Josh Zimmerman analysis: Rita Saffioti is asking West Australians to put a lot of faith in Metronet

Rita Saffioti is asking West Australians to put a lot of faith in Metronet. A $4.8 billion election promise — which includes $1.9 billion for the Barnett-era Forrestfield Airport Link — has now blown out to $12.6 billion. Despite opening two years late, the Airport Line remains the only major Metronet-badged project delivered on budget. While labour and materials costs have spiked — thanks in no small part to the COVID pandemic — Metronet’s scope has expanded almost as rapidly. The Opposition has been slow to unveil policy but has already made one plank of its election strategy clear: casting Metronet as a blackhole that has sucked funding out of other priority areas like health, housing and law and order. In response, Saffioti has begun spruiking the rail project as key to unlocking land for new homes, including high-rise apartments. Her problem is none of the new lines have opened — Yanchep is first off the rank in July — and any associated housing developments remain years away. In the meantime, a significant cohort of West Australians are left to struggle through “the boom no one feels”. The clever framing, from Shadow Treasurer Neil Thomson, captures the jarring disconnect between the financial position of the Cook Government and many household budgets. At the end of last year, the Premier promised a laser-like focus on cost-of-living heading into the 2025 election. This budget contains multiple measures designed to put more money into the pockets of West Australians: a $400 power credit, April’s cash handouts for the parents of school kids, a boost to the regional pensioner travel card. The risk for Saffioti and Cook is that families crushed by the combination of inflation and soaring housing costs don’t view the $3.2 billion operating surplus as evidence of sound financial management but proof more could have done more to ease their pain. Certainly public sector workers — such as nurses, police and firefighters — will seize on the latest figures as evidence their demands for a 12 per cent pay hike are both affordable and reasonable. There have now been $23 billion in surpluses dating back to 2019. It’s a remarkable golden run. Much of that windfall has been ploughed back into Metronet at the same time that ambulance ramping, elective surgery waitlists and public housing applications have soared. Saffioti is convinced the investment will pay off in spades in the long run. Her task now is to convince the rest of the State.