Mr. Papalia questions Premier Barnett about the impact of state government charges on local government rate increases. Premier Barnett deflects, criticises Papalia's preparation, and offers to investigate the matter further.

AnsweredQoN 427Legislative Assembly
Asked
18 August 2010
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

LOCAL GOVERNMENT RATES — INCREASES
As a supplementary question, with all the pain that the Premier is inflicting on households in Western Australia, why has he not shown enough interest to find out how much of these rate rises is being caused by his government? Mr C.J. BARNETT

AnswerView source ↗

Has the member any idea? Mr P. Papalia : I am asking you. You are the Premier. Mr C.J. BARNETT : He does not have a clue. One would think that if he were the shadow spokesperson asking questions on electricity prices, he would have actually done a bit of work. I will tell the member what I will do for him; I can do no more. I will inquire of the department, and indeed I will then inquire of the councils to give the member a breakdown tomorrow—if they respond—of what percentage of those rate increases is accounted for by increases in state government charges. Indeed, we might ask them to attribute the rate increase to other expenses that the councils might be incurring, and one of those might be related to their staff numbers.
Mr C.J. BARNETT replied: Has the member any idea? Mr P. Papalia : I am asking you. You are the Premier. Mr C.J. BARNETT : He does not have a clue. One would think that if he were the shadow spokesperson asking questions on electricity prices, he would have actually done a bit of work. I will tell the member what I will do for him; I can do no more. I will inquire of the department, and indeed I will then inquire of the councils to give the member a breakdown tomorrow—if they respond—of what percentage of those rate increases is accounted for by increases in state government charges. Indeed, we might ask them to attribute the rate increase to other expenses that the councils might be incurring, and one of those might be related to their staff numbers.
Has the member any idea? Mr P. Papalia : I am asking you. You are the Premier. Mr C.J. BARNETT : He does not have a clue. One would think that if he were the shadow spokesperson asking questions on electricity prices, he would have actually done a bit of work. I will tell the member what I will do for him; I can do no more. I will inquire of the department, and indeed I will then inquire of the councils to give the member a breakdown tomorrow—if they respond—of what percentage of those rate increases is accounted for by increases in state government charges. Indeed, we might ask them to attribute the rate increase to other expenses that the councils might be incurring, and one of those might be related to their staff numbers.
Mr P. Papalia : I am asking you. You are the Premier. Mr C.J. BARNETT : He does not have a clue. One would think that if he were the shadow spokesperson asking questions on electricity prices, he would have actually done a bit of work. I will tell the member what I will do for him; I can do no more. I will inquire of the department, and indeed I will then inquire of the councils to give the member a breakdown tomorrow—if they respond—of what percentage of those rate increases is accounted for by increases in state government charges. Indeed, we might ask them to attribute the rate increase to other expenses that the councils might be incurring, and one of those might be related to their staff numbers.
Mr C.J. BARNETT : He does not have a clue. One would think that if he were the shadow spokesperson asking questions on electricity prices, he would have actually done a bit of work. I will tell the member what I will do for him; I can do no more. I will inquire of the department, and indeed I will then inquire of the councils to give the member a breakdown tomorrow—if they respond—of what percentage of those rate increases is accounted for by increases in state government charges. Indeed, we might ask them to attribute the rate increase to other expenses that the councils might be incurring, and one of those might be related to their staff numbers.

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