JOBS —
MANUFACTURING
559. Ms M.J. HAMMAT to the Premier:
I refer to the McGowan Labor government's
unprecedented efforts to create new jobs and diversify the economy, including
its significant investment in boosting local manufacturing. Can the Premier
update the house on how this government is helping to bring manufacturing back
to Western Australia, and outline what this will mean for local jobs and local
businesses?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
I thank the member for Mirrabooka for the question. We put a huge
amount of effort into diversifying the economy. In our first term, we invested
heavily in tourism, agriculture, defence work and green jobs. We have invested
in emerging industries such as hydrogen,
lithium and battery materials; and we have invested in bringing manufacturing
back to Western Australia. A few months ago, the Minister for Transport, the
member for Midlands and I opened the Bellevue railcar manufacturing plant,
where we are manufacturing new Metronet and Australind railcars. The
great news is that we have put a huge amount of effort into iron ore railcar
manufacturing. I recall that before the election
it was subject to some criticism, perhaps, from the Liberal Party and others.
Fortunately, our effort has paid off. Rio Tinto has announced its
commitment to an initial purchase of 50 iron ore railcars from Western Australian
manufacturers and then 10 railcars a year for at least the next five years.
This is a wonderful announcement and vindicates our effort to achieve this
outcome. I congratulate Rio Tinto on what it has done. I passed on my congratulations
to their senior executives, particularly Simon Trott, whom I saw the other day.
This is quite extraordinary stuff. For the first time in
living memory, iron ore railcars will be manufactured in Western Australia. When members go to the north of
the state, they will see that there are lots of railcars there, but at
this point in time they have all been imported. For the first time, they are
being manufactured here. I would like to see—I
have passed on my request—some of the other major iron ore exporters do
the same thing, and perhaps even join
Rio Tinto in this approach, because obviously if they join, we can reduce the
overall costs to each party because scale reduces cost. This will be a great
thing if other iron ore exporters do exactly the same thing as Rio Tinto has done. I would like to especially congratulate once
again the Rio Tinto team. This is an extraordinary thing and a great
vindication of the effort to which the state government has gone to achieve
this outcome. By the way, I forgot to mention that we put $15 million into a local
manufacturing investment fund especially for iron ore railcars.
We are investing in not only
railcars; we are also working on wind farms and standalone power systems for Western
Australia, particularly to be placed at the edge of grid. We are using our
strengths, particularly in the areas of
minerals and renewable energy, to leverage manufacturing into Western Australia.
For the first time in a long time this state has a government that is
focused on these things and we can see the fruit of our effort right here.