Mark McGowan uses Deloitte report that shows Perth is Australia’s cheapest capital city to recruit workers

Premier Mark McGowan has sharpened his pitch to international and interstate workers, pointing to a new report that found Perth is by far the cheapest of the nation’s major capital cities while offering the second highest average income.

Perth had Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane beat in both housing and grocery costs — while families in WA’s biggest city trailed only NSW when it came to salaries.

The findings are contained in a Deloitte Access Economics report commissioned by WA Treasury that compared Perth to the eastern seaboard capitals.

It found the average Perth household spent around $1630 a week on the consumption of goods and services — including housing costs.

WA’s affordability is one of our key strengths

That was around 10 per cent lower than the average household in Melbourne ($1805), 19 per cent lower than Brisbane ($2002), and 24 per cent lower than Sydney ($2143).

Perth families spent around $271 per week on food and non-alcoholic beverages, compared to $332 in Sydney, $302 in Melbourne and $286 in Brisbane.

When it came to housing, rent or mortgages cost $480 per week on average in Perth. That was nearly half the $778 spent in Brisbane, $735 in Sydney and $527 in Melbourne.

Meanwhile, the median weekly household income in Perth was $2027, second only to Sydney ($2146) and ahead of both Melbourne ($1958) and Brisbane ($1962).