COLLIE could have gas reticulated to its households, Premier Colin Barnett said last Friday.

He was responding to a question from a Collie resident while on a low-key “meet and greet” in Collie Central arcade.

Local man Frank Baldisseri asked the Premier if he could “explain why we should have to pay $100 for (a bottle of) gas in Collie”.

The price had risen from $86 to $100 in only a short span of time, he complained.

Mr Barnett said he made an election promise to extend the Dampier to Bunbury gas pipeline south to Albany so “it might be possible to have reticulated gas in Collie and that will be a lot cheaper than bottled gas”.

It would not take a huge investment, he said. “It’s not that big a pipeline,” he said. “You only need a spur pipe about this size” (making a bread and butter plate-sized shape with his hands).

Mr Baldisseri claimed an Alinta spokesman had said no state government of any political persuasion would do it.

Mr Barnett retorted “he might be proved wrong, you might find this government is different”.

In his first week back from holidays, Mr Barnett wandered through the shopping centre to talk with a few locals after meeting senior Collie Shire Council representatives and before meeting workers and management at the Griffin coal mine.

He had been bailed up by Wilson Park Primary School Parents and Citizens Association president Paul Reuben asking why rebuilding had not started, he said. The contract had been let and he did not know why work had not started, Mr Barnett said. He would follow it up and let the P and C know, he promised. (The Premier’s office was still awaiting an Education Department response, a spokeswoman said yesterday.)

The go-ahead for Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers’ planned urea plant at Shotts Park was being held up by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s office, Mr Barnett said.

The plant’s carbon dioxide emissions and the Federal Government’s planned emissions trading scheme were the problem. “Negotiations are going on between my office and Kevin Rudd’s office,” the Premier said. Perdaman was trying to get a special carbon sequestration demonstration going.