Home›Questions on Notice›QoN 744

❓ Hon Steve Martin questions the Minister for Transport regarding the calculation of local economic activity related to Alstom's C-series railcar manufacturing, criticising the lack of transparency in previous responses. The Minister provides a definition of 'economic activity' as per the contract.

AnsweredQoN 744Legislative Council

Asked

21 October 2025

Member

Hon Steve Martin

Portfolio

Transport

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Minister's answer in Estimates pre-hearing questions in relation to C-series manufacturing, in which it was stated "as of December 2024, the car-body shells and other railcar body components represent approximately 5.44% of the economic activity created by Alstom for the project", and the Minister's answer to question on notice 596 seeking the full input figures used to calculate this percentage, which was "Alstom is meeting its contractual obligations", providing no further data or response despite the over four-week wait time for questions on notice, and I ask: (a) does the Minister appreciate that providing a random percentage - 5.44% - without providing any information about the context of how this number was calculated, effectively provides no information at all; and (b) will the Minister take the opportunity through answering this question, with another four-week or more response time, to provide any further context or background into the input calculation in relation to: (i) any further context or background into the input calculation; and (ii) the definition of "economic activity" used in the construction of the figure?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered

2 December 2025

Responded by

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport

Response time

9 days

(a-b) Under the contract, economic activity refers to the total value created by Alstom for the project across the entire new railcar fleet, including goods, materials, labour and services sourced both within and outside Western Australia.

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