New West Australian Labor Treasurer Ben Wyatt concedes it will take a long time to resolve the state's debt problem, saying his immediate priority is to see it at least plateau before talking about its decline.
He also says the WA economy, which is on track for a debt of $41 billion over the next couple of years, is not in a position to absorb ever-increasing taxes.
"You do have to walk a line between supporting an economy that has been weaker and is expected to stay weak for the foreseeable future," he told Sky News on Sunday.
He said there needed to be government spending restraint and maybe some cuts.
"The budget already has in it, as I now know, a range of savings measures, effectively efficiency dividends that have been announced in previous budgets that have yet to be delivered," he said.
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He said for some reason WA hospitals, compared to other states, had grown in their inefficiency over the past four years and also noted over the past decade health spending as a proportion of the entire budget has grown from 22 per cent to nearly 30 per cent.
"The health budget is going to see a fair bit of focus from me," he said.
