ALBANY WAVE ENERGY
PROJECT — TENDER PROCESS
1015. Hon PETER COLLIER to
the Minister for Regional Development:
That is disgraceful. Madam
President, my question without notice is —
Hon Alannah MacTiernan
interjected.
Hon PETER COLLIER: I am
asking a question.
The PRESIDENT: Order! The
Leader of the Opposition has the call.
Hon PETER COLLIER: I refer to
the email from the acting appointment secretary for the Minister for Regional
Development on 12 April 2017 to a third party seeking a briefing on the
Carnegie Albany wave farm.
(1) Who attended the meeting and
what was discussed?
(2) Will the
minister table all meeting notes, briefing notes and minutes from that
briefing; and, if not, why not?
(3) Did the
minister receive a briefing from anyone regarding any of the other proponents
that submitted to the tender for the Albany wave farm project; and, if so, by
whom, for which proponents and when?
(4) Why did the
minister receive a briefing on Carnegie's Albany wave farm project
prior to the awarding of the contract through an independent tender process?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
(1) This meeting
took place on 22 May 2017 and included the following attendees: myself; Matt
Keogh, acting chief of staff; Cole Thurley; principal policy adviser; Julie-Ann
Gray; senior policy adviser; Michael Ottaviano, chief executive officer,
Carnegie; Jonathan Fievez, chief technology officer, Carnegie; and Tim Sawyer,
project development officer, Carnegie. The purpose of the meeting was to
discuss the government's Albany wave energy election commitments and
the relevant development work Carnegie had progressed in recent years.
(2) I table an
internal briefing note that was prepared by my office in preparation for the
meeting. It was a general discussion and I am advised that we have no notes of
this meeting.
[See paper 2114.]
(3) On 9 June
2017, I convened a meeting of renewable energy industry stakeholders in Albany.
This included briefings from each of the Western Australian wave energy
technology development companies of which we were aware.
(4) Carnegie had
been working on a business case under the previous government to deliver
renewable energy in the great southern region. It was clearly the most advanced
wave energy technology company in WA. The tender process did not commence until
late July 2017.