When Canberra Overspends, Regional WA Pays the Price

MR RICK WILSON MP
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR O’CONNOR

18th March 2026

When Canberra Overspends, Regional WA Pays the Price

If you live in regional Western Australia, you don’t need an economics degree to know something isn’t right. You feel it at the checkout, at the bowser - and now, more than ever, when the mortgage repayment comes out after the Reserve Bank’s latest interest rate rise.

The Reserve Bank’s decision to lift interest rates again is a direct response to inflation staying too high for too long. But while the decision is made in Sydney, the pain is felt most sharply in places like Kalgoorlie, Esperance, Albany and the Wheatbelt towns in between.

For a family with a typical $600,000 mortgage, the latest 0.25 per cent rate rise adds around $100 a month - or more than $1,100 a year - on top of increases they’ve already absorbed. For regional households, where incomes are often seasonal, transport costs are higher and services are fewer, that extra hit is far harder to manage.

Western Australia is now experiencing some of the highest inflation in the country, with prices rising faster here than the national average. In Perth and across regional WA, childcare is up 13 per cent, children’s clothing nearly 7 per cent, and everyday groceries like beef and lamb are up 12 to 14 per cent.

As economists have pointed out, this is “inflation by essentials” - the things families simply can’tavoid.

In the Wheatbelt, farmers have delivered another massive grain harvest, yet they’re facing rising freight costs and deteriorating roads after key regional infrastructure programs were cut. Higher interest rates only add to the pressure, increasing the cost of machinery, finance and inputs such as fuel and fertiliser, at the very moment growers are trying to get crops in the ground.

In the Goldfields, families in the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder are dealing with soaring rents, power bills and limited access to fully bulk-billing doctors - now compounded by higher mortgage repayments.

Throughout O’Connor people are travelling further for healthcare and childcare, while sky-rocketting fuel costs and interest rate rises squeeze already tight household budgets.

WA’s mining industry helps underpin the national economy, yet WA families are facing some of the highest housing costs in the country. And each rate rise makes it harder to keep skilled workers in the regions that generate Australia’s wealth.

The Reserve Bank has been clear: when demand in the economy runs ahead of supply, inflation follows-and interest rates rise. Government spending is a major part of that demand. When Canberra fails to show restraint, regional families pay the price.

With national debt heading toward $1.2 trillion, the risk is that higher rates are not a one-off, but a sign of things to come.

Regional Western Australians understand discipline. They live within their means and expect their government to do the same.

Until spending is brought under control, interest rates will stay higher for longer-and regional WA will keep paying the price at the bank, the checkout and the bowser.

Media contact: Reuben Keyser
Communications and Community Engagement Advisor 
[email protected]
(08) 9842 2777