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Category: State Parliament / Political Parties / Sea Transport

WA Treasurer takes swipe at Nationals over Fremantle port sale

Thursday, 24 Mar 2016 10:31:36 | Jacob Kagi

Cranes and shipping containers at Fremantle Port. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)

West Australian Treasurer Mike Nahan has taken a big swipe at the Nationals, as evidence of the souring relationship between the coalition partners continues to emerge following the apparent collapse of the Fremantle Port sale plan.

Dr Nahan used a radio interview to warn the Nationals' decision not to support the proposed sale would backfire on the party and rob the agricultural industry of a key piece of infrastructure it had been crying out for.

The Government had been hoping to receive upwards of $2 billion through selling a long-term lease to the port, using most of that to reduce debt and a share to build a new live-export facility in the outer harbour.

Those plans are effectively over after the Nationals argued the concerns of regional WA had been ignored and they would not support the privatisation, meaning the Liberals do not have the numbers to get it through Parliament.

Dr Nahan expressed anger at the Nationals for the decision, saying the Government had been borrowing to fund its Royalties for Regions program and the Nationals had killed a plan to help pay off some of that debt.

"We are out there maintaining a major program for regional Western Australia, borrowing to continue to fund that, incurring debt for it and we were going to use the port to defray debt," Dr Nahan told Macquarie Radio.

"You can't like the money, take the easy ones, spend the money but not make the hard decisions."

Regional backlash likely: Treasurer

Dr Nahan said he was expecting a backlash over the decision towards the National party in regional areas.

"They had a chance to get a solution this year to moving livestock to the outer harbour and they have lost that," he said.

"They have put at jeopardy one of the major pieces of infrastructure rural Western Australia has been advocating for years.

"I think [Nationals leader Terry Redman] is not in control of his own domain, there are some issues in the National Party ... this is a flip-flop on a very big issue and he is putting his constituencies at risk. This will backfire on them."

Although it would be doomed unless the Nationals, Labor or the Greens reverse their opposition to the sale, Dr Nahan said the Government still planned to introduce the sale legislation.

Mr Redman has maintained the Nationals were left with little choice but to oppose the privatisation, arguing there had been a lack of consultation and transparency in the process.

"If you are going to do a transaction like this you need to be absolutely confirmed that you've got the right deal in place, the right level of access," he said on Wednesday.

"The process right now doesn't give us confidence that we can have controls, as the National Party, to control that outcome."

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