The Hidden Reality of Our State Budget and the Cost of Inaction

A Tale of Two Budgets

As a medical doctor, I learnt early that if you want to understand a patient’s health, you look past the superficial signs and examine the underlying physiology. The state budget should be no different. We are presented with headline figures that look like a clean bill of health: billions of dollars in projected surpluses. It is easy to be impressed by such numbers. Yet, when we shift our gaze from the balance sheet surface to the consolidated reality, a different diagnosis emerges.

We have total public sector cash deficits of over 11 billion dollars across the forward estimates. While the government claims we are operating without resorting to debt, they are shielding us from the true picture. It is akin to a household claiming a surplus while ignoring the mounting debt piled up in the accounts of their own utility companies. We are essentially living on a resource-driven windfall, relying on the iron ore price staying inflated and Commonwealth funding remaining static. Neither of these is a result of our own fiscal discipline. What happens when the world changes, or when the eastern states decide they have had enough of our GST share?

The Human Cost of Fragile Systems

The danger here is not just an abstract financial figure. It is a waiting room where patients die or a prison cell where human rights are abandoned. In my time working within the corrections system, I saw the rot firsthand. We have prisons where the Inspector of Custodial Services has highlighted conditions that are cruel and inhumane. We have prisoners bunking on floors, staffing shortfalls causing systemic lockdowns, and a staggering rise in the remand population. These are not merely administrative failures. They are human tragedies.

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Investing in the Upstream

We continue to pour funds into the downstream, reactive services while ignoring the upstream causes of dysfunction. Whether it is homelessness, mental health, or the prison crisis, the logic remains the same: we spend millions to treat the symptoms long after the harm has been done. We could be investing in genuine reform, such as evidence-based drug policy or secure housing, to prevent the cycle of trauma and poverty. Instead, we see funding for diversionary programs cut or left to wither, while we sign off on more prisons for a system that is nearing functional collapse.

We are a rich state, but we are a state that refuses to choose the path of kindness and innovation over the path of least resistance. You can read my full contribution to the debate on the estimates of revenue and expenditure in the Chamber. If you believe it is time for a government that values people over political games, please join us at Legalise Cannabis WA as we continue to challenge the status quo.