SPOILBANK MARINA —
PORT HEDLAND
1057. Hon PETER COLLIER to
the Minister for Regional Development:
I refer the minister to her response
to question without notice 996 asked on Thursday, 18 October 2018.
(1) Who is on the Spoilbank marina
task force?
(2) Have any
risks been raised by the Pilbara Ports Authority regarding the marina being so
close to the port?
(3) Have any risks been identified as part of the due
diligence for this project; and, if yes, what are those risks?
(4) Who will be responsible for the
operation of the port?
(5) Why are port
users being required to pay for capital and recurrent costs for a recreational
marina that represents a risk to their shipping operations?
(6) Will the minister table the advice received
regarding the estimated operating costs of $830 000 per annum; and, if
not, why not?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
Just to make sure that the member is aware of the context, the member is aware,
presumably, that the Liberal–National government in October 2016
proposed to go ahead with a marina that was significantly bigger than this
marina.
Hon Peter Collier: But you
are the government now so I'm just asking the question.
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN: That
is right; I just wanted to make sure. The member might not have known that. I think
that it is important that he understands that it was his government's
election commitment.
Hon Peter Collier: Can you
just answer the question?
The PRESIDENT: Order! The
minister is trying to provide the answer; you might want to listen to it
quietly.
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN: In
relation to the specifics —
(1) The task
force is chaired by Brendan Hammond, the chair of the Pilbara Development
Commission and the Western Australian Regional Development Trust, with senior
representatives from LandCorp, the Department of Transport, the Pilbara Ports
Authority, the Pilbara Development Commission and the Department of Primary
Industries and Regional Development.
(2) In May
2018, an independent, two-day marine risk assessment workshop was undertaken in
Port Hedland to assess the interaction of recreational craft and large ships at
the port of Port Hedland, examining the risk mitigation strategies. Attendees
included representatives from 30 key stakeholder groups, including the Port Hedland
port authority, port users, the Town of Port Hedland, industry, recreational
vessel user groups and a number of independent experts. The two-day workshop
afforded port users a valuable opportunity to raise issues and concerns and,
importantly, to inform the decision-making process regarding the two marina plans short-listed for consideration by the
Spoilbank marina ministerial task force. Consensus from the risk
workshop was that the existing boat launching facilities at Richardson Street
present a higher risk for recreational boat users and the operations of the
Pilbara Ports Authority.
(3) The
opportunity to further investigate risk assessment findings will be undertaken
during the detailed design of the concept plan that will include additional due
diligence. I table the Spoilbank marina risk assessment report based on the
findings of the risk workshop.
[See paper 2141.]
(4) The Pilbara Ports Authority will
continue to operate the port.
(5) The risk
workshop concluded that the proposed concept plan, as approved by cabinet,
which includes a new channel that is separate from the existing Pilbara Ports
Authority channel, will provide a significantly lower risk to users. The
opportunity to further investigate the risk assessment findings will be
undertaken during the detailed design of the concept plan, which will include
additional due diligence.
(6) The
preliminary costing estimates were calculated by independent marine engineers
in consultation with the Department of Transport. These costings will be
refined during the detailed design of the concept plan and will include
additional due diligence to deliver an accurate and more precise costing model.