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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 699 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 16 November 2022 by Mr T.J. Healy

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

DEFENCE INDUSTRY — INVESTMENT

699. Mr T.J. HEALY to the Premier:

I refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitment to diversifying the Western Australian economy through its investment in our defence industry. Can the Premier update the house on how the government is working to grow our defence industry workforce and create new employment opportunities, particularly for skilled workers?

Mr M. McGOWAN replied:

I thank the member for Southern River for the question.

We are investing significantly in diversification initiatives such as local manufacturing. With BHP and Rio Tinto, I recently announced that we will be manufacturing iron ore railcars in Western Australia again, which is terrific. We are manufacturing railcars for our Metronet lines here in Western Australia for the first time in 30 years, something the Liberal Party had closed down.

We are building new film studios just south of Whiteman Park, which will be a significant achievement and diversification initiative for Western Australia. We have the future health research and innovation fund for medical research, which provides ongoing funding for medical researchers in Western Australia.

We are also putting in a huge effort for defence industry. The other day, I was out with the Minister for Defence Industry and the Minister for Education and Training at the Rockingham TAFE campus, where we have put in place significant training opportunities for Western Australians in the defence industry. We launched four new state-of-the-art machines known as computer numerical control—CNC—machines. People can train with specialist equipment that can manufacture parts for machinery that is used in the defence industry, in particular. People will find that equipment in workshops on the Kwinana strip and in Cockburn and the like, so they can train on them at Rockingham TAFE so they can go into a job in the defence industry that uses those machines.

South Metropolitan TAFE is leading the country in this area. It was awarded Academic Institution of the Year at this year's Australian Defence Industry Awards. We have made TAFE more available to Western Australians by slashing fees by up to 72 per cent. Remember that the last government put the fees up by over 500 per cent for many courses for Western Australians. Therefore, we slashed the fees for TAFE so that Western Australians can get their birthright, which is the opportunity for training and getting a job in the state.

The Western Australian defence industry workforce development plan 2022–27 was launched last week as well so that we can be in the mix and present to the commonwealth that Western Australia is a great place for defence work.