The WA government is sitting on nearly $200 million collected from parking in Perth's CBD but doesn't have a plan to spend it, according to the state's auditor general.
In her report, tabled in parliament today, Caroline Spencer also found Transport Minister Rita Saffioti had given conditional approval to set aside $600,000 from the account for a swimming pool at the WACA ground — a project it was not legally allowed to put the money towards.
It follows sustained criticism over the parking scheme's management from Perth Lord Mayor, Basil Zempilas, when the government announced changes to the legislation earlier this week.
Each year the state government collects a levy on all non-residential parking bays in the CBD with the money meant to be spent on projects that discourage the use of cars in the city.
In her report on the scheme, Ms Spencer found strong controls against the improper use of the funds.
"However, the absence of a specific plan, agreed across government, to spend the collected levy has contributed to the account balance increasing by about $30 million a year over the last five years to over $190 million," she wrote.
"A lack of consistent consultation with the City of Perth, as required by legislation, and public reporting, further contributes to community speculation about why some projects are funded and others are not.
"There remains uncertainty among stakeholders about what future projects, such as the Perth City Deal, might be funded from the increasing account balance."
In response to the auditor-general's recommendations, the Department of Transport said it would finalise a CBD Transport Plan, which would include priorities to be funded by the account, by January 2024.
Parking to fund other big projects
The Perth City Deal is a partnership between the City of Perth and state and federal governments worth $1.5 billion and includes a 10,000 student campus for Edith Cowan University as well as plans for a public swimming pool at the old WACA ground.
Ms Spencer found that in October 2021 – three months after the City of Perth rejected the idea of building the public pool at the WACA, saying it was too expensive – the project received "conditional approval" for $580,000 from the parking levy account.
But under the account's governing legislation, the money can only be spent on transport-related projects.
“Expenditure of the money is subject to legislative changes being enacted to allow spending on non-transport projects, as the project is not consistent with the account’s purpose,” the report stated.
On Tuesday, Ms Saffioti announced changes to the legislation to allow it to be spent on "a wider range of projects".
The auditor general's report said as of last month, no account money had been spent on the project.
According to a statement from WA Cricket earlier this month, major works on the project were expected to begin mid 2023, with completion due in late 2025.
"The WACA ground improvement project is being jointly funded by the federal, state and local governments, along with WA Cricket and Cricket Australia," chief executive Christina Matthews said.
She said discussions about funding the operation of the pool were ongoing.
Minister defends spending plan
Responding to the report today, Ms Saffioti defended the allocation, saying it was not outside the law because the approval was dependent on the legislation being changed.
She said the announcement on Tuesday that the law would be reviewed and overhauled – including to allow money collected by the levy to go towards a wider range of projects – addressed the concerns about unspent money.
“The reality is these types of assets are all about bringing life and vitality to the city, whether it’s schools, whether it’s the concert hall, whether it’s swimming pools,” Ms Saffioti said.
“We know that the City of Perth doesn’t want to run the WACA pool, so I suppose the question is, who should run it?
"Do we want taxpayers from Geraldton, for example, paying for the maintenance of that pool? I think the answer to that would be no, so one of the issues we’re looking at is how we maintain it in future.”
The minister said the legislative reforms would help avoid complications the government ran into when it used the account to fund a CAT bus between the city and UWA.
“We had to go through and actually claim the street which the CAT travelled on but not beyond the footpath, because then more people would have been subject to the levy,” she said.
“So by having a system where interconnected infrastructure or services can be funded, we don’t have to change the boundary every time you want a new CAT service."
City of Perth 'vindicated' by report
The auditor general also found that while Ms Saffioti was required to consult with the City of Perth about spending money from the account, it only did so on eight of the 13 projects it approved over the last five years.
"Inconsistent consultation could result in account money being used for projects that do not offer the most benefit to the city centre or insufficiently consider key stakeholder views," the report read.
Mr Zempilas said the report's findings were "vindication" for arguments the city had been making for years.
"That money was collected to be spent on Perth transport initiatives. It's in the legislation. Spend it on what it was collected for," he said.
"On no fewer than 10 occasions, I've said to the premier and to the transport minister, what about lowering the fund, what about suspending the levy, what about at least taking a pause, but there's been no appetite to do that.
"In fact, it's only gone up and the auditor general has found that as that money's gone up, the spending has not matched it and there's been no plan to spend it.
"So our ratepayers and property owners rightfully today should be questioning why they have been paying that money, and why the council, which speaks on their behalf, has not been listened to by the premier and the transport minister. This is unfair on them."
Mr Zempilas also suggested spending the money on upgrading the Perth Train Station, which he said "does not look up to scratch".
