A cashed-up Western Australian government faces spending pressures across the board as Premier Mark McGowan prepares to deliver a record budget surplus.
A cashed-up Western Australian government faces spending pressures across the board as Premier Mark McGowan prepares to deliver a record budget surplus.
Mr McGowan is expected to unveil on Thursday a $5 billion surplus as he delivers his first budget under his re-elected Labor government.
Amid the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial blueprint will reinforce WA's position as one of the best-performed economies in the world.
But it will also reignite calls for more spending, particularly from health unions which have blamed a lack of investment for chronic overcrowding and staff shortages at public hospitals.
The government has been forced into reactive measures such as postponing some elective surgeries, despite having a negligible coronavirus caseload.
Doctors have questioned whether WA's hospitals would cope if the state did have a significant outbreak.
With iron ore royalties again generating a significant windfall for the state, the McGowan government has promised to open 332 new hospital beds as part of an additional $1.9 billion health investment in Thursday's budget.
A major recruitment drive is underway to find an additional 600 nurses over the next two years.
The Australian Medical Association has welcomed the announcements but expressed concern that WA Health's operational budget may increase by 1.25 per cent, a figure the union described as "totally inadequate".
Unions are meanwhile urging the government to remove a public sector wage freeze which has remained in place since 2017.
Annual wage increases for teachers and other public servants will remain capped at $1000 for the next two years before reverting to inflation under the existing policy.
Mr McGowan, in his capacity as treasurer, will formalise a promise to build 3300 new social homes over the next four years.
The budget will include $875 million for the sector, including $228 million for projects to increase housing stock in the short term.
Since Labor came to office in 2017, WA's public housing waitlist has blown out to about 17,000 people.
Acute demand for housing among the most vulnerable has spiked since a moratorium on rental evictions ended in March.
A further $1 billion will be allocated to WA's management of COVID-19, supporting police and other frontline workers.
