[3] On 10 September 2008, WA's Department of Treasury and Finance issued a public statement saying that the policy could threaten the state's AAA sovereign credit rating.
Under Treasurer Tim Marney said that the plan would cost $2.8 billion in additional expenditure over the next four years, and in the absence of offsetting changes, take the net debt to revenue ratio to around 53% by 2011-12.
In February 2014, Liberal Member for Hillarys and former Barnett Government minister Rob Johnson called for the policy to be abolished, stating: "With the unprecedented debt that we have at the moment and with it increasing every month, now is the time to make a long-overdue tough decision and tell our friends in the National Party that we can no longer afford to indulge them with this policy."
Nationals WA leader Terry Redman rejected the ERA's findings, asserting his party would "die in a ditch on this issue... we do not want to go back to the dark old days when regional Western Australia was an afterthought.
"[7] A June 2014 report on Royalties for Regions by the Western Australian Auditor General found that, while the program had provided substantial infrastructure and service projects to regional Western Australia, it was unclear whether these projects were delivering their intended outcomes.