Bills
Treasurer's Advance Authorisation Bill 2025
Third reading
Resumed from an earlier stage of the sitting.
Ms Sandra Brewer (Cottesloe) (3:06 pm) : I will conclude the opposition's comments on the Treasurer's Advance Authorisation Bill 2025. When we looked at this bill, it became evident that a few themes were going on. First, we had an extremely short time to look at it. Perhaps not all members were here for the second reading debate and consideration in detail, but for the opposition to have only some 48 hours is most irregular and not consistent with the Premier's promise to lead a government that is humble and respectful and will return the trust that the people of Western Australia have placed in it. This bill proposes to advance an extra $1.926 billion to the Treasurer's existing advance limit of just over a billion dollars. The opposition has supported this bill in the interests of improving government services and delivery. The total amount forecast to be drawn in excess of and compared with the state budget is $2.5 billion, and over 70 items are outlined in the Government Mid-year Financial Projections Statement and the Pre-election Financial Projections Statement. Many of those costs are routine costs that should have been considered in the state budget. This is in stark contrast to 2021 when, following the election, members were given the courtesy of at least five days to consider the bill and only $750 million was sought to support costs related to Cyclone Seroja, the Wooroloo bushfires and the COVID pandemic.
The backdrop for the Treasurer's advance is 10.5% growth in expenditure. Over $4.3 billion more has been spent in the state budget compared with the previous year. Nevertheless, the opposition will support the bill and looks forward to the improvement in government services as a result. Governments should be judged by what they achieve, not by what they spend. I am also concerned that consideration in detail revealed that the state budget will be brought down on 19 June. Thank you very much! This is interesting. I hope that some government members will note what we found out this morning. The state budget will be held on 19 June. Following previous elections, the state budget in 2013 was brought down on 8 August; in 2017, it was on 7 September; and in 2021, it was on 9 September.
This year it will be on 19 June. Members can draw their own conclusions about why the state budget has been brought forward, but for approaching $50 billion in expenditure—
Ms Rita Saffioti: We were working hard.
Ms Sandra Brewer: The Treasurer will be working very hard and I hope her ministers know what they have been signed up for. This is going to be an absolutely rushed budget. It is going to be prepared by her ministers in a rush of weeks rather than months. It must be a reckless approach, or was the government so arrogant that Treasury had begun preparing the budget prior to the election, anticipating that the government would be returned and incorporating its election commitments? If it is the latter, there has been a gross misuse of the public sector and the poor public servants who have had to do that work. I feel for the ministers of the government, who now have a very short period of time in which to contribute to the state budget. The pressure is on them. We will be watching with interest how the budget process proceeds.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Treasury advisers for their contribution to the Treasurer's Advance Authorisation Bill 2025. I would like to thank them for the briefing that they provided and for being so responsive to the questions in consideration in detail today.
Ms Rita Saffioti (West Swan—Treasurer) (3:11 pm) in reply: I have never seen an opposition that does not want us to work hard. Honestly, what do members think we are going to be doing? Of course we want to work hard and present a budget. We have incredible economic momentum out there, as well as economic challenges. That is why we want to get on with it and present our budget. I have never seen an opposition pre-empt being the laziest opposition. We saw after eight years that members opposite were lazy, but they are already claiming that they do not want to do a budget and they want to defer it until September. We are ready to go. We are out there. I am working through the holidays and I am ready to go. I am shocked—or maybe not, because we have heard that the shadow Treasurer does not like to make decisions or do work. Now she is trying to say that she does not want us to work hard. I want to work hard. We all want to work hard, do we not? Having a 19 June budget means that we can work hard. Do members know why? It is because we have those election commitments to deliver. We outlined them. We have come in already. We have the stamp duty cuts, we have the student assistance payment and we have our commitments to roll out. We do not want to wait until December to do that, do we, members? No. We have commitments to our constituencies. Do we like working hard, members?
Government members: Yes.
Ms Rita Saffioti: Do we like delivering our commitments, members?
Government members: Yes.
Ms Rita Saffioti: That is what we are doing. We are out there delivering our commitments and working hard. I am sorry, shadow Treasurer. I do not know what the member had planned. I do not know whether she had planned some holidays. But we are out there delivering a budget to deliver the commitments that we gave to Western Australians at the election. That is why they voted for us. They did not vote for us to sit around and think about it for six months, did they, members?
Government members: No.
Ms Rita Saffioti: They voted for us to come in here, get stuff done and deliver the commitments, and that is what we are doing.
Question put and passed.
Bill read a third time and transmitted to the Council.
