The Leader of the Opposition questions the Treasurer regarding subsidies for Utah Point, specifically the justification for a 40% differential and the criteria distinguishing manufacturing jobs from mining exports. The Treasurer defends the government's decision, highlighting the importance of supporting mining jobs and criticising the Opposition's approach.

AnsweredQoN 841Legislative Assembly
Asked
20 October 2016
Portfolio
Treasurer

QuestionView source ↗

UTAH POINT — SUBSIDY
841. Mr M. McGOWAN to the Treasurer:
I
have a supplementary question. Will the Treasurer table the tenders to prove
his argument about the 40 per cent differential; and, can he again explain the
criteria that make it different for manufacturing jobs versus mining exports?

AnswerView source ↗

Again, I know the Leader of the
Opposition is unable to understand the fundamental difference. The issue with
ABB was that it submitted a tender to provide transformers to Western Power on
a competitive basis.
Mr
M. McGowan interjected.
The
SPEAKER : That is enough!
Dr M.D. NAHAN : It was 40 per cent or five years, $80 million, out of the money. The
real problem is that the Leader of the Opposition jumped on to tweet and
shallowly said that Labor would have forced Western Power to sign that
contract, without knowing the data. In terms of Utah, we made a submission. We
brought it to cabinet and we assessed the issue. We did not react just on
Twitter; we analysed the data. The difference is that there are thousands of
people working for Atlas and Mineral Resources and it was a temporary $2.50 discount
for another year.
Mr
B.S. Wyatt interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, I call you to order for the first time.
Dr
M.D. NAHAN : The Leader of the Opposition cannot complain when he hassles.
He cannot complain about long answers when he asks many questions.
There was $2.50 for one year, with
transparency, and other people committed to other reductions and it kept
thousands of people going in exporting, with local jobs and local activity from
mine sites.
Mr B.S. Wyatt interjected.
The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, I call you to
order for the second time.

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