He says the policy will protect taxpayer funds from the ‘looseness of spending’ that had been prevalent in the past and would bring WA into line with all other states which already have transparent processes for dealing with unsolicited proposals.
McGowan told the conference he thought the economy was on the way up, with every bit of evidence showing the economic situation in WA was improving.
“CCI do regular publications about business confidence and they show business confidence is the strongest it has been in WA for seven years,” he said.
“That’s very good. The domestic economy is back into growth. A whole range of aspects of economic indicators are getting stronger every day. “
McGowan said he has a strong interest in financial management and not burdening future generations with debt and was, therefore, keen to address the extraordinarily large debt and deficits in last month’s state budget to get the state’s finances back on track and on a sustainable footing.
“I was very pleased with CCI, their second last edition of Business Pulse magazine. They put a photo of the Treasurer on the front and the heading ‘The budget we love’ and I have been waving that around in Parliament quite a lot because the Treasurer is too modest to refer to it himself,” he joked.
“I have been waving it around at the state Opposition, so they haven’t missed that second last edition of Business Pulse either. The Treasurer tells me he’s got it framed and putting it on his wall because he has his ups and downs with CCI to be fair, so this was an up.”
McGowan highlighted four key reasons why he thought the economy was looking up and where the government was working with business including:
- BHP’s South Flank announcement
- Chevron’s State Two Gorgon
- Approval of twin towers in Scarborough
- Woodside’s browse and Scarborough gas on shore in Karratha.
He said the other policy that was almost ready for release – and that would help business to work with the government – was Infrastructure WA, which he said would end the haphazard way that previous WA governments had gone about their infrastructure plans.
It would assist business investments in projects and the securing of Commonwealth funds, he said.
The draft MLP is open for a six-week public consultation period, closing on August 9. For more information, visit http://www.dpc.wa.gov.au/marketledproposals.
