West Australians will be hit in the hip pocket again with households set to be slugged close to $440 a year in bills in a range of increased fees and charges announced by the McGowan government.
Power bills will rise by $169 a year or 10.9 per cent up from late year; while water, sewerage and drainage fees will rise hiked by six per cent, an average increase of $266 per annum.
There is also a 1.8 per cent increase in transport, so the overall the average household will be out-of-pocket an extra $438 a year.
The basket of household fees and charges will come into effect on July 1 and is expected to save the McGowan government $238 million over forward estimates.
Other increases will see vehicle licence charges rise by 5.5 per cent, motor injury insurance by 2.8 per cent and a 1.7 per cent increase for driver's licences.
Student fares rise from 60 to 70 cents, while there will also be an 3.35 per cent increase in the emergency services levy.
Treasurer Ben Wyatt said all West Australians needed to put their shoulder to the financial wheel to try and ensure the mix the government inherited is fixed.
"The previous government left behind a Budget with increases in household fees and charges, and given the state of finances there is no way the State can afford to stop them.
"We have had to make tough decisions to help get the Budget under control and unfortunately the burden of those decisions need to be shared across the community.
"These changes to household charges have not been taken lightly by this Government, but we have no choice but to fix the mess left behind by the previous Liberal National Government.
"This Government takes the State's financial challenge very seriously, with the State heading to more than $42 billion in debt by 2020, and an operating deficit of about $3 billion in 2016‑17 - all the legacy of the Liberals and Nationals."
Seniors with concession cards are still eligible to get a 50 per cent rebate for water charges capped at $600 and local government rates capped at $750, but households with only a WA seniors' card these rebates will be capped at $100 each.
State opposition leader Mike Nahan said Premier Mark McGowan had broken a number of pre-election promises.
"Before the election he promised people of Western Australian that there would be no increase in taxes and he would keep fees and charges to a minimum," he said.
"A big issue in the campaign was electricity prices – he promised to keep them moderated. Today he went out and announced an 11 per cent increase in electricity costs.
"I might add, they are trying to blame the previous government... nothing has changed from the budget, from the election time to justify anything like these rates of increase.
"What they are doing, they are looking at the Western Australian public and saying 'you are a bunch of mugs we can hit you with electricity and water rates now and you will forget about in four years'.
"Well don't forget – we won't."
WA Council of Social Services CEO Louise Giolitto said "budget repair should come at the expense of our most vulnerable".
"We appreciate the Treasurer is focused on improving WA's bottom line, but we are very disappointed that his first announcement as Minister of Energy is a huge rise in power prices without adequate compensation for those who can least afford it," she said.
"Together these hikes take an extra $438 per year away from the average household budget – at a time when wage growth is flat and increasing numbers of households in hardship seeking assistance are being turned away from overstretched services."
RAC general manager Will Golsby said the government's announcement of vehicle licensing charges increasing by 5.5 per cent was significantly above the rate of inflation.
“This is yet another hit to the hip pocket of WA motorists; particularly given transport costs in our state have been on the rise for a number of years,” he said.
“Increasing the cost of public transport fares by 1.8 per cent is also disappointing given Perth’s public transport costs are now the second-most expensive in the country, second only to Sydney.”
Mr Golsby said the average Perth household now paid nearly $17,000 per year to move around WA, which made up approximately 10.7 per cent of the household budget.
“To put that in to context, national household expenses for electricity and gas make up around one to three per cent. This is why the cost of motoring remains a high priority issue for RAC members.”
This article first appeared on WAToday.
