Delay mining and carbon taxes - Barnett

The federal government's proposed new mining and carbon taxes should not be introduced while Australia remains vulnerable within a fragile world economy, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett says.

Recent big falls on international share markets, including Australia's, showed how very fragile the global economy remained, Mr Barnett said on Saturday.

'The Australian economy is also fragile, we've seen retail and other sectors very weak,' he told reporters in Perth.

The premier said he believed WA was in a stronger position because of its ties to the Asian economies.

But he said he was 'despairing about the state of federal politics.

'This is not the time to be making dramatic changes in policy like a mining tax or a carbon tax when the Australian economy is vulnerable.

'This situation that we have, almost of a daily election campaign, is doing more than probably any other thing to undermine the confidence of consumers and small-to-medium sized businesses.'

Mr Barnett said what was needed in times like this was stability in government but 'we haven't got it'.

He said WA was better placed to weather an economic downturn because it was closely tied to Asian economies which had been relatively less affected by the economic turmoil.

'We just have to be conscious that these are not boom times.'

Mr Barnett said that even in the mining industry it would add risk and make it more difficult for some projects to raise finance.

'Maybe some projects will fall off the table, others might be delayed.

'However, I believe there's a strong enough momentum in Western Australia to get through this.'

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