Defining decade ahead: Barnett

PREMIER Colin Barnett has continued to contrast himself with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, trumping her two-year vision by offering his view on what he believes will be Western Australia’s defining decade.

Mr Barnett has been a significant fly in the ointment for federal Labor as the nation’s only Liberal premier, so it may not be that surprising that he’s offered a subtle dig at his political opponent’s short-sightedness.

Where he was less subtle, though, was in welcoming incoming Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, another Liberal, saying his election would bring true debate back to the meetings of the Council of Australian Governments.

“It was fantastic to wake up this morning and realise I am no longer the sole Liberal premier in Australia,” Mr Barnett told a Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA audience.

“It will be good to have a mate at the COAG table and I suspect there will be another mate from New South Wales on the 27th of March [2011].

“That fundamentally changes the dynamics of Australian politics, and it fundamentally changes the role of COAG.

“It also means that major issues such as carbon tax proposals, mining tax proposals and so-called health reform really come back into the melting pot.”

In outlining his vision for the state’s next 10 years, Mr Barnett predicted it would be a “defining decade” akin to the gold rush or the 1960s development of the Pilbara.

He said this would occur in two key ways: through the mining, oil and gas industries reaching much higher operating levels; and through the transformation of the city of Perth.

Annual iron ore production would reach 700 million tonnes by 2020, up from the current 380mtpa, and liquified natural gas production would reach 60mtpa, making Australia second only to Qatar as the world’s biggest producer of LNG.

Mr Barnett said such an increase in production would need to be partnered with a corresponding growth and improvement in infrastructure, particularly in rail, port and living facilities in the state’s north.

“These are huge infrastructure projects in themselves, simply to support that expansion in capacity; (putting) extraordinary responsibilities on industry, and extraordinary demands on the state government,” he said.

“This is probably the greatest nation-building economic development in Australia’s history since the 1960s.”

Mr Barnett also highlighted the importance of ensuring local content and workers were used in these large-scale resource projects in the north, but said his government would not make this compulsory for project proponents.

Turning his attention to the redevelopment of Perth, the premier said that after the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting next year, work would begin in earnest on the long-awaited waterfront project, and the Entertainment Centre would be demolished in preparation to sink the railway line.

Mr Barnett also said the government was in the early stages of planning a light rail network to service the inner suburbs.

In reminding the audience about his stance on states’ rights, he also raised the issue of GST revenue allocation, with WA’s share predicted to fall to just 43 cents in the dollar by 2014.

Mr Barnett said this falling revenue meant WA had to be more independent in terms of income generation.

“This state has absolutely no option,” he said.

“We have to be more self-reliant in all that we do and we have to integrate our economy ever more closely with the growth economies of Asia.”