Liberals’ and Nationals’ $7 billion in commitments would ruin the State finances

The WA Liberals’ complete disregard for a transparent and robust costings process was on full display once again, with billions worth of commitments missing from their sham costings briefing today.
  • WA Liberals costing farce highlights inexperience and risk to Western Australia
  • Liberals fail to disclose more than $2 billion worth of commitments
  • Even without missing billions, Liberal and National commitments are $7 billion
  • Liberal and National commitments are double the cost of WA Labor commitments
  • Western Australians let down with major WA Liberal election commitments broken
  • WA Liberals relied on a former Liberal staffer to undertake their costings
  • Net debt would rise to about $45 billion under the Liberals and Nationals

The WA Liberals’ complete disregard for a transparent and robust costings process was on full display once again, with billions worth of commitments missing from their sham costings briefing today.

Despite making election commitments worth $6.3 billion, the Liberals claim the cost will only be about $4 billion, while they also plan to cut about $700 million from critical programs.

It means mystery surrounds more than $2 billion worth of election commitments that were simply missing in the WA Liberals’ briefing today.

Despite excluding billions from their election commitment costings, the total cost of the Liberals’ and Nationals’ commitments are still about $7 billion, double the cost WA Labor’s commitments.

The level of spending presents a significant risk to the Western Australian economy and finances.

Based on the level of spending being proposed by the Liberals and Nationals, net debt would be on track to reach $45 billion by the end of the forward estimates.

It’s also been revealed the Liberals relied on a former Liberal staffer who was the right-hand man of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, to “assess” their costings.

Once again, it appears the “assessment” included no critical analysis of the commitments and was simply a process of adding up what the Liberals thought their commitments might cost.

The election commitments and projects the Liberals and Nationals have now walked away from include:

  • More than $700 million to freeze household fees and charges;
  • $444 million for new energy infrastructure, including a new gas-fired power station and upgrades to the Dampier to Bunbury pipeline;
  • $300 million over a two-year period to charities and not for profits;
  • $127 million for school infrastructure and facilities;
  • $60 million for a boost to the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme;
  • $60 million for Como Secondary College upgrades;
  • $45 million for RFDS helicopters in Geraldton;
  • $40 million for Pringle Village in Kalgoorlie;
  • $15 million for enhanced St John WA Ambulance Communication;
  • $10 million for additional regional paramedics;
  • Construction of critical new labs and facilities for the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development;
  • Increasing the Regional Pensioner Travel Card from $675 to $800;
  • Delivery of a new marina in Rockingham; and
  • Extending the Mullaloo water pipeline.

The WA Liberals also failed on health with no disclosure of how much taxpayers will be slugged for their reckless plan to rip up the contract for the new Women and Babies Hospital, nor the additional cost of building the hospital on a significantly constrained site.

The costings briefing also showed the WA Liberals’ plan to invest just $5 million towards their so-called “rebuild” of Royal Perth Hospital, while they will walk away from the critical Canning Bridge interchange redevelopment, abandoning the people of South Perth and Bateman.

Comments attributed to Treasurer Rita Saffioti:

“The Liberals and Nationals have not learned any lessons since they increased WA’s debt from $3.6 billion to $43.7 billion."

“What we saw today was a complete farce."

“It’s absolutely clear why the WA Liberals have again waited until 48 hours before polling day to release their costings, and outline who was doing the analysis."

“This is a Liberal Party that has been running around the State promising the world, but now we see more than $2 billion worth of commitments missing."

“Given they’ve gone to the right-hand man of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison to ‘assess’ their costings, I am not surprised there was no scrutiny about this enormous black hole of missing commitments."

“Even when you account for the missing billions, the Liberal and National commitments are still double WA Labor’s commitments, which poses a significant risk to our economy and finances."

“The Shadow Treasurer was pushed today on how they would reconcile the commitments across the Liberals and Nationals, and he had no idea."

“How can the Liberals and Nationals claim they want to form a coalition government when they don’t even talk to each other about their costings?"

“Today's performance just highlights the inexperience and risk the Liberals and Nationals pose to our State and way of life."

Back to media