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Parliamentary Questions


Question On Notice No. 2964 asked in the Legislative Council on 21 May 2020 by Hon Robin Scott

Question Directed to the: Minister for Regional Development representing the Minister for Mines and Petroleum
Parliament: 40 Session: 1


Question

I refer to the newspaper article which appeared on page 47, 14 April 2020 in The West Australian newspaper titled ‘Big Lithium Let Down’, and I ask:
(a) can the Minister advise how much royalties have been paid by Windfield Holdings or Tianqi to the State Government for the last five years in each of the respective years;
(b) if no to (a), why not;
(c) has the Department of Mines Industry and Regulation checked whether Windfield Holdings or Tianqi have paid the correct and appropriate State royalty on lithium concentrate exported from Western Australia via the marketing hub to China; and
(d) if yes to (c), what specifically was done to validate and verify that the correct and appropriate royalty has been paid?

Answered on 25 June 2020

(a) No

(b) The Government does not release individual company royalty payments as these are dealt with in confidence between the State and the Company.

(c) Yes

(d) Royalty returns and payments made by royalty payers are routinely assessed by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. The Windfield Holdings Greenbushes project was last assessed in April 2020 and that assessment concluded that the correct royalty has been paid. The assessment process includes a cross check to industry benchmark price indices to ensure prices on which royalties are calculated are reasonable and arms-length.