Here’s what you need to know about the WA Budget<\/a><\/p>\nThe WA government delivers a big-spending budget, focused on housing, health and cost of living relief.<\/p>\n
“The cost of fuel, the cost of living, it’s nothing compared to how you’re living in metro areas, where you’ve got all these services and transport that can get you around to one suburb to another.”<\/p>\n
Ms Riley labelled the $100 fuel payment “ridiculous”, saying high petrol prices meant residents were paying an “arm and a leg” just to drive into town to do their grocery shopping.<\/p>\n
“We have to travel 56km to Derby just to do our groceries,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I can fill my tank just to take me Derby and back with that $100.”<\/p>\n
Ms Riley said the state government should have focused more on remote communities.<\/p>\n
“We would like to see the government put more dollars into our communities and into our people,” she said.<\/p>\n
Relief labelled ‘backhanded’<\/p>\n
In the south of the state, business operator Todd Jefferis said the cost of living relief offered up by the budget was “a joke”.<\/p>\n
“Our cost of living is off the charts and it’s not getting any better,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Giving us $100, well, that’s not even going to touch, that’s just ridiculous. That is treating us like dirt.”<\/p>\n
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Todd Jefferis says the WA budget does not do enough for regional residents. (ABC News: Kit Mochan)<\/p>\n
Mr Jefferis, who resides in Albany, grew up on a farm in Wagin, where there is no public transport.<\/p>\n
He said the state government was out of touch with the experiences of regional people.<\/p>\n
“They don’t understand what it’s like living in the country,” Mr Jefferis said.<\/p>\n
“The $100 is nothing more than a backhander.<\/p>\n
“It’s like sprinkling a bit of sugar on a s*** sandwich.”<\/p>\n
Bankwest Curtin Economics centre director Alan Duncan said the $100 fuel payment was not much assistance for people outside of Perth.<\/p>\n
![\"Alan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/7e64b2492b5b57535faa9e24fa99d5b7.jpeg\")
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Alan Duncan says the $100 fuel payment is not much assistance for people outside of Perth. (ABC News: Claire Moodie)<\/p>\n
“Basically diesel fuel is the life blood of the regions,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You have to drive to be able to conduct your business or just to go about your lives” .<\/p>\n
Despite the criticism, WA Premier Roger Cook said the budget had regional residents firmly in mind.<\/p>\n
“Whether you live in one of our regional cities, towns or remote communities across our state, this budget delivers for Western Australians and keeps WA strong,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Thursday’s West Australian budget unveiled big spending with a focus on housing, health and cost of living…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":782467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[320135,4740,3232,8162,320136,13330,6459,50,158780,33674,90715,4573,620,6187,8632,320133,320134],"class_list":{"0":"post-782466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-100-fuel","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-budget","11":"tag-cost-of-living","12":"tag-cost-of-living-relief","13":"tag-fuel","14":"tag-money","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-regional-wa","17":"tag-rita-saffioti","18":"tag-roger-cook","19":"tag-state-budget","20":"tag-tax","21":"tag-transport","22":"tag-wa-news","23":"tag-wa-premier","24":"tag-wa-treasurer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116540258723989016","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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