Western Australia is wide open again, with Mark McGowan to use his first in-person National Cabinet meeting to tell families on the East Coast to move to WA for a “better life”.
But, in Up Late Ben Harvey has questioned the timing, with a housing crisis in Perth.
Ahead of Friday’s state leaders’ meeting in Canberra, the prime minister believed a combination of cheaper housing, higher wages and an enviable lifestyle made moving west “a no-brainer”.
Recruitment drives are already underway on the East Coast in a bid to attract people to WA, which has been hit harder than anywhere else by a nationwide shortage of skilled workers.
But Mr McGowan intends to use Friday’s meeting to point out the differences in living standards and the economies of WA and the East Coast, describing it as “a tale of two countries”.
“We have the lowest unemployment rate (2.9 per cent) by far and the highest participation rate, so (the labor shortage) is most acute here,” McGowan told The West Australian.
“One of the things I will point out is that we have comparatively the cheapest housing, the highest median weekly income, a great lifestyle and a secure job.
“When I was in Sydney last week, I saw a lot of people who have very ordinary paying jobs, but the average price of a house there is $1.2 million dollars; I don’t understand how people live.
“They could move here and have a much better and more affordable life, own their own home and have money to spare. It’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.”
What he didn’t mention was the vacancy rate.
“The Prime Minister makes his call to rest at a time when REIWA warned that at the end of May there were 12 slums in Perth with only ONE rental property available… And fewer than 2,500 houses for rent in the entire city,” he said. Harvey.
Speaking about the ‘affordability’ of buying a house in WA compared to the East Coast, Harvey said: “good luck finding one and at $3 a brick, good luck building one.”
“If you’re watching this in Sydney and McGowan convinced you to move to the other side of Nullarbor, make sure you put away your packing crates, you could end up living in them.”