Thursday’s state budget won’t be making any hall-of-fame list.
Aside from some cheeky financial gymnastics to soften the blow on household fees and charges, Treasurer Rita Saffioti was true to her word and delivered a budget that wasn’t “sexy”.
WA Premier Roger Cook and Treasurer Rita Saffioti handed down the budget on Thursday.Credit: WAtoday
But boring budgets aren’t such a bad thing.
Reporters in New South Wales will have a smorgasbord of stories to write when they’re told their debt is heading toward $137 billion in eight years.
Likewise, in Victoria, journalists must be spoilt for choice choosing headlines when the government announced debt will reach $187 billion in 2028.
The Cook government’s first post-election budget contained no such jaw-dropping figures.
“Thank God for rocks and royalties.”
CCIWA chief economist Aaron Morey
Sure, debt is going up – nearly $5.5 billion in fact from this financial year to next – and there appears to be no plan to rein it in, with expenses having grown more than $6 billion over just two years.
And a plan to drop expenses by 5 per cent next year is as laughable as the same optimistic figures that suggested a similar drop in spending in last year’s budget.
But iron ore, gold, GST and stamp duty revenue continues to float the good ship Western Australia over the troubled waters those other states are sailing through.
With the threat of sporadic tariffs and nations teetering on war, a boring budget feels like a warm blanket.
Surpluses are like immunity pills to opposition attacks over budget management. A budget deficit in the opposition’s armory is a far more effective weapon than criticising a government for not spending its windfalls wisely enough.
What’s clear from this budget is that the government is addicted to infrastructure. The asset investment program – the umbrella term for all government spending on big projects like Metronet, roads and ports – is calculated to be $38 billion over the next four years.
This includes $12.1 billion this year.
For the first time trains and roads won’t make up the majority of infrastructure spend – that crown goes to ports, pipes, poles and wires.
The pivot is part of Roger Cook’s “Made in WA” plan to diversify the economy into new energy and manufacturing sectors.
It’s a noble pursuit given the outsized reliance the state has on mining to do the heavy lifting for its own budget.
As WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s chief economist Aaron Morey said on Thursday:“Thank God for rocks and royalties.”
Of all the rhetoric around “diversifying WA’s economy” that has been bandied about like a shuttlecock this past decade this budget seems to have finally placed some financial firepower behind the press releases.
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