PLANNING — PORT
HEDLAND VOLUNTARY BUYBACK SCHEME
1524. Hon ROBIN CHAPPLE to the Minister for Regional Development:
I refer to the 2004 project called ''Port
Hedland Enquiry by Design'' that was successfully established by the
Minister for Planning and Infrastructure and facilitated by Janette Hartz-Karp,
and the current process of evaluating the voluntary buyback scheme conducted by
consultant Ross Love.
(1) Given the
successful outcome of the ''Port Hedland Enquiry by Design'',
which used a consensus-based model with all parties—industry,
government and community—at the same roundtable, why is a similar model
not being used for the voluntary buyback scheme?
(2) Given that the minister has stated that the
voluntary buyback scheme will be based on the Wagerup buyback scheme, what will be the basis of the unaffected
value of Port Hedland as established by the Harvey Waroona index
post-2006 in the Wagerup scheme?
(3) Once the
unaffected value has been established, will the 35 per cent premium on the
unaffected market value, as with Wagerup, be applied to all Port Hedland
voluntary buybacks?
(4) If no to (3),
why not?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for his
question. I also thank him for his support for the inquiry by design process.
(1)–(4) I think what we are trying to negotiate here is
something completely different. Inquiry by design is a process that was
very much a tool for planning and I would certainly hope, and know, that there
will be lots of public consultation on planning for the West End. I do not
necessarily see it as the appropriate way to try to come forward with what a voluntary
buyback scheme would look like, bearing in mind that we are going down this
path because representatives of the landowners have asked us to do so. We are
trying to work through with all the different landowners, who do not all have
the same perspective, on what their views are, and we are working through with
the various mining companies at the same time. That work is underway. We hope
to have a report from the consultant, Ross Love, before the end of the year so
that we can work out whether we have a scheme we can offer to the public. We
need to bring both groups together; what the industry is prepared to pay and
what the community is prepared to accept.