State economy—Approvals process
344. Mrs Lisa Munday to the Treasurer:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's commitment to maintaining Western Australia as the strongest economy in the nation.
(1) Can the Treasurer please outline to the house how the Cook Labor government is working in partnership with the Albanese Labor government in the lead-up to the federal productivity round table?
(2) Can the Treasurer also advise the house what measures this government is taking to ensure that Western Australia remains positioned to be the economic powerhouse of the nation?
Ms Rita Saffioti replied:
(1)–(2) I thank the member for Dawesville for that question. Of course, all the statistics show that we have been leading the nation in recent years when it comes to economic growth—the strongest state final demand, the strongest domestic economy, the strongest business investment, the strongest retail trade, the strongest consumer confidence and, of course, some of the best job numbers in our history. But we know that we have to work hard to keep that economic momentum so that we can grow jobs and opportunities and make sure that we support our budget to be able to spend on key areas across government. As part of the lead-up to the round table that is happening right now, we have been working with the Albanese government through the Board of Treasurers and directly with the federal Treasurer, with meetings last week about initiatives to try to support future economic growth and economic productivity.
Of course, the big focus is economic infrastructure—our delivery of ports, roads, rail, energy and water supplies across the state to support new investment. We have also had improvements in our approvals process. A key focus of these three days will be the approvals process and making sure that we do not duplicate or create more red tape, and that other states in fact copy what has been undertaken in Western Australia to remove red tape to support a more streamlined approvals process. We know that we are in global competition for capital and that people want confidence in our approvals system. That has been a big focus. Of course, there was the Productivity Commission announcement made today by the Premier and me, again making sure that we have our own systems in place to continually look at how we facilitate economic infrastructure, how to get common-user infrastructure and how to have a regulatory system in place to ensure open access to monopolistic infrastructure to support new entrants throughout WA. There is a lot of work happening.
The whole nation is talking about how to simplify approvals. That is the current theme. There is only one side of politics across the whole nation that is looking at putting more red tape into the approvals system, and that is the Liberal Party. Remember, this was a party that was all about supporting business and cutting red tape, and now it has launched a parliamentary inquiry into putting more red tape into the system. Can members believe that? The whole nation is looking at productivity, efficiency and how to support investment, and we have a parliamentary committee commenced and headed by the Liberal Party to put more red tape into the planning system. I refer to the ABC article "Parliamentary inquiry to probe Cook government's anti-NIMBY planning laws". They have set up an inquiry to try to reject planning laws that are supporting more housing. This is something that I will keep making points about in the community, as I know the Minister for Planning does, and also across the nation. I will tell other Treasurers that we have a Liberal Party in WA that is actually undertaking a parliamentary committee to recommend more red tape.
Dr Tony Buti: The member for Nedlands must be home sick about it.
Ms Rita Saffioti: We cannot comment that he is not here, but I agree.
Last week, Liberal Party members demonstrated that they cannot count. This week, we again demonstrate that they are economic vandals who will do anything to stop investment in this state.
