Rita Saffioti has a problem.
And this one is not her enthusiastic over-spending as a Minister or an inability as Treasurer to pull her own fiscal profligacy into line.
As bad as that might be for a government dependent on iron ore and GST revenues — but with the good times rapidly coming to an end — that’s not her biggest political problem.
It’s Basil — Basil Zempilas.
The Opposition Leader appears to have invaded a particularly sensitive part of Saffioti’s brain where he is living rent-free and having the time of his life.
The stink over Labor’s $217.5 million Burswood racetrack project that very few seem to want is bringing out the worst of it.
Zempilas is, admittedly, a polarising figure.
The likeable Telethon host and father-of-three fights an internal battle royale against the raffish football caller and talkback radio host with a voice that his detractors find like chalk on a blackboard.
Now he’s taken that attention-grabbing duality into politics. And Saffioti appears obsessively polarised about him. She hates his guts and doesn’t seem to care who knows it.
Which is great for Zempilas. Because Saffioti is the one person in the Cook Labor Government that the Liberals would want to have off her game and acting like she’s mad as a hatter.
People who read her weekly 10 points in The West get a taste of her views. But most don’t see what she says about Zempilas in the Parliament and how agitated she is by his very presence there.
Back in July, Saffioti had to appear as the Minister for Transport for a line-by-line grilling of the Budget provisions for Main Roads before what is known as the estimates committee.
Saffioti’s response to an anodyne question from Zempilas jumped off the page when I was researching Hansard transcripts for an August column on the Burswood controversy.
Zempilas asked about the road surfacing needed for a racetrack and Saffioti spat back at him across the chamber: “This is not about you, mate.” Out of nowhere.
I remember thinking: Wow, he really gets under her skin. She needs to watch that.
The second half of the August column focussed on a looming issue for the government around a parcel of land within the Burswood project area that it does not own.
I noted the politics were potentially bad for Labor.
The government’s insistent line was that it had all the land it needed for the so-called Perth Entertainment and Sporting Precinct — colloquially known as Rita’s Racetrack — and was not budging.
It’s taken nearly three months, but the truth is now emerging that it does not own a 4ha parcel of land right on the southern hairpin of its racetrack, close to the Crown Towers swimming pools.
When a TV reporter approached Saffioti’s office for comment last week, the statement he was issued shows the Treasurer’s splenetic antipathy to Zempilas.
It was extraordinarily attributed to “a government spokesperson” rather than Saffioti taking ownership of what was an ad hominem attack.
This is the response in full, with my comments in parentheses:
“The project area includes land between Optus Stadium and Crown Towers, with an overwhelming majority of land owned by the State Government.”
(Importantly, this was the first admission by the government that it did not own all the land it needed, hidden in the ‘overwhelming majority’ line.)
“A portion of the southern end of the former golf course site was sold to Crown by former Liberal Premier Colin Barnett in 2013. As part of that Barnett Government deal, the land in question required development to commence in 2020, which has not occurred, and be completed by 2028.”
(However, some fine detail from the 2020 Victorian Royal Commission into Crown’s casino suggests that clause allows the State to buy back the $60m land parcel — not get it free.)
“The State Government is working through those details, depending on the final design of the project. Detailed design work commenced in July following the consultation process and is expected to be finalised in coming weeks.”
(The August 30 column noted some political hooks if that land needed to be bought back. Which might explain why the “absolute majority” confession turned into a direct attack on Saffioti’s nemesis.)
“We know Basil Zempilas and the Liberal Party don’t support the concept of a motorsport street circuit event occurring once a year but didn’t realise it was because of his desire to not be disturbed as he lay by the pool at Crown Towers.
“The Opposition Leader is all over the place. One day he is telling the motorsport community he supports the project, the next day he is saying he only supports the outdoor amphitheatre, cycling track and other public amenities.
“Basil Zempilas will say and do anything and stands for nothing. He is now arguing you can’t have a vehicle within a kilometre of the Crown pool when we have hundreds of buses go past that very same pool every week.”
So that attack on Zempilas is what Labor thinks is acceptable from “a government spokesperson.” There could be no clearer example of the politicisation of the public service.
In the rough and tumble of a parliamentary debate, MPs say intemperate things about each other, despite always protesting that they think political standards should be higher.
But for that attack to come from a public servant is quite extraordinary. Why Saffioti didn’t want to own those words is another sign of her curious affliction.
Fun fact: Zempilas says he stayed at Crown Towers with his wife and kids on holidays two years ago for two nights. The buses were apparently not a problem.
The July estimates committee questioning was civil with Zempilas properly polite to the Minister, in fact to the point of being a bit obsequious.
The Opposition Leader probed Saffioti over the $217.5m price tag and whether that represented the full and final cost — obviously well aware of the massive blowouts she had approved on her pet Metronet extravaganza.
Zempilas: “Does the state government need to buy or acquire any additional land for this project?”
Saffioti waffled for 158 words, avoiding the question.
Zempilas: “Noting that Burswood parkland is State government land, if additional land is required, can the minister tell us where that additional land would come from? From whom would it be purchased or how would it be acquired at that site?”
Saffioti: “This is a government precinct and the Burswood Park Board is, in a sense, the key manager of the land. State taxpayers own the land. We will go through the planning and we will make sure we deliver this incredible project. We will negotiate and make sure we get the best outcome for Western Australians.”
Zempilas: “If additional land is required, the adjacent land and Crown casino is owned by Blackstone Group, to differentiate between Crown Perth and crown land, is the minister telling us that the government will not need to acquire any land from Crown Perth—the casino entity, for point of clarity — to construct this racetrack?”
Saffioti: “As I said, we are going through the detailed planning right now. Once any decision is made in relation to the final layout, then all things will be considered. But in relation to the detailed planning, we are doing that right now.”
Zempilas: “How can we know whether we are at the final amount? How can we know whether $217.5 million will be the final amount if detailed planning is yet to determine whether additional land will need to be acquired from the Crown entertainment complex, I assume, and therefore at a cost?”
Saffioti: “We are very confident that we will not be buying any land. In relation to the amount, that is our estimated total cost from the draft assessment we undertook — our concept plan.”
Shortly after came the “mate” exchange when Zempilas asked: “Given the history of the precinct and the land that the minister has identified so well, what treatment is planned and likely to be necessary for the stabilisation of ground movement on this site for the construction of a racetrack?”
Saffioti: “This is not about you, mate. You are asking a question.”
For the avoidance of doubt, here are some of the political problems Labor faces in acquiring the land it needs for the southern hairpin.
The incoming chair of the Crown Perth board is Ben Wyatt, the former Labor Treasurer.
As I pointed out in the August column, the Cook Government in July approved the renewal of Crown Perth’s gambling licence despite the findings of the 2022 WA royal commission which found it to be unsuitable.
And since August, the new head of the government’s Burswood Park Board — which Saffioti says is the “key manager of the land” — is former Cook minister, Bill Johnston.
All very cosy.
Which should allow Zempilas to ask lots more annoying questions of Saffioti.
