❓ A WA parliamentary question seeks details about visits from Elion Resources, a Chinese company, and potential financial commitments. The government provides information on visit dates, purposes, attendees, costs, and confirms no formal funding request was made.
AnsweredQoN 3449Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(1) I refer to an article published in the Farm Weekly on 1 January 2015 and ask: (a) Since September 2008, how many delegations from Elion Resources have visited Western Australia; (b) How many of these delegations were hosted by the WA Government; and (c) Of these hosted delegations: (i) What were the dates of these visits; (ii) What was the purpose of the visits; (iii) Which places were visited; (iv) Which Ministers, Ministerial staff and agency staff met with Elion Resources; (v) Which representatives of Elion Resources were present; (vi) What was the total cost to the WA Government of each visit; (vii) What is the breakdown of the total cost of each visit, including travel, accommodation and other expenses; and (viii) Was the mode of travel via commercial airline, contracted airline or Government charter? (2) Has Elion Resources asked the WA Government to make a financial commitment to a project, and if so: (a) When was this request made; (b) What was the nature of this request; and (c) What was the Government's response?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
17 March 2015
Responded by
Minister representing the Minister for Agriculture and Food
Response time
28 days
(1) (a) Elion Resources Group (Elion) visited Western Australia between 12-17 November 2014 and between 17-23 December 2014.
(b) In order to address the multi-disciplinary nature of Elion interest in Western Australia (WA), several WA Government Departments were involved in the recent visits, including; Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA), Department of State Development (DSD), Department of Water (DoW), Department of Regional Development (DRD), Department of Lands (DoL) and Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) and Tourism WA.
(c) (i) 12-17 November and 17-23 December 2014
(ii) 12-17 November 2014, Elion to identify opportunities to buy WA agrifood products and investigate investing in WA agrifood supply chains, including opportunities to invest in projects in WA similar in nature to the 'greening the desert' projects that Elion has successfully developed in China.
17-23 December 2014, Elion to identify opportunities to apply their expertise to rehabilitate or develop degraded or marginal agricultural land and to conduct further research into investment opportunities to rehabilitate desert areas.
(iii) Between 12-17 November 2014 technical briefings were made at DAFWA as well as at other WA Government Departments. DAFWA assisted Elion in visits to: Cataby, Moora, Burekup, Boyanup, Busselton.
Between 17-23 December 2014 technical briefings were made at DAFWA as well as at other WA Government Departments. DoW assisted Elion in visits to northern WA, including to Warrawagine, Port Hedland and Derby.
(iv) 12-17 November 2014
DAFWA - Rob Delane, Andrew Weinert, Paul Frapple, Terry Burnage,
Dr Soonchye Tan, Dr Fucheng Shan, Rochelle Johnstone, Alec McCarthy
DSD - Ngor Tan, Juan Lu and Lisa Harris on secondment to Tourism WA
DRD (South West Development Commission) - Daniel Marshall
Landcorp - Nicholas Wolff, Susan Oosththuizen, Jodee Harvey
Tourism WA - Lisa Harris
17-23 December 2014
DAFWA - Rob Delane, Paul Frapple, Terry Burnage, Andrew Watson, Ed Barrett-Lennard, Chris Ham
Hon Mia Davies MLA, Nicole O'Keefe (Chief of Staff), Doug Cunningham (advisor to Office of Minister for Water; Sport and Recreation, Forestry),
DoW - Simon Skevington, Garry Humphries
DRD - Dexter Davies (advisor to Office of Minster for Regional Development; Lands), Peter Stubbs
DSD - Stuart Crockett, Ngor Tan, Juan Lu
DoL - Chris Ziatas
DMP - Eugene Bouwhuis
(v) 12-17 November 2014
Mr Qian Guoxing and Dr Chen Dongling
17-23 December 2014
Mr Qian Guoxing, Mr. Yin Chengguo, Mr. Mi Fugui Mi, Mr. Wang Linhe,
Mr. Han Meifei, Mr. Guangdong Peng
(vi) Total cost to the WA Government of each visit:
12-17 November 2014
$1592
17-23 December 2014
$9884
Total cost to the WA Government of the two visits by Elion; 12-17 November and 17-23 December 2014 is $11 476.
