Nahan expects Barnett to retire

Former West Australian Liberal premier Colin Barnett’s exit will give opposition ‘clean air’, Mike Nahan says

Former West Australian Liberal premier Colin Barnett will leave politics by the end of the year and give the state opposition “clean air”, state opposition leader Mike Nahan says.

Mr Barnett has remained on the back bench of state parliament since a landslide in March ended his more than nine years as premier. He has given no indication that he intends to retire but this morning Dr Nahan said he believed it would happen after the McGowan-Labor government hands down its first budget in September.

“I expect him in his own good time to leave this year but it’s his choice and he isn’t being what Tony Abbott is — coming in on all breadth of policy — he has promised publicly not to do that to me and I respect him for it,” Dr Nahan told Geoff Hutchison on ABC Mornings in Perth.

“I trust him. He wants to see the budget come down, look at his legacy, make sure it isn’t inappropriately trashed if you wish and I’m sure he’s going to get on and give us clean air.”

Dr Nahan reiterated his view that the sale of Western Australia’s electricity poles and wires was the right strategy to take to the election, and stressed it should be sold now rather than in four years time when it may not be worth the $13 million its sale was predicted to raise last year.

“The major focus of that (election) campaign, and I was central to it, was a debt reduction program. We lost the election in large part on promoting that debt reduction program,” he said.

“Labor won in part because they pilloried it. They went to the election knowing what the debt was and choosing not to have a debt reduction program.”

Dr Nahan said the electricity market was subject to major dislocation and he still believed the Liberals’ decision to sell Western Power before it lost value was the correct way to deal with state debt, which is headed for $42 billion.

“You’re right people said to us ‘the only reason you’re selling is because you got us into this in the first place’,” Dr Nahan said.

“But that was the right thing to do not just because it paid down the debt ... the public doesn’t want to own these assets. It’s like owning a taxi industry or a hotel subject to Airbnb that firm is being subject to dramatic dislocation because of microgrids and renewables.”

In his chatty interview, Dr Nahan confirmed the WA Liberals knew they spent too much in their first term. When it was time to campaign in 2013 for a second term, the Barnett government made promises it could not keep including the MAX light rail project that was later scrapped.

However Dr Nahan said the Liberals’ overspending was not on infrastructure, as many believed, but on an expansion of services — the state government poured extra billions into education, health, mental health, child protection and disability services, much of it on wages.

As a result, WA now spends 35 per cent more per secondary student than the national average and has 50 per cent more education assistants per student than other states and territories.

“It’s obvious we spent too much during the first term, not so much in capital,” he said.

“People don’t realise Colin Barnett’s legacy is not so much (riverfront development) Elizabeth Quay or the (new sports) stadium, it’s actually an expansion in both the quantity and quality of frontline and essential services.”