Ahead of Prime Minister John Howard's meeting with State and Territory Leaders on the Federal Government's $10bn water package, Premier Alan Carpenter has condemned the lack of Commonwealth funding for Western Australia.
The full text of an announcement from the Premier's office is pasted below
On the eve of tomorrow's Water Summit in Canberra, Premier Alan Carpenter has attacked the Howard Government's lack of commitment towards Western Australia's water needs.
Mr Carpenter said that Commonwealth funding figures for water projects around the nation clearly showed that Canberra continued to ignore WA's interests despite the state signing the National Water Initiative ten months ago.
The figures reveal that WA accounts for a paltry 0.1 per cent of the total Commonwealth funding allocated through the Commonwealth Water Smart Australia Programme.
This was for one $800,000 project at Cottesloe compared to almost $600 million spent across the rest of Australia.
By contrast, the WA Government has spent $915 million on developing new water sources since 2001.
In the same period, it has spent $2.2 billion on water infrastructure.
"The discrepancies are disturbing," Mr Carpenter said.
"It is not just the south east of Australia that faces water challenges.
"WA is also grappling with water issues that deserve Commonwealth attention.
"The Federal Government is keen to promote WA as a leader in water resource management, which we are," the Premier said.
"But it is not as forthcoming when it comes to providing much needed funding for some of our big and innovative projects.
"In his invitation to tomorrow's summit, Mr Howard has made it clear that the focus will be on the Murray-Darling Basin jurisdictions.
"I plan to attend the summit fully recognising the importance of the Murray-Darling region and its impact on the Eastern Australia.
"However I will ask Mr Howard one critical question; what is he doing about the Western third of the continent?"