(vii) Breakdown of the total cost for each visit for WA Government [see tabled paper no].
(viii) Commercial Flight Perth to Port Hedland returning Broome to Perth with cost for Simon Skevington, DoW and Peter Stubbs, DRD totaling $1 672 (this figure is included in DoW total listed in response to (vii)).
(2) (a)-(c) No formal application has been made by Elion Group for the WA Government to provide funding for this or any similar investment project in WA.
(b) In order to address the multi-disciplinary nature of Elion interest in Western Australia (WA), several WA Government Departments were involved in the recent visits, including; Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA), Department of State Development (DSD), Department of Water (DoW), Department of Regional Development (DRD), Department of Lands (DoL) and Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP) and Tourism WA.
(c) (i) 12-17 November and 17-23 December 2014
(ii) 12-17 November 2014, Elion to identify opportunities to buy WA agrifood products and investigate investing in WA agrifood supply chains, including opportunities to invest in projects in WA similar in nature to the 'greening the desert' projects that Elion has successfully developed in China.
17-23 December 2014, Elion to identify opportunities to apply their expertise to rehabilitate or develop degraded or marginal agricultural land and to conduct further research into investment opportunities to rehabilitate desert areas.
(iii) Between 12-17 November 2014 technical briefings were made at DAFWA as well as at other WA Government Departments. DAFWA assisted Elion in visits to: Cataby, Moora, Burekup, Boyanup, Busselton.
Between 17-23 December 2014 technical briefings were made at DAFWA as well as at other WA Government Departments. DoW assisted Elion in visits to northern WA, including to Warrawagine, Port Hedland and Derby.
(iv) 12-17 November 2014
DAFWA - Rob Delane, Andrew Weinert, Paul Frapple, Terry Burnage,
Dr Soonchye Tan, Dr Fucheng Shan, Rochelle Johnstone, Alec McCarthy
DSD - Ngor Tan, Juan Lu and Lisa Harris on secondment to Tourism WA
DRD (South West Development Commission) - Daniel Marshall
Landcorp - Nicholas Wolff, Susan Oosththuizen, Jodee Harvey
Tourism WA - Lisa Harris
17-23 December 2014
DAFWA - Rob Delane, Paul Frapple, Terry Burnage, Andrew Watson, Ed Barrett-Lennard, Chris Ham
Hon Mia Davies MLA, Nicole O'Keefe (Chief of Staff), Doug Cunningham (advisor to Office of Minister for Water; Sport and Recreation, Forestry),
DoW - Simon Skevington, Garry Humphries
DRD - Dexter Davies (advisor to Office of Minster for Regional Development; Lands), Peter Stubbs
DSD - Stuart Crockett, Ngor Tan, Juan Lu
DoL - Chris Ziatas
DMP - Eugene Bouwhuis
(v) 12-17 November 2014
Mr Qian Guoxing and Dr Chen Dongling
17-23 December 2014
Mr Qian Guoxing, Mr. Yin Chengguo, Mr. Mi Fugui Mi, Mr. Wang Linhe,
Mr. Han Meifei, Mr. Guangdong Peng
(vi) Total cost to the WA Government of each visit:
12-17 November 2014
$1592
17-23 December 2014
$9884
Total cost to the WA Government of the two visits by Elion; 12-17 November and 17-23 December 2014 is $11 476.
(vii) Breakdown of the total cost for each visit for WA Government [see tabled paper no].
(viii) Commercial Flight Perth to Port Hedland returning Broome to Perth with cost for Simon Skevington, DoW and Peter Stubbs, DRD totaling $1 672 (this figure is included in DoW total listed in response to (vii)).
(2) (a)-(c) No formal application has been made by Elion Group for the WA Government to provide funding for this or any similar investment project in WA.
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