Budget Realities Leave Regions High and Dry
29 August 2013
Greens Senator for Western Australia Scott Ludlam and Greens WA Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region, Robin Chapple MLC, today slammed the Barnett/Grylls Liberal/National government as disquiet over the under-performance of its ‘Royalties for Regions’ policy spreads.
Senator Ludlam said “Goldfields people have now joined the lengthening queue of those directly affected by this government’s brazen and breathtakingly rapid abandonment of many of its pre-election commitments.
“I suggest WA voters think carefully about the promise compared to the performance when they line up to make their choice in next week’s election.
“The federal coalition has now promised to go down a similar path on royalties to regions as their WA counterparts, and I believe the WA experience shows that the model is a seriously flawed one”, said Senator Ludlam.
Mr Chapple continued, “Prior to the state election, we had promises from the Premier and promises from Mr Grylls, all echoed by their various candidates – and we all saw the blatant pork-barrelling of the Nationals’ polling station election placards with their rows of sparking dollar coins.
“Now here we are less than 6 months later and it’s all unravelling – as foreshadowed by the state Under-Treasurer in his pre-election financial analysis.
“The fiscal realities are biting, and the question must be asked as to whether the government lied to the people prior to the election – because they clearly knew they were in no position to make the promises that they did.
“It is a disgraceful situation to have Shires like Laverton now caught out as the innocent victims of this government’s deceit”, Mr Chapple concluded.
