The budget prudently does not assume the iron ore price will stay at recent highs as and when iron ore exports from Brazil recover from a slump caused by supply disruptions in the wake of the tailings dam disaster earlier this year.
As the iron ore price drops back in FY21, iron ore royalties are projected to fall from $5.4 billion in FY20, to $4.8 billion in FY22. That’s still a big figure, and thanks to the hardly-won 70 cents in the dollar GST floor, not so much of it will be lost to other states from now on.
Top-up payments from Canberra over the four years to FY22 are projected to total just shy of $5 billion, then in FY23 the transition will be complete, by which time GST receipts to WA are projected to be $5.5 billion in that year alone. What a far cry from the middle of the decade, when WA’s share of the national GST pie fell as low as 37.6 cents in the dollar even after partial top-ups to prevent the share falling to the 30 cents it would have under the old distribution system.
The budget includes new road funding of $1.3 billion over the course of the four years to FY23, although only $260 million of it is in FY20. Nevertheless, a total of $1.3 billion will be spent on road infrastructure in FY20 as major work announced in previous budgets progresses.
And the road spending in FY20 is by no means confined to the Perth metropolitan area and its surrounds - the regions get plenty of work too. Moreover, no single project grabs the lion’s share of the work, so it is well spread geographically. The biggest individual spend is $83 million for the last stage of NorthLink WA, closely followed by $81 million for the Armadale Rd flyover over North Lake Rd. The only other project worth more than $50 million is METRONET related road projects worth $60 million.
No new METRONET funding was announced in the budget, but the government is progressing the business case for the Morley-Ellenbrook Line with Infrastructure Australia. Moreover, some of the roadworks relating to METRONET include “initial accommodation works for construction of the METRONET Morley-Ellenbrook Line”.
A total of $965 million of METRONET spending is earmarked for FY20, including another $315 million for the already under construction airport line, $159 million for the Thornlie-Cockburn link and $150 million for the Yanchep extension to the Joondalup line. Only $95 million of METRONET funding in FY20 is from the Commonwealth, but it ramps ups to $268 million in FY21, then $567 million in FY22, and finally $290 million in FY23.
Increases in household tariffs, fees and charges, including electricity, are limited to 2 per cent in total, which should leave more for households to spend on other goods and services. Which is important to the retail sector, which has been struggling since the end of the construction phase of the resources boom, when thousands of highly paid construction workers left WA, taking their spending with them.
Very low population growth in recent years has also constrained household consumption, but it is steadily accelerating after hitting a historical low of 0.7 per cent in FY17. Nevertheless, even in the final year of the budget’s four-year forecasting horizon, WA’s population is projected to be growing at less than the average of the 25-years to FY18.