Candidate Dave Grills said the government had again failed regional communities by reneging on a promise to spend allocated funding on regional infrastructure and community projects.

“In 2005 the Government pledged $24 million to build two new juvenile remand centres in Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Geraldton as part of its commitment to improve the State's youth justice system,” Mr Grills said.

He claimed that government agencies are becoming increasingly frustrated at not being able to achieve the best possible outcomes from existing strategies and that there are no local, tangible sentencing options when dealing with the upper echelon of young offenders.

“The Government must recognise that as undesirable or inconvenient as it may seem to them, incarceration is sometimes the only option when addressing community safety concerns and ensuring that offenders are placed in an environment where they receive the help they need,” he said.

“If this means building more prisons and detention centres then that is what the public demands the government do with the $3.7 billion in mining and petroleum royalties expected in 2008-09.”

Mr Grills said the government needs to work better for regional communities.

He said the Nationals’ policy to redirect 25 per cent of all royalties over and above current and budgeted Government expenditure back into regional WA would ensure a fair and equitable deal for those who choose to live outside the metropolitan area.

Mr Grills said people who live and work in the areas which are driving the current boom have every right to be disillusioned by the government's performance and are tired of making do or going without.