WA budget continues shift of resources
By Rodney Cheuk
and Jon Strauss
PERTH — Business lobby groups and the West Australian have howled about a loss of "reforming zeal" on the part of the Court Liberal government because its September 16 budget increased spending and introduced no new taxes.
Trades and Labor Council assistant secretary Tony Cooke described it as not a bad budget and one that could have been brought in by a Labor government.
The has already implemented a whole series of cutbacks in social services and privatisation of government enterprises, including the closure of the Midland railway workshops and the Robbs Jetty meatworks, the proposed closure of schools and country hospitals, the elimination of construction and maintenance work by the Building Management Authority and Homeswest and the recently announced 30% cut in government school cleaners.
The budget continues the shift of government support into the corporate coffers at the cost of social services and the environment:
- Small real increases in funding to education and to health are barely enough to maintain those services since they have had to endure successive cuts by the previous Labor governments and are already operating on "corporate lines" and with minimum staff.
- The Waterways Commission, the responsibilities of which include control of pollution in the Swan River, has had its funding cut by 6%.
- The Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority, responsible for funds for fringe dwellers and remote communities, has suffered a cut of more than 10%.
- Women's Refuge Group resource worker Nadine Wilton said women were the unrecognised victims of the budget, according to the September 17 West Australian.
- Spending on the Department of Minerals and Energy increased by 17.5%. Most of this is earmarked to help resources companies, through a new mineral research centre at Technology Park in Bentley, money for the offshore oil industry and a $2 million loan to the Western Mining Corporation Nifty copper project.
- Police get a 7% increase.
- $1 million has been set aside to fight native title claims.
- The Conservation and Land Management department, already well known for its efforts to meet logging company interests, is expected to devote further funds to the development of export and tourism industries.
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies described the budget as "fair and reasonable". The mining industry can expect price rises for its commodities and continuing productivity rises, according to the budget. It therefore sees little reason to press hard on social services and infrastructures that are already cut to the bone.
The budget predicts little improvement in employment, the unemployment rate being expected to average 9.2%, and offers no program to create jobs.