A thought experiment, not currently official Libertarian Party WA policy. This page imagines a "what if": what if WA set out to be the easiest place in Australia to start and grow a business? Today's facts are sourced. The scenario is illustrative reasoning, not a forecast. It is not currently official Libertarian Party WA policy.
The better way, in plain words
Most jobs are created by people who take a risk: the tradie who takes on an apprentice, the cafe owner who opens a second shop, the startup that hires its tenth worker. Imagine a WA where the government's job was to get out of their way: quick answers, one form instead of five, and no tax for creating a job.
1. Today: the tax on hiring
- WA's payroll tax is 5.5% on wages once an employer's Australia-wide wages pass $1 million, with the tax-free threshold shrinking to nothing at $7.5 million. (Revenue WA; WA Overview of State Taxes and Royalties 2025-26)
- Other places start higher. In 2025-26 the payroll tax-free threshold was $1 million in WA and Victoria, against $1.2 million in NSW, $1.25 million in Tasmania, $1.3 million in Queensland, $1.5 million in SA, $2 million in the ACT and $2.5 million in the NT. (Overview of State Taxes and Royalties 2025-26, interstate comparison)
- It raises a lot. Payroll tax is budgeted to bring in $6,546 million in 2026-27, WA's biggest state tax. (WA 2026-27 Budget Paper No. 3, Table 2.1)
A worked example. Take a WA business paying $2 million a year in wages. Under the published formula, its threshold shrinks by 0.1538 for every dollar over $1 million: $1,000,000 − (0.1538 × $1,000,000) = $846,200. Its tax is 5.5% × ($2,000,000 − $846,200) = about $63,459 a year, roughly the cost of another full-time worker. (Formula: Overview of State Taxes and Royalties 2025-26; arithmetic ours.)
2. Today: approvals and red tape
- The WA Government itself runs a program, Streamline WA, to make it "easier to do business in Western Australia", and commissioned the 2023 independent review of environmental approvals (the Vogel-McFerran Review). (Streamline WA) That suggests the government itself sees room to speed things up.
- There is progress: applications lodged through the online Environment Online system rose from 264 in 2024 to 2,627 in 2025. (WA Government, Environment Online: 2025 in review)
- Small businesses still deal with several layers: local council approvals, state licences and registrations, and federal rules. We have not found an official, like-for-like ranking of how long it takes to open a business in each state, so we don't claim one.
3. What if: WA becomes the easiest place to build a business
| Today | In the scenario (illustrative) | |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring your next worker | The business above pays about $63,459 a year in payroll tax | If WA matched the NT's $2.5 million threshold, that business would pay nothing |
| Getting approved | Separate applications to separate agencies and councils | One front door, one application, and a set deadline: if the government doesn't answer in time, the answer is yes |
| Licences | Rules written for each agency | A licence that is recognised elsewhere in Australia is good enough in WA, and every rule has a review date |
| Who carries the cost of delay | The applicant | The agency, through published approval times and deadlines |
The honest trade-offs. Lifting the payroll tax threshold costs revenue: WA Treasury estimates the current threshold was already worth $2,149.8 million to employers in 2025-26 (Budget Paper No. 3, Appendix 10, Table 10.1), and a higher one would cost more. We have not found a published costing for a $2.5 million threshold in WA. Faster approvals also have to keep real protections for neighbours and the environment. The idea is to make the government answer quickly and clearly, not to drop the rules that matter.
Reminder: this is a thought experiment, not currently official Libertarian Party WA policy. We publish it to get West Australians thinking about what it takes to build something here. Tell us what you think, read what we are actually campaigning for on our policies page, or join us.