WA Dudded by Boom

[jargan83]

An interesting read I thought (even though it is on a News Ltd site )

Nothing to show for WA

Liam Barlett

January 17, 2009 05:00pm

WEST Australians have every right to feel dudded. The so-called unrivalled boom has come and, according to the official figures, gone, and has left not much.

Take a drive through city streets and try to get a sense of what the ``once-in-a-lifetime'' economic picnic delivered.

There's the odd new chrome and glass monolith with the name of a mining company stapled to the side of it, but apart from that, where's the public benefit? Where's the social dividend associated with all the prosperity?

Time lapse video of the Perth city skyline with the ferris wheel spinning

We've been rolling in excess funds for the past five years and, still, we have no new football stadium, no new indoor sporting venue and no new state museum. The Northbridge rail line is still above ground and the city foreshore remains sterile and undeveloped.

The East Perth power station site has been left to rot, the mothballed Entertainment Centre is a terrible eyesore and the much-vaunted urban renewal around the WACA Ground is half-baked.

Apologies at asking another rhetorical question, but how is all this non-achievement possible given the vast amount of wealth that has flowed through state coffers?

In 2004, with the boom kicking in, former treasurer Eric Ripper booked a surplus of $799 million. The following year it delivered $1.104 billion, then $2.59billion, $2.25 billion and last year $2.507billion.

And remember those riches are independent of the billions that we sent off to Canberra to fatten the national wallet.

Based on those numbers, Mr Ripper had at least $9 billion over and above the normal operating cost of running the state to spend on infrastructure from which all taxpayers could benefit.



http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/stor...2-2761,00.html

[slomo]

he's spot on...you cant argue with any of that...

[blueandblack]

but its Liam Barlett, so makes it a tad easier.

Essentially the item is correct. I expect a lot of the funds went on the Mandurah rail-line and the extension of the Joondalup line to Currambine or whatever the current end of the line now is. I expect they'll make Geraldton the end of the line at some point, and maybe Margaret River at the other end.

East Perth hasn't finished yet. No doubt he's talking about Claisebrook Cove and the fruit-salad colouring of buildings there. If you look at (and if he'd looked at) the EPRA website here , there is still plenty of planned works. I say East Perth hasn't finished yet because I note that the 4A carpark next to the WACA will become residential properties (albeit with a carpark building dug into the "Hillside").

Unfortunately the article, whether rightly or wrongly, sounds like a Liberal Party press release.

[fulvio sammut]

Liam Bartlett is a clueless tool, a male manequin whose only redeeming feature is a deep voice.

He should stick to 42 Minutes where he can be happy in the company of other clueless tools.

Or perhaps join Armstrong in the unemployment queue.

[Darren]

I thought it was down to about 38 minutes these days

[fulvio sammut]

Yes, with Bartlett there you also get 4 minutes of vacant expression ...

[brokendown gunfighter]

Liam Bartlett is a clueless tool, a male manequin whose only redeeming feature is a deep voice.

He should stick to 42 Minutes where he can be happy in the company of other clueless tools.

Or perhaps join Armstrong in the unemployment queue.

an unnamed source,told me about 12 months ago that Armstrong, allegedly, stood to get a huge payout if he was sacked before his contract expired

mission accomplished perhaps

[LarryNJ]

...they didn't have SpongeBob Squarepants in charge of the purse strings either.

[chiselhead]

We are a nation and we have to think like a nation. Parochialism narrows the mind and clouds judgement. A lot of the infrastructure that was built to reap the rewards of the mining boom came from the federal government or interstate mining companies. Due to the massive influx of migrants and eastern states workers who have bought houses, the state government has benefited immensely from stamp duty. Everybody benfits from a boom. Sadly, the state government did not seize the bulls by the horn.......but politicians only think for the duration of their term. Foresight is sadly lacking and leads to huge losses in tax payer money. The downside to democracy is the waste of money from changing governments and changing policies and expenditures.
WA has great need for infrastructure spending which can and should prevent unemployment rising. Water is a key issue and the plan to pipe it from the north should be explored. Continues highway and rail extensions to the south need to be continued. The federal government should be sacked immediatel by the Governer General. The 10.4 billion X-mas consumer splurge should have been spent on infrastructure works to provide employment and economic stimulus for big business. The China boom was created from infrastructure spending.........not a X-mas piss up. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but show a man how to fish and you feed him for life.
It's a f'ucking disgrace what was done with the 10.4 billion dollars. Hospitals, roads, schools, railways..........would have created hundreds of thousands of jobs, created stimulus for business and provided markets for industry such as mining. I'm really f'ucking angry.
K. Rudd is a populist leader with no clue how to manage the economy He is only good at being a politician and buying votes for the next election. Luckily the last government gave him a multi billion dollar surplus. It's a shame the next government will start with nothing

[fulvio sammut]

Are you Liam Bartlett, chiselhead? I mean, without the good looks and the deep voice?