❓ The Minister for Mines and Petroleum provides an update on the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS), highlighting its economic benefits and job creation, based on an independent evaluation. The scheme's geoscientific information component had a high multiplier effect.
AnsweredQoN 381Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
EXPLORATION
INCENTIVE SCHEME
381. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the
Minister for Mines and Petroleum:
Can the minister please update the house on how the state
government is helping support jobs through the success of the exploration
incentive scheme?
INCENTIVE SCHEME
381. Dr G.G. JACOBS to the
Minister for Mines and Petroleum:
Can the minister please update the house on how the state
government is helping support jobs through the success of the exploration
incentive scheme?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Eyre for the question. I know he is a
very strong supporter of the exploration incentive scheme. Indeed, it is a very
good example of competitive federalism, because we fell behind South Australia
in our key performance indicator of being the best place to invest in Australia
and we found out what South Australia was doing. Indeed, it had an exploration
incentive scheme and we basically copied it and of course made it a tiny bit
better.
One of the important things about the EIS is that we know it
has been of great benefit to the industry; however, we did not know how good it
was. So we decided to organise an independent economic evaluation of the EI scheme
to see how good it was and to quantify the figures. The EI scheme had five
components. One component was basically facilitating exploration throughout
Western Australia. The second component was the innovative drilling program,
which everyone probably knows about. Also, we did some geophysical and
geochemical surveys, which got more data for Western Australia and for our
Geological Survey. Another aspect of it was to come up with three-dimensional
prospectivity maps for some of the explorers. The final component of the EIS
was the promotion of research in mining.
The interesting thing about the study is that it found that a
well-designed government EIS can accelerate exploration activity. Indeed, the
most important finding was that every $1 million of EIS expenditure resulted in
an estimated benefit to the state of $10.3 million and 13 new jobs from
additional activity. That is not a bad return from each $1 million.
Importantly, this 10-times economic multiplier relates only to the direct
benefits of that exploration activity. If out of that exploration activity we
get a successful mining operation or project such as the Nova nickel project,
the multiplier is far greater than 10, so that is a conservative figure.
Furthermore, the other interesting aspect about the survey is
that one might think that the co-funded drilling program was the most important
component in terms of the multiplier effect, but, no, Mr Speaker; the
geoscientific information available for prospectivity for miners was the aspect
that had the higher multiplier. I am very proud of the EIS and pleased to see
that an independent audit of it has shown that it has a significant multiplier
effect and ultimately will provide long-term benefits to the state of Western
Australia.
very strong supporter of the exploration incentive scheme. Indeed, it is a very
good example of competitive federalism, because we fell behind South Australia
in our key performance indicator of being the best place to invest in Australia
and we found out what South Australia was doing. Indeed, it had an exploration
incentive scheme and we basically copied it and of course made it a tiny bit
better.
One of the important things about the EIS is that we know it
has been of great benefit to the industry; however, we did not know how good it
was. So we decided to organise an independent economic evaluation of the EI scheme
to see how good it was and to quantify the figures. The EI scheme had five
components. One component was basically facilitating exploration throughout
Western Australia. The second component was the innovative drilling program,
which everyone probably knows about. Also, we did some geophysical and
geochemical surveys, which got more data for Western Australia and for our
Geological Survey. Another aspect of it was to come up with three-dimensional
prospectivity maps for some of the explorers. The final component of the EIS
was the promotion of research in mining.
The interesting thing about the study is that it found that a
well-designed government EIS can accelerate exploration activity. Indeed, the
most important finding was that every $1 million of EIS expenditure resulted in
an estimated benefit to the state of $10.3 million and 13 new jobs from
additional activity. That is not a bad return from each $1 million.
Importantly, this 10-times economic multiplier relates only to the direct
benefits of that exploration activity. If out of that exploration activity we
get a successful mining operation or project such as the Nova nickel project,
the multiplier is far greater than 10, so that is a conservative figure.
Furthermore, the other interesting aspect about the survey is
that one might think that the co-funded drilling program was the most important
component in terms of the multiplier effect, but, no, Mr Speaker; the
geoscientific information available for prospectivity for miners was the aspect
that had the higher multiplier. I am very proud of the EIS and pleased to see
that an independent audit of it has shown that it has a significant multiplier
effect and ultimately will provide long-term benefits to the state of Western
Australia.
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