This year we continued the tradition of bringing you authoritative sources to inform your thinking, as we hosted the Hon Ben Wyatt MLA Treasurer; Minister For Finance; Energy; Aboriginal Affairs, to deliver the 2017 IPAA WA State Budget Briefing.
The State Budget is arguably the single most important instrument for the government of the day to direct the efforts of the public service. For both the public and the public service it clearly indicates areas of service priority. In recent years the state budget has directed annual expenditure of approximately $30 billion dollars towards serving Australia’s largest jurisdiction.
The Treasurer went beyond individual agency funding allocations and provided the all-important contextual information. In attending this session participants heard an assessment of the current state of public finances, the most important factors in the today’s economic environment shaping the future, and importantly the underlying assumptions behind this year’s budget.
Participants also had the opportunity to engage the Treasurer in conversation with a Q&A session following his presentation.
Topics Included
- Analysis of the 2017/18 State budget.
- Impacts of changes in expenditure upon public service delivery.
- Commentary on the current and predicted economic conditions facing Western Australia.
Host
Sven Bluemmel
President, IPAA WA
Information Commissioner,
Office of the Information Commissioner
MC
Bill Scanlan
Director, Infrastructure Advisory
EY
Bill Scanlan is an Economist and Policy Advisor in EY’s Infrastructure Advisory Practice. Bill has 14 years’ professional experience applying economic and policy thinking to Government projects and is motivated by the objective of helping to build a better government and a better economy and community for the people of Western Australia. Bill’s current areas of interest include transport, agriculture, regional development, innovation and the facilitation of Indigenous economic development opportunities in regional and remote Western Australia.
Keynote Speaker
The Hon. Ben Wyatt MLA
Treasurer of Western Australia; Minister for Finance; Energy; Aboriginal Affairs
Government of Western Australia
Ben Wyatt is Australia’s first Indigenous Australian Treasurer and was appointed in March 2017. Testament to his capability, capacity and strong work ethic, he also holds the position as Minister for Finance, Energy and Aboriginal Affairs.
As a leader of the state his priority is to focus on his pronounced Ministerial portfolio, his obligation to his constituents and to make a difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the state and the nation. As such Ben is deeply committed to the principles of closing the gap in Australia.
Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2006 after by-election for the seat of Victoria Park, Ben has now been serving the State for more than 10 years from an area in which he lived for more than 20.
Prior to his appointment as a senior Minister in the current Government, Ben held the positions of Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Federal State Relations, Aboriginal Affairs, Native Title and Government Accountability.
Ben holds a Masters Degree with distinction from the London School of Economics, Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Australia and has also served on the National Board of Indigenous Business Australia as an officer in the Australian Army – following his graduation from the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
The father of two’s career in earnest began in Western Australia as a barrister and solicitor where he served as counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
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