The West Australian Treasurer Troy Buswell says that about 10% failures rate would be witnessed with the home insulation scheme. State-based officials raised concerns about potential problems with the scheme. Four deaths have been linked to the scheme. It is being argued that Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett should resign for not acting on the warnings.

In Western Australia, the unemployment rate has dropped from 5.1 per cent to 5 per cent. Over 50,000 full-time jobs were created in Australia and 27,000 were generated in WA.

"Now what I'm confident of is that there are now a number of very positive indicators that the West Australian economy is returning to growth that ultimately will manifest itself in employment growth and lower unemployment", Garrett said.

The Opposition Leader Eric Ripper said while the drop was pleasing but still as many as thousands of people were out of work.

Mr. Buswell said that he believed WA should be receiving higher royalties from mining companies but did not reveal as how the changes would be made.

The miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have been given a July deadline by the Premier Colin Barnett to pay millions of dollars more in royalties before the government approves a merger between the companies.