DIRECT MARITIME FREIGHT
SERVICE — PILBARA
1024. Hon SIMON O'BRIEN to the Minister for Regional
Development:
I
have a question without notice. I refer to the minister's media
statement of 19 February this year, entitled ''First steps
towards direct maritime freight to the Pilbara'', and her quote —
''These two studies show there
could be significant regional economic savings and opportunities if a direct
maritime freight service to the Pilbara was established.
''We know some attempts have
been made in the past to establish a direct service, but the benefits are such
that we need to look at having another go.
Can the minister clarify what
benefits they might be and what progress has been made to implement this
possible proposal?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN
replied:
I thank the member for the
question.
One of the benefits, if we are not
taking freight via Sydney or Fremantle and then taking it up to the Pilbara, is
that we can very clearly reduce costs,
because at the moment much of the freight that we are talking about goes to
Sydney and Perth and is then roaded up to the Pilbara. We see this as a real
possibility of opening up the Pilbara, for example, and it fits in with the
work that we are doing on the Karratha–Tom Price road—a road
that was abandoned for eight and a half years but is now back on track. The
ability to bring product and mining equipment et cetera directly into the Pilbara would mean that rather than maintaining those
mines around Paraburdoo, Tom Price, Balla Balla and the new mining
resources that are opening up, they could be maintained and serviced from the
Pilbara. Very significant companies in the Pilbara are also working on this
project, and they see the very great benefits of doing that so that we do have
not a FIFO workforce coming in and maintaining the mines, but the potential for
more locally based people to maintain the mines in that area. We also see that
it has some potential—I do not want to exaggerate it—for
various types of processing if materials can be brought in more cheaply and
more directly. We are working with the private sector on this project. It is
not something that will happen overnight but, certainly, some very significant
companies are very committed to this idea.