Addressing WA’s Growing Pains: Our 2025 State Election priorities
WA is at the forefront of many new areas of economic opportunity, but we cannot take these opportunities for granted.
We need to not only focus on unlocking opportunities in resources, energy, and agricultural sectors – the backbone of our State for the last 60 years – but also by diversifying into critical minerals processing, chemical production, tourism, defence, space, life sciences, and much more.
The next State Government must address our growing pains to achieve these opportunities. Without a competitive business environment, we put our ongoing prosperity at risk.
For the 2025 State Election, we will ask political parties to:
Reform payroll tax to support small and family businesses
Ensure accountability for environmental approvals
Review and reform regional housing policies
Assess the full economic cost of the WABPIC policy
Oppose Federal reforms that damage WA
WA is the payroll tax capital of Australia
At gross annual wages of $3.5 million, WA businesses pay $33,304 more than they would in New South Wales.
“We have considered moving our Head Office from WA over east partly due to payroll tax.”
Wholesale Trade,
35 employees.
- WA has the highest payroll tax burden of any state, putting WA businesses at a competitive disadvantage.
- The overwhelming majority of businesses in WA want payroll tax reform. Payroll tax causes more financial distress than any other government influence.
- Lowering the burden of payroll tax would boost investment, foster innovation and provide some much-needed relief to small and family businesses who create jobs and opportunities for local communities.
A shortage of housing acts as a handbrake on the economy
- Comprehensive review of Government Employee Housing stock and policy.
- Consider establishing a Government Trading Entity to manage demand and supply of government employee housing stock, with a strategic long-term view of growing flexible housing stock in regional communities.
- If a GTE model is not supported, the Minister for Housing should issue a Ministerial Direction to reduce the number of housing policies and force pooling of resources in tight rental markets.
Continuing to tackle the green web
- The State Government has shown it listens to business, with significant approvals reform as a result of CCIWA’s Green Web Report.
- The next step is to ensure these reforms count, by making regulatory agencies accountable against robust KPIs on assessment timelines.
- The Government should also introduce real-time tracking for approvals requests to keep government agencies accountable for holding up the economy.
Maintaining strong financial management
- The WA Best Practice Industrial Conditions (WABPIC) trial seeks to dictate terms of the employment and contractual relationships – far beyond what is normal practice – and seeks to mandate workplace terms and conditions for small contractors.
- A similar policy in Queensland was found to increase costs by 25%, equating to a net economic cost of up to $17.1 billion.
- The State Government should model the cost of WABPIC and release this publicly.
Standing up to Canberra
- WA is a state of major projects and significant economic opportunity – but we need the right State and Federal regulatory frameworks in place to drive economic growth and diversification.
- The current Federal Government has caused anxiety for WA by introducing and enacting reforms which are profoundly anti-business and anti-Western Australia.
- We urge the next State Government to be a strong voice for balanced Federal laws.
