WA infrastructure spending goes ‘up another gear’

Western Australian premier Roger Cook has vowed to shift infrastructure spending “up another gear” as the state splashed billions on cost-of-living and housing measures to absorb the record 95,000 people who moved west last year.

Treasurer Rita Saffioti insisted her state’s big spending, pre-election budget would not stoke inflation as she handed down a $3.2 billion surplus for 2023-24 – the sixth in a row – underpinned by stronger-than-forecast iron ore royalties and buoyed by the goods and services tax.