NSW has offered to lend WA cutting-edge drum lines in a bid to convince the McGowan Government to boost its fight against the risk of shark attacks.

Niall Blair, the NSW Primary Industries Minister, told The West Australian yesterday that he would make available five smart drum lines to WA free of charge in response to the shark threat.

Mr Blair said the Berejiklian Government was also on stand-by to provide scientific expertise on how to use the technology, as well as pay for the freight of the equipment to Perth.

The extraordinary intervention was prompted by claims from WA Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly casting doubt over the effectiveness of the drum lines and their affordability.

Mr Blair said he was “sleeping a hell of a lot better at night” since NSW responded to a spate of shark attacks by implementing a trial of the technology.

He said there had been a sharp decrease in shark encounters since the first of 100 smart drum lines were put in the water in December 2016 as part of a $16 million package of measures.

NSW has also expanded aerial surveillance of beaches including using drones, installed receivers that can detect tagged sharks in real time, and set up a website alerting people to tagged shark movements.

At the heart of the program are non-lethal smart drum lines that allow caught sharks to be tagged and released farther offshore and the public to be notified via a satellite-linked warning system.

Mr Blair implored WA to take up the offer, saying the risk of not acting was significant to human safety and WA’s tourism reputation.

“I’ve been there,” he said. “I’ve walked this path and I see that there’s a lot of talk going on about what should happen when it comes to sharks. We stopped talking over here in NSW and we put our money where our mouth was. We’re seeing a real difference.

“Having been a minister in the seat when your communities are suffering, we’ve turned to technology and we’re offering what we know to WA.”

Mr Kelly claimed that deploying drum lines in WA would cost up to $75 million a year but Mr Blair said NSW was spending a “fraction” of that amount.

He dismissed suggestions WA should not act until NSW’s trial of the drum lines was finished and a report on their effectiveness had been done. “If he’s worried about how they operate in WA, I’m offering them free of charge and there’s no risk,” Mr Blair said. “I think the risk is not actually taking the trial up. We’ve got a large coastline in NSW and we’re not spending any-where near that money.”

Mr Kelly appeared to hose down the chance of WA taking up the offer, saying it was misleading to say the main cost was the equipment. He said the cost of operating the five lines would be $10,000 a day.

“If NSW wants to pay the millions of dollars required for a complete smart drum line trial in WA, then we would be happy to work with the,” Mr Kelly said. “If NSW really wants to help WA, the minister could immediately release the tracking data of the sharks once they have been caught, tagged and released to show if the drum lines have been effective in making beaches safer.”

He accused Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg of ignoring his requests for a meeting. But it is believed Mr Frydenberg has written to Mr Kelly with an invitation to meet him in Canberra to discuss solutions to the shark problem.

Shadow tourism minister Libby Mettam said that WA must accept NSW’s offer, which was a “a golden opportunity to potentially save lives and begin to repair damage to the State’s tourism reputation”.