CORONAVIRUS —
RESOURCES SECTOR
422. Mr K.J.J. MICHEL to the Premier:
(1) Can the
Premier update the house on the likely role that Western Australia has played
in supporting the national economy through COVID-19?
(2) Furthermore,
can the Premier outline to the house what work the McGowan Labor government has
undertaken to ensure our mining and resources sector continues to operate
through COVID-19?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I thank the member for Pilbara for
the question and for his advocacy for the Pilbara over the course of his time
in Parliament.
(1)–(2) I
was very keen to ensure that when the COVID-19 period hit Australia, we
protected our export industries as much as possible. I convened a series of
round tables with a range of industry sectors at the very beginning of this,
back in, I think, early March. The first one I convened was with the resources
sector immediately after the international travel bans were announced, and
certainly the travel ban with China. At that stage, there was still a lot of
uncertainty and it would be fair to say that some of the people from the
companies who came along were a bit perplexed about what they were doing there.
It would be fair to say that they are not perplexed now about what it was
about. We took the view that continuing to work closely with all industry
sectors, including our exports sector and the resources sector, was very
important right from the beginning. We worked with the industry to ensure that
critical staff from the eastern states were moved to Western Australia, and
thousands of people who ordinarily would fly in and fly out from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Hobart came to Western
Australia and are now based here. They are now operating in Western Australia
and many of them are with their families. According to Paul Everingham from the
Chamber of Minerals and Energy, about 5 000 to 6 000 workers from other states
are now living in Western Australia. Obviously, we are taking steps to try to
make as many of those people stay in Western Australia as possible. We decided
to do everything we could to keep our export industries, in particular the
resources sector, operating, which supports not only WA, but also the entire
country.
The federal Treasury Secretary, Dr
Steven Kennedy, whom I speak to basically on a fortnightly basis, said this on
28 April to the Senate committee that is examining these issues —
� Western Australia � deemed
mining an essential service in the sense in which they were imposing their
restrictions. These were important, carefully calibrated decisions � our
capacity � to allow those activities to continue while putting in place the
social-distancing arrangements has been very helpful in putting a floor under
what would otherwise be a much larger fall.
In other words, our government's
decision to support that industry has protected the entire national economy.
That is what Dr Steven Kennedy, the head of the federal Treasury, had to say on
28 April.
Maybe some of these things are not particularly well
appreciated in some of the capitals over east in this country. In March, Western
Australia's exports hit an all-time monthly high; that is, $17.7 billion
worth of goods were exported from Western Australia in March this year. We had
our highest 12-month total export on record in March this year. In the 12
months up until March, Western Australia exported $184.4 billion worth of
goods. Currently, Western Australia accounts for about 49 per cent of all the
goods exported from Australia, with 11 per cent of the nation's
population. By comparison, Victoria's share of goods export is 7.4 per
cent, with 30 per cent of the nation's population, and New South Wales'
share is 12 per cent, with nearly 40 per cent of the nation's population.
I do not think that how Western Australia provides that incredible ballast to
the national economy is particularly well appreciated in the eastern states. In
annual terms, WA accounts for 65 per cent of all Australian exports to China,
42 per cent of the nation's exports to Japan, 42 per cent of the nation's
exports to South Korea and a whopping 82 per cent of the nation's
exports to the United Kingdom. It is absolutely clear to me and the government
that Western Australia is carrying the rest of the country. Our state does all
the heavy lifting. Jobs in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra are dependent on the
workers of Port Hedland, Karratha, Kalgoorlie, Newman, Perth, Busselton,
Bunbury and communities all over Western Australia. The entire Western Australian
workforce contributes an enormous amount to the eastern states, and I think it
is time that they understood and appreciated exactly
what Western Australia does for them. The figures do not lie; these figures are
very clear. Our state supports the rest of the country, and it is about
time the rest of the country appreciated what we do for it.