WA Premier Mark McGowan flagged “significantly more” infrastructure spending on the way in an interview with Economic Pulse.

He also indicated that there would be additional stimulus for the housing sector.

“We’ll do something further in coming days, we want to see the details of [the Federal Government’s stimulus] first, but we’re going to get the housing sector back up,” he said.

He highlighted the possibility of more interstate migration thanks to the state’s relative strength.

“People will be looking west for where there are jobs,”’ he said.

He said relocating some FIFO workers from the east coast to WA would be a great outcome.

He said he’s also pushing for more local employment opportunities.

“When I’ve had my meetings, as I have, regularly, with the mining industry, I’ve said rather than employ out of the east, employee out of here,” he said.

“Employment practices I’m pretty confident in the future will be very heavily focused on people who live here, train here and work here.”

Taking care of trade

The Premier also took the opportunity to urge businesses to foster good relationships with trading partners overseas.

“We underpin the entire Australian economy. If we don’t have customers, we’re going to have a big problem,” he said.

He called on the Commonwealth to work through issues with China diplomatically.

“Megaphone diplomacy, in my view, never works,” he said. “So let’s just manage these issues, you know, in a sensible, and careful way.”