?'' When we were in opposition, we were out there doing
consultation on our policies. We were holding community forums about all the
policies we were introducing. We have less than six months to go and we hear
negativity, no policies and chaos and dysfunction.
is a nice question, member for Riverton. Thank you very much for that question.
To help facilitate such strong population growth, we need to focus on key
areas. One of them, of course, is the strong management of the state's
finances. I am pleased to report that today, Moody's has reaffirmed the
state's AAA credit rating for Western Australia. We are the only state
to have a AAA credit rating from both Moody's
and S&P Global Ratings. They are tough to attain and tough to hold because
these ratings agencies go through every line of the budget to make sure that we
are doing a good job managing the budget. Despite all
the pressures, which are enormous, on funding not only social services, but
also economic infrastructure, and although it is very tough to get
that balance right, we are, and we are delivering for the state.
Of course, it is also about making
sure we continue to provide opportunities in the state and continue to create
jobs for Western Australians. With a bigger population, there is more demand
for jobs. We have to ensure that we continue to facilitate economic growth. As
part of the diversification program headed by the Premier, we have different
initiatives out there to fuel development and create jobs.
The other key point is delivering
infrastructure around the state, whether it relates to health, schools or
transport. We have already seen an opposition that opposes public transport
infrastructure. When we go up to Yanchep or
Ellenbrook, down to Byford, across to Thornlie and Armadale or down to
Cockburn, we see the enormous infrastructure that we have put in place
to keep up with population growth. We know that the opposition does not support
investment in public transport. If it could, it would probably rip up a few
Metronet lines just to spite the population of WA. Now we are seeing this in
health. As we heard in the Parliament today,
outlined by both the Minister for Health and the Premier, the opposition will
delay a new women's and babies' hospital, which will
mean that these new services will not be able to help feed the extraordinary
population growth in this state.
I want to highlight education. The
Liberal Party opposes a new high school in Brabham in my electorate. What we heard last week in relation to a new East
Perth primary school would mean hundreds of millions of dollars of extra costs and delay upon delay in delivering a new
school in East Perth. The member for Cottesloe highlighted that school,
but the Liberal Party voted against building a new primary school in East
Perth. The alternative that it put forward—its option—is to
build a new school in ''Silver City'' in East Perth. Is that the
Liberal Party's policy? Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the
Opposition, is that your policy? That is what they said last week.
Several members interjected.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : Did they say,
''We haven't got a policy?'' What did they say?
Point of Order
Mr R.S. LOVE : Point of order,
Deputy Speaker.
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Points of
order will be heard in silence.
Mr R.S. LOVE : This is clearly
heading off track from this minister's area of responsibility. We are
now turning this into ''questioning
the opposition time'' rather than the opposition questioning the
government. This is ridiculous.
The
DEPUTY SPEAKER : Thank you, Leader
of the Opposition. I will not uphold that point of order. The Treasurer will carry on responding to the question.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : As Treasurer,
I am very keen to see value for money in our infrastructure. That is why the
policy put forward by the Minister for Education is value for money. The
reality is that building —
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Members!
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : How much will
the new school in ''Silver City'' cost? Let us go through the
member for Cottesloe's policy. There are currently about 1 000 people working
in ''Silver City''. Member, where are they going to go? First of
all, the Liberal Party is going to build a new office for everyone working —
Point of Order
Mr P.J. RUNDLE : Deputy
Speaker, this question was about the credit rating and somehow now we are
talking about the East Perth primary school. It is not relevant.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : The
Premier is responding by referring to different budget items. Carry on,
Treasurer.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Mr D.T. Punch : The answer is
very interesting.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : Yes, I think
it is worth going through. The Liberal Party's commitment is to build a
new school at ''Silver City''. That means building a new office
building for all the office workers in ''Silver City''.
Dr D.J. Honey : Landgate.
Sorry; you sold that. You gave it away.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : So you want
to use a Landgate building? Where are you going to put them? We are within six months
of an election, so the member for Cottesloe can sit there and criticise and be
negative, but now it is time to have some solutions. The solution put forward
by the member is ''Silver City''. We are going through that process. The opposition intends to relocate up to
1 000 people from ''Silver City'' to somewhere else. Will that
take about three to four years,
members? It will cost about $300 million. Then it has to build on that site,
with no dedicated public oval for the school. How much will that cost,
member for Cottesloe? If he thinks he is such an economic genius, he should
tell us. Let us talk about the economic geniuses from the other side, the ones
who lost the credit rating, set the state
into recession and nearly bankrupted the state. We have already seen chaos,
dysfunction, instability and inexperience from the other side.
Ms L. Mettam interjected.
Ms
R. SAFFIOTI : The Leader of the
Liberal Party can be as negative as she likes. That is how everyone sees her— a
negative person criticising and criticising. What is her policy? What is her
policy on the school?
Ms L. Mettam : We haven't
stated it yet.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : Oh! But the
member for Cottesloe did last week.
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Members!
Point of Order
Mr R.S. LOVE : Point of order,
Deputy Speaker.
Several members interjected.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Members!
Points of order will be heard in silence. I give the call to the Leader of the
Opposition.
Mr R.S. LOVE : We are in
question time; this is not ''have an argument time''.
The
DEPUTY SPEAKER : Yes, I know. But
I will just say your alliance partners are doing the interjecting. Control your own side and you may not get as much response from the Treasurer.
Treasurer, it would be great to wrap it up, thanks.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : If this is
not ''have an argument time'', I need another career! Sorry.
In less than six months, the person
sitting next to the member for Cottesloe is advocating Liberal Party policy —
Ms L. Mettam : It was in a debate.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : To what?
Ms L. Mettam : It was comments
in a debate.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : So it was a comment.
What is the Liberal Party's policy?
Ms L. Mettam : You've
seen our policies.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : The Leader of
the Liberal Policy cannot count. Listening to her trying to count is awful.
Even worse is watching the Leader of the Liberal Party trying to navigate
budget papers. Has anyone ever seen that? Has anyone ever seen the Leader of
the Liberal Party doing that?
Ms L. Mettam : It's
the largest blowout in the state's history.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : So how much
is the Liberal Party's new ''Silver City'' school going
to cost?
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Treasurer!
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : She is
interjecting. The economic geniuses on the other side —
The DEPUTY SPEAKER : Treasurer, just wait. Leader of
the Liberal Party, your incessant interjecting is really drowning out the
response because you keep interjecting with different things for the Treasurer
to respond to. If you want to ask a question, you will get the opportunity to
stand up and do that, but we will let the Treasurer finish her response.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI : The economic
geniuses on the other side! There are only two of them and they cannot even
agree on where they are going to put a school in East Perth. There are two of
them. They should agree. One says, ''We have no policy''; the
other one says, ''We've got a policy that's going to
delay the school for 10 years and possibly cost more than $400 or $500 million.''
That is the Liberal Party of today—chaos and negativity. I know that
people out there will say, ''What are their policies? What are they on
about? They are very negative, but what do they actually stand for? What are
their commitments?'' When we were in opposition, we were out there doing
consultation on our policies. We were holding community forums about all the
policies we were introducing. We have less than six months to go and we hear
negativity, no policies and chaos and dysfunction.
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