Western Australia might have enjoyed the world's greatest mining boom over the last decade but for anyone who walks through Perth's CBD, the sight of many homeless and drug or alcohol-affected people suggests many missed out on those riches.
Unemployment has doubled from a decade ago to around 6 per cent, the number of children removed from their families and in protection has doubled in the last eight years and methamphetamine or 'ice' abuse leads the country.
WA is a "very prosperous community, but sadly not for everyone", says Premier Colin Barnett.
For the state Labor Opposition leader Mark McGowan, that showed that now the economy had slowed, the extra revenue the state government enjoyed from the boom had not been spent properly tackling social issues or creating jobs for people.
The head of the WA Council of Social Service, Irina Cattalini, warned at the council's annual conference this week that the state's social problems and income inequality were getting worse and would be exacerbated by the federal budget's tax cuts for the top 20 per cent of earners and various cuts to income support and other services for the vulnerable.
Despite WA being one of the world's principal mining states during the boom, it now had record debts, deficits, rising unemployment and increasing social problems, Mr McGowan said.
"When I walk down the street like everyone I see people begging ... in my own area Rockingham, where I live, people are living rough at the end of my street," he said.
"Clearly we have should have done more with the opportunity that was presented to us by the success the mining boom provided.
"We missed opportunities in so many areas."
There had been a failure to diversify the state's economy and deal with the methamphetamine "crisis," he said.
Ms Cattalini said WA's community agencies did wonderful work and provided a good welfare net but was too fragmented in terms of using the large amounts of data available to improve the generations of people stuck in cycles of poverty of debt.
"Traditional market models of service delivery fail because the reality is the market fails to deliver to those who are most vulnerable and most disadvantaged so we have to try new things," she said.
Mr McGowan said if elected next year, a Labor government would improve and streamline the competitive tendering process for community sector agencies so those in need got better help.
Mr Barnett said he was proud of his government's record, with next week's state budget set to deliver nearly $866 million to the mental health commission, an 84 per cent jump since he came to power and that disability services and child protection funding had also doubled.
"Unfortunately the demands from people in need are growing," he said.
