Question regarding the Minister's awareness of the need for government infrastructure commitment for Ord stage 2 prior to calling for expressions of interest. The Minister deflects, highlighting the previous government's approach and questioning the need for taxpayer subsidy.

AnsweredQoN 298Legislative Assembly
Asked
19 June 2007
Portfolio
State Development

QuestionView source ↗

SUGARCANE INDUSTRY
As a supplementary question, can the Minister for State Development confirm to the house that prior to calling for expressions of interest, he was aware that there would be a need for a government commitment towards the provision of infrastructure for Ord stage 2? Mr E.S. RIPPER

AnswerView source ↗

The coalition government had a chance at Ord stage 2. It gave the mandate to Wesfarmers-Marubeni. Wesfarmers-Marubeni was going to do the whole project on private sector infrastructure. That was the coalition proposal. We were told that it could not go ahead because native title was not solved. We solved the native title issue and then we had a further expressions of interest process without indicating any state government infrastructure support. Should a project, in the best circumstances, not be able to proceed on its own merits without taxpayer subsidy?
Mr E.S. RIPPER replied: The coalition government had a chance at Ord stage 2. It gave the mandate to Wesfarmers-Marubeni. Wesfarmers-Marubeni was going to do the whole project on private sector infrastructure. That was the coalition proposal. We were told that it could not go ahead because native title was not solved. We solved the native title issue and then we had a further expressions of interest process without indicating any state government infrastructure support. Should a project, in the best circumstances, not be able to proceed on its own merits without taxpayer subsidy?
The coalition government had a chance at Ord stage 2. It gave the mandate to Wesfarmers-Marubeni. Wesfarmers-Marubeni was going to do the whole project on private sector infrastructure. That was the coalition proposal. We were told that it could not go ahead because native title was not solved. We solved the native title issue and then we had a further expressions of interest process without indicating any state government infrastructure support. Should a project, in the best circumstances, not be able to proceed on its own merits without taxpayer subsidy?

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more