Saffioti defends Metronet, backs business on Nature Positive

Treasurer Rita Saffioti has defended the state’s Metronet investment and gone into bat for business on Nature Positive law reform in her first post-budget breakfast address.

The treasurer, fresh off delivering her first state budget, was at her cutting best in a speech to a room full of business dignitaries and political figures.

Introduced by Premier Roger Cook as the “greatest treasurer in Australia”, Ms Saffioti went on the attack over criticisms of Western Australia’s economic distribution and GST share.

That followed commentary from Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas earlier in the week, who, in handing down that state’s budget, claimed WA got more than its fair share of the federal tax.

Invoking a Looney Tunes reference, Ms Saffioti pointed to the fact $13 billion of WA’s GST would be distributed to the other states as part of the current GST deal as evidence the state was pulling its weight.

“As one of my favourite Warner Brothers cartoons, Foghorn Leghorn, says, ‘That’s mathematics son. You can argue with me, but you can’t argue with the figures’,” she said.  

The budget Ms Saffioti handed down laid out an impressive set of figures, with a surplus in the order of $3.2 billion expected in the year to June 30.

That’s followed by projected surpluses of $2.6 billion next financial year and $2.4 billion the following.

State debt is expected to grow from $28.6 billion at June 30 this year to $40.9 billion by the end of FY2028.

The numbers also highlighted a further increase in the budget allocation for Ms Saffioti’s signature Metronet project, which has been beset by cost overruns and targeted by the opposition over the course of its policy life.

Ms Saffioti defended Metronet, pointing to its comparative affordability compared to similar east coast projects and its impact for outer suburban residents.

Ms Saffioti said it was unfair to compare the overall cost of Metronet, which currently sits at around $12 billion, to the original budget estimate of $2.9 billion assigned to the project in 2017.

The treasurer said the original budget only covered nine projects, and the scope of work under the Metronet banner had expanded considerably as more were added.

The cost of the original nine projects is now estimated at $6.6 billion.

“That comparison of $4.8 billion to $12.6 billion isn’t correct,” she said.

“It’s like saying ‘we’ll build five schools for fifty million dollars, and then building twelve schools for $120 million, and then saying that the cost has blown out there.

“But yes, Metronet is a big project.”

Ms Saffioti also waded into the debate around the federal government’s contentious Nature Positive law reform, telling the audience the government was doing all it could to stand up for WA interests.

“On a treasury level, I tend to raise it in every meeting I have with the federal treasurer,” she said.

“When you start to look at productivity and efficiency in the future, we have to make sure that we don’t deal ourselves out of the game.”