WA election: Liberals, Labor focus on economy in week two as One Nation questions persist
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With the clock counting down to polling day in Western Australia, Premier Colin Barnett used a key speech to business leaders to cast his cash-strapped, debt-laden Government as "bold" and "brave".
At a pre-election executive breakfast hosted by the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry during the second full week of the election campaign, Mr Barnett likened his reign as Premier to that of Sir John Forrest and Sir Charles Court.
"He [Forrest] developed the Goldfields, he built the Goldfields water pipeline. Big decisions. And people talk about debt today, nothing like — in a comparative sense — what John Forrest undertook to do that," Mr Barnett said.
"Charles Court was brave, he underwrote the North West Shelf and he built the pipeline."
Like them, the Premier told the business audience, his Government had been brave in borrowing money to do big things, returning to his familiar narrative that WA had not missed out on the opportunities presented by the rise of China.
"I've got say this Government was brave, we have gone out and we have borrowed money, we have invested," he said.
"We have seen our iron ore industry double and our LNG industry treble and we've invested in the City of Perth, all of those things have happened so we have been brave."
That bravery has seen the Barnett Government deliver a swag of infrastructure projects from billion-dollar road improvements like the Gateway at Perth Airport and Perth Stadium to the troubled $1.2 billion Perth Children's Hospital.
But it has also seen the Government's budget plunge into the red to the tune of $3 billion this year and left state debt continuing to spiral upwards to a revised $41 billion by the end of the decade.
By casting his Government as brave and bold, the Premier has tried to blunt Labor's attack on his credibility as an economic manager.
Brave and bold or blown the boom?
Labor has described the Liberal-National Government as fiscal vandals who trashed the state's finances and blew the proceeds of the biggest boom the state has ever seen.
But for a Government that should be staggering on the fiscal ropes, Mr Barnett's team appears determined to make financial credibility the centrepiece of its re-election push.
By the end of the second full week of the campaign, the Government was setting a clear focus on the financial ability of Labor to deliver on its promises.
Labor's weekend announcement of its debt reduction plan was quickly attacked by both the Liberals and the business sector as unworkable.
Under the plan, Labor would use 50 per cent of royalties to pay down debt when WA's GST share rose above 65 cents and the iron ore price was above $85.
ABC political reporter Jacob Kagi analysed the budget position from 2000 to 2020 and concluded those conditions had been met only twice, and then only at the peak of the commodities boom.
The analysis showed the tax would have raised less than $4 billion in 20 years — or just 10 per cent of the forecast debt in 2020.
Labor vs Liberal on economics
Labor returned fire as the Liberals unveiled their plan for payroll tax relief for small business and land tax relief for property owners.
The Liberals proposed to lift the payroll tax threshold to $900,000, saving business $55 million over three years.
It also pledged to lift the threshold for land tax from $301,000 to $360,000, both changes coming into effect from July 2018.
Labor dismissed the proposals, saying they were broken promises in the making and would never be delivered.
But how much of the substantial argument on the state's finances is cutting through to voters is unclear.
That One Nation preference deal
For five consecutive days the Premier faced a barrage of questions from reporters about his party's preference deal with One Nation.
In a well-worn talking point echoed by other Liberals, Mr Barnett repeatedly said One Nation was not the party it once was and had moderated its views.
There appeared to be scant evidence of that during the week as reports emerged of social media posts from One Nation candidates, suggesting little if anything had changed in the minds of some party aspirants.
There was the case of Michelle Myers, who reportedly used Facebook last year to claim advocates of same-sex marriage were using "mind control" techniques developed by the Nazis and Soviets to garner support.
And then there were the social media posts of Richard Eldridge, who reportedly directed a stream of offensive comments against Muslims, gays and lesbians.
The questions about One Nation candidates clearly frustrated Mr Barnett, who had been one of the few Liberals to speak out about the treatment of asylum seekers and who had quickly volunteered to take Syrian refugees.
It was a preference deal to get the votes to remain in government, not an endorsement of One Nation policies or candidates, he said.
"There are many things that One Nation has promoted as policies over the years that I absolutely object to and I will be judged — Colin Barnett — on my approach on people coming to this country," Mr Barnett said.
"My compassion, our willingness to host them here, to look after their children, to educate their children, so judge me on what I say and do, not what someone else might say."
Voters no doubt will on March 11.
Topics: elections, states-and-territories, alp, liberals, one-nation, perth-6000, wa
