❓ Ms. Mettam questions the Energy Minister about budget allocation for Western Power to address connection delays. The Minister responds that Western Power isn't directly funded through the budget, leading to a heated exchange.
AnsweredQoN 313Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
STATE BUDGET 2023–24 — WESTERN POWER
CONNECTIONS
313. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Energy:
I
refer to the 2023–24 state budget and the minister's response
to questions last week regarding delays in Western Power energy
connections to new builds. I quote —
Western Power is � actively
recruiting specialists as part of the distribution design team to increase
capacity and output.
Does the state budget include
additional funding for Western Power to recruit specialists and other measures
to fix this issue; and, if not, why not?
CONNECTIONS
313. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Energy:
I
refer to the 2023–24 state budget and the minister's response
to questions last week regarding delays in Western Power energy
connections to new builds. I quote —
Western Power is � actively
recruiting specialists as part of the distribution design team to increase
capacity and output.
Does the state budget include
additional funding for Western Power to recruit specialists and other measures
to fix this issue; and, if not, why not?
AnswerView source ↗
The answer to the first question is
no. I will explain why it is no. Western Power is not included in the budget.
It has never been included in the budget. Western Power is a government trading
enterprise. It is not funded by the budget. The interaction between Western
Power and the budget is explained in the budget papers, if the member would
care to read them: there are two interactions. The first is when a dividend is
paid by Western Power to the general government sector, but, of course, we are
currently not paying dividends from Western Power to the general government sector and we have not paid
them for a number of years. The other one is when there are injections of capital into Western Power. We do that in respect of the taxation
implications of gifted assets. The commonwealth government does not charge company taxes on GTEs. The GTEs pay tax
equivalents to the state government. A significant part of Western Power's
profit is from gifted assets from developers and others, therefore, it has to pay tax equivalents to the general government
sector. Because it does not have a cash asset to pay this, because it is in gifted assets, which are capital items, we therefore—it has been
done for a long time and was exactly the same under
your government as it is under ours—pay a return to compensate it for
the tax equivalents on the gifted assets . It is so fundamental to the
operation of Parliament, but the member is not aware that —
Ms M.J. Davies : What are you
doing, minister?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Order, please!
Opposition members, if you wanted to ask a different question, you should have
asked it. As I understand it, the minister is answering the question he was
asked.
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON : Yes,
exactly. This is typical of what opposition members do. They ask a question
because they do not understand even the fundamental issue. They did not know
that at no time has Western Power's activities
been included in the budget. They did not even know that. It was not included in
the budget when it was i n government. It was not included in the budget
today because it is not authorised expenditure by Parliament. It is authorised
under the Electricity Corporations Act. If the member does not understand that,
how could she possibly ask the question she asked?
Other members interjected
and asked what I am doing about that. It is a completely separate question. If
they want to get up and ask that
question, I will explain it to members. But do not ask me the wrong question,
which demonstrates the member has not done even the first step in
research. Again, I agree with the Minister for Transport, the member is a danger
to Western Australia. She does not do any work. She does not understand the way
Western Australia functions. She does not have any contacts in the business
community and she does not understand what Parliament does. The member voted in favour of supply bills every time she has been
here since the day she replaced Troy Buswell in Parliament. Did the
member understand what she was doing when she voted for those supply bills
because none of them, apart from the funding that I have already described,
were about the funding for Western Power?
no. I will explain why it is no. Western Power is not included in the budget.
It has never been included in the budget. Western Power is a government trading
enterprise. It is not funded by the budget. The interaction between Western
Power and the budget is explained in the budget papers, if the member would
care to read them: there are two interactions. The first is when a dividend is
paid by Western Power to the general government sector, but, of course, we are
currently not paying dividends from Western Power to the general government sector and we have not paid
them for a number of years. The other one is when there are injections of capital into Western Power. We do that in respect of the taxation
implications of gifted assets. The commonwealth government does not charge company taxes on GTEs. The GTEs pay tax
equivalents to the state government. A significant part of Western Power's
profit is from gifted assets from developers and others, therefore, it has to pay tax equivalents to the general government
sector. Because it does not have a cash asset to pay this, because it is in gifted assets, which are capital items, we therefore—it has been
done for a long time and was exactly the same under
your government as it is under ours—pay a return to compensate it for
the tax equivalents on the gifted assets . It is so fundamental to the
operation of Parliament, but the member is not aware that —
Ms M.J. Davies : What are you
doing, minister?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Order, please!
Opposition members, if you wanted to ask a different question, you should have
asked it. As I understand it, the minister is answering the question he was
asked.
Mr W.J. JOHNSTON : Yes,
exactly. This is typical of what opposition members do. They ask a question
because they do not understand even the fundamental issue. They did not know
that at no time has Western Power's activities
been included in the budget. They did not even know that. It was not included in
the budget when it was i n government. It was not included in the budget
today because it is not authorised expenditure by Parliament. It is authorised
under the Electricity Corporations Act. If the member does not understand that,
how could she possibly ask the question she asked?
Other members interjected
and asked what I am doing about that. It is a completely separate question. If
they want to get up and ask that
question, I will explain it to members. But do not ask me the wrong question,
which demonstrates the member has not done even the first step in
research. Again, I agree with the Minister for Transport, the member is a danger
to Western Australia. She does not do any work. She does not understand the way
Western Australia functions. She does not have any contacts in the business
community and she does not understand what Parliament does. The member voted in favour of supply bills every time she has been
here since the day she replaced Troy Buswell in Parliament. Did the
member understand what she was doing when she voted for those supply bills
because none of them, apart from the funding that I have already described,
were about the funding for Western Power?
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