News Articles for Colin Barnett

Premier Colin Barnett has demanded Labor submit its election promises to Treasury for costing, saying that should be the modern standard for oppositions.

ANALYSIS: Nationals WA leader Brendon Grylls has attacked the debt reduction strategies of both the Liberal and Labor parties as unrealistic. However, he confirmed that, in the event of a hung parliament after the March 11 election, his party would only work with the Liberals to form a new government.

ANALYSIS: There used to be a golden rule in election campaigns that candidates should be seen but not heard. The public face of the party was the leader, whose commitments and comments were always carefully scripted.

ANALYSIS: Colin Barnett and Mark McGowan face the biggest test of their long political careers over the next 12 days. Each knows that a loss in the March 11 state election will mean the end of their political career.

Premier Colin Barnett has rejected calls to release the latest costings for the Roe 9 stage of the contentious Perth Freight Link project, saying it would undermine the tender process.

OPINION: The polls appear to be tightening ahead of next month's election, with renewed interest also in which minor parties may hold the balance of power.

ANALYSIS: Colin Barnett has taken a political risk in expressing his view that the Fair Work Commission's historic decision to cut Sunday penalty rates for pharmacy, fast food, hospitality and retail workers should also apply to Western Australian award workers.

The new Curtin Medical School welcomed its first cohort of 60 students today at an opening ceremony held this morning.

ANALYSIS: Why has WA Labor dumped its proposed 50 per cent renewable energy target for the state by 2030, at the same time as the party's federal leader, Bill Shorten, is promoting the figure as a national goal?

The WA Liberals are talking up their proposed privatisation of Western Power, announcing details of plans to build a new live export loading berth at Kwinana in Perth's south using funds from the partial sale.

Premier Colin Barnett has called on the federal government to pick a figure for the proposed GST floor, saying he would agree to 70 cents in the dollar as the prime minister has indicated.

ANALYSIS: Malcolm Turnbull was simply bowing to political reality when fending off questions about Western Australia's miserable share of GST revenue during his whirlwind visit to Perth on Monday.

ANALYSIS: Both Colin Barnett and Mark McGowan wisely avoided making big spending commitments when they launched their formal election campaigns on Sunday.

ANALYSIS: With early voting for the state election due to start on Monday, both Colin Barnett and Mark McGowan will face major tests when they deliver their formal policy speeches on Sunday.

The WA Liberals have pledged to raise the payroll tax threshold by $50,000 from next year, and have promised not to raise taxes or bring in new ones if re-elected, in contrast with Labor and despite the state's record debt and deficit.

OPINION: Our political leaders do voters a disservice by failing to spell out their economic agenda.

ANALYSIS: Memories of 2001 will be top-of -mind for many Liberal Party state executive members when they meet tomorrow to decide the preference recommendations for their how-to-vote cards ahead of next month's election.

The state government has urged the WA Football Commission to show common sense after it rejected $100 million in compensation over 10 years to surrender its lease on Subiaco Oval.

ANALYSIS: The state election battleground has now moved to Perth's northern suburbs, with three Liberal-held seats previously thought impregnable now in play.

State Treasurer Mike Nahan has put his neck on the line to stop the Nationals WA's proposed mining tax, saying he will resign from the portfolio if a post-election Liberal government does a deal to lift royalties.

A marina in Perth's north is a sure thing after the WA Liberals pledged $105 million to its development, weeks after Labor committed $40 million to a similar project.

SPECIAL REPORT: Two Perth mayors have more at stake than most if the controversial Roe 8 contract is ripped up, having both devoted decades fighting on opposite sides of the debate.

Premier Colin Barnett has criticised the mining industry over its prominent media campaign against Nationals leader Brendan Grylls and his proposed mining tax hike, on the first day of the election campaign.

The state and Commonwealth governments today signed a bilateral agreement for a nationally consistent, locally delivered National Disability Insurance Scheme, set to be delivered from July.

WA Labor leader Mark McGowan today guaranteed that, if elected in the March state poll, he would return the budget to surplus within his first term as premier.

The state government will spend nearly $3 million each year for the next three years to market Qantas's new Perth-to-London direct flights, which the national carrier confirmed would go on sale in

Kwinana Mayor Carol Adams has announced her third tilt at state parliament, nominating as an independent for the South Metropolitan region in the Legislative Council, while the WA Liberals remain tight lipped about a potential preference deal with Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

A significant lift in private capital expenditure in the tourism sector could provide a tailwind for Western Australia's struggling economy this year, according to the author of a report released by investment bank UBS.

The Western Australian parliament has finished all business until after the election on March 11, after it was prorogued by WA governor Kerry Sanderson.

The state government says it expects to reap about $300 million from the sale of all nine lots at Elizabeth Quay, with three offers being considered for the last vacant site.

The Royal Automobile Club of WA and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA have both welcomed an election pledge by Premier Colin Barnett to spend $520 million upgrading a freight rail line between Thornlie and Cockburn to enable passenger service.

A new tourism venture has taken flight, with sightseers now able to make day trips down south via seaplanes that take off and land on the Swan River, as a second operator continues a long-running battle to gain regulatory approval for a similar service.

The state government has received a proposal for a $1.85 billion World Trade Centre in the Perth CBD from a Middle Eastern-backed private group that includes former Perth Airport manager Neil Kidd.

Colin Barnett has criticised protesters for disrupting the government's Roe 8 project, saying they were refusing to accept the courts' decisions and did not deserve sympathy.

OPINION: The WA branch of Queenslander Pauline Hanson's protest party appears set to influence the state election.

OPINION: With the hot days of summer now upon us, many Western Australians might be confused about how safe it is to head to the beach, given the state government's mixed messages on the threat posed by sharks.

SPECIAL REPORT: Many politicians, including senior government ministers, go through their careers as ‘grey' men or women, barely getting noticed and having little impact; the same could never be said of Brendon Grylls.

Colin Barnett says the federal government should provide more funding to the state for major infrastructure projects to stem the economic slowdown that has hit since the mining boom ended.

Federal Attorney General George Brandis says he is unaware of any fresh action planned by the Western Australian government to bring the long-running Bell Group litigation to an end.

An agreement unveiled yesterday between Perth Airport, Qantas and the state government will pave the way for direct Perth-to-London flights in 2018, but the tourism industry is concerned the federal government will not provide adequate Border Force staff.