❓ RESOURCES SECTOR — ILUKA RESOURCES 521. Mr R.R. WHITBY to the Premier: I refer to Iluka Resources' job-creating mineral sands mine that last week officially began its operations in the midwest. Can th
AnsweredQoN 521Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
RESOURCES SECTOR —
ILUKA RESOURCES
521. Mr R.R. WHITBY to the Premier:
I refer to Iluka Resources'
job-creating mineral sands mine that last week officially began its operations
in the midwest. Can the Premier update the house on how this government is
continuing to provide the resources sector with the confidence it needs to
invest in more projects in this state and create more jobs for Western Australians?
ILUKA RESOURCES
521. Mr R.R. WHITBY to the Premier:
I refer to Iluka Resources'
job-creating mineral sands mine that last week officially began its operations
in the midwest. Can the Premier update the house on how this government is
continuing to provide the resources sector with the confidence it needs to
invest in more projects in this state and create more jobs for Western Australians?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
When we came to office of course we inherited an economy that was in recession
under the last government—the only recession recorded in Western Australian
history. The member for Bateman is not here at the moment. I want to quote him,
because he came up with some wise words. He said that the last government was
indecisive and erratic. He described his own government as that. Since then, 40
000 jobs have been created in Western Australia, the economy has grown by 3.8
per cent, and just recently, there was a survey of business leaders. I want to
quote the CEO of Rio Tinto, Mr Chris Salisbury, who commended the government
and the Treasurer, the member for Victoria Park, for —
� ''their work on Budget
repair and fiscal restraint'', saying it had helped provide policy
certainty for investment.
That is under our government. Last
week, I was able to open the new Iluka Resources mineral sands mine at Cataby.
It is a $270 million investment, with 600 jobs during construction and 600 ongoing
jobs across operations. Most of those are regional jobs in Cataby, Capel and
Geraldton, and we of course have a huge amount of downstream processing
occurring in Western Australia, as a consequence of this, in rutile, zircon,
synthetic rutile as well, and ilmenite, which I think was the other mineral
that was being produced at Cataby. I opened that last Friday. Last Monday, the
Environmental Protection Authority approved Fortescue Metals Group's
Eliwana iron ore mine and rail project, which
is a nearly $2 billion investment in Western Australia. We have seen FMG's
$3.7 billion Iron Bridge project approved, with 3 900 jobs; BHP's
$4.5 billion South Flank mine, with 3 100 jobs; Rio Tinto's $3.5 million
Koodaideri mine, with a total of 2 600 jobs; and we are working with Woodside
and the joint venture partners to see investment decisions on Browse and
Scarborough. As Mr Salisbury said the other week, policy certainty has been
created for business and that has meant the creation of 40 000 additional jobs.
We have pulled the economy out of the recession it was in under the Liberals
and Nationals, and now we are seeing many billions of dollars of investment, as
I just outlined to the house.
When we came to office of course we inherited an economy that was in recession
under the last government—the only recession recorded in Western Australian
history. The member for Bateman is not here at the moment. I want to quote him,
because he came up with some wise words. He said that the last government was
indecisive and erratic. He described his own government as that. Since then, 40
000 jobs have been created in Western Australia, the economy has grown by 3.8
per cent, and just recently, there was a survey of business leaders. I want to
quote the CEO of Rio Tinto, Mr Chris Salisbury, who commended the government
and the Treasurer, the member for Victoria Park, for —
� ''their work on Budget
repair and fiscal restraint'', saying it had helped provide policy
certainty for investment.
That is under our government. Last
week, I was able to open the new Iluka Resources mineral sands mine at Cataby.
It is a $270 million investment, with 600 jobs during construction and 600 ongoing
jobs across operations. Most of those are regional jobs in Cataby, Capel and
Geraldton, and we of course have a huge amount of downstream processing
occurring in Western Australia, as a consequence of this, in rutile, zircon,
synthetic rutile as well, and ilmenite, which I think was the other mineral
that was being produced at Cataby. I opened that last Friday. Last Monday, the
Environmental Protection Authority approved Fortescue Metals Group's
Eliwana iron ore mine and rail project, which
is a nearly $2 billion investment in Western Australia. We have seen FMG's
$3.7 billion Iron Bridge project approved, with 3 900 jobs; BHP's
$4.5 billion South Flank mine, with 3 100 jobs; Rio Tinto's $3.5 million
Koodaideri mine, with a total of 2 600 jobs; and we are working with Woodside
and the joint venture partners to see investment decisions on Browse and
Scarborough. As Mr Salisbury said the other week, policy certainty has been
created for business and that has meant the creation of 40 000 additional jobs.
We have pulled the economy out of the recession it was in under the Liberals
and Nationals, and now we are seeing many billions of dollars of investment, as
I just outlined to the house.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.