Nick Butterly: ‘McGowan Government deserve credit for their work in keeping WA expenses under control’

ANALYSIS

The McGowan Government has always been sensitive to questions of the role luck has played in its political circumstances.

But even Ben Wyatt would have to admit the Government has had more than its share of good fortune come its way in recent months.

Iron ore receipts have poured into State coffers thanks to a mine collapse in Brazil and a cyclone up north. A GST deal inked by the Morrison Government has started to hit the books and WA finds itself being showered with Federal cash for roads and rail thanks to the large number of Federal seats in play in this State.

There was even an impeccably timed royal birth to divert attention from the handful of more questionable assumptions buried down the back of the books.

But as the saying goes, the harder you work the luckier you get and Wyatt and McGowan deserve credit for their work in keeping expenses under control while using all their leverage to squeeze cash out of Canberra.

With a surprise $553 million surplus this year and growing surpluses over the forward estimates, the Government has laid the foundations for an election Budget next year that will deliver cash to voters while delivering on WA Labor’s key election promise of budget repair.

While some of the figures in this Budget are hugely encouraging (the predicted surplus in 2020-21 of $2.57 billion surpasses some of the largest handed down by Eric Ripper) some suspension in belief is needed.

As Wyatt himself admitted, this Budget relies on numbers handed down in the Federal Budget by a Government that could be thrown out in eight days time.

But quibbles aside, Wyatt and McGowan have delivered an enviable set of numbers and look supremely placed for the 2021 election.