The announcement of the shutdown of BHP’s Kambalda nickel concentrator and the potential closure of all of its nickel operations in WA, with the potential loss of thousands of jobs, should have been a lightning bolt moment for the WA State Government.
But Premier Roger Cook’s response was lacklustre to say the least.
Despite five other WA nickel miners already announcing plans to close or scale down, the Premier is still only talking about options around royalty rebates or relief, saying all levels of government have some “heavy lifting” to do.
With 99 per cent of the nickel industry based in WA, how much more will it take to inspire some real action?
Yesterday’s blow to industry follows the loss of up to 1000 jobs at the ALCOA alumina refinery earlier this year.
Industry is also increasingly frustrated by the Government’s inertia in addressing the protracted approvals process for green energy projects.
With $318 billion worth of projects in WA waiting for approvals, this is a sector that has been left in limbo by a Premier unable to effectively stand up for WA when it comes to a Canberra-centric Federal Government.
This was clear in all the commentary about the future of the GST arrangement this week.
Despite all the tough talk about a public guarantee, a written guarantee and a National Cabinet guarantee, actions always speak louder than words.
Given the Prime Minister’s broken promise on the stage three tax cuts, many are rightly asking how can we believe WA’s GST agreement, locked in by the former Federal Liberal-National government, is secure?
Anthony Albanese made several assurances that the tax cuts would go ahead as legislated yet those so-called guarantees weren’t worth the paper they were written on.
The Prime Minister has proven he is not a man of his word so it would be foolish to assume that any guarantee was set in stone.
Eastern States treasurers continue to agitate for a larger cut and economists this week warned the arrangement could cost the Commonwealth up to $50 billion in future years.
WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti dismissed it as jealousy, and said it was politically not possible for the Feds to go down this path.
But her predecessor, Mark McGowan, clearly thought otherwise.
Why else would he allocate $1.6 million of taxpayers’ money for three so-called “GST fairness fighters” whose sole purpose is to protect the State’s GST allocation amid ongoing Federal reviews to the arrangement?
He called it a “wise investment”.
Clearly, he didn’t have faith that a Labor Federal Government would necessarily stick to its word.
It will no doubt continue to be a pressure point for Roger Cook who has continually proven he doesn’t hold the same authority with his Federal Labor mates as McGowan did.
The “right to disconnect” laws were another disappointing display of Premier Cook’s weak advocacy on behalf of WA on Federal issues.
With a three-hour time difference in summer already compromising the way our industry and businesses operate nationally, these laws are impractical, unworkable and a clear overreach to appease the unions.
Yet the best the Premier could come up with was to remind the Commonwealth that WA is the engine room of the nation’s economy and “policies must be consistent with our needs”.
Talk about being hit with a wet lettuce leaf.
The Premier was also forced to dance within the party lines when he was asked whether he supported the live sheep export ban, a move that will cost WA about $129m and the loss of around 400 jobs.
The best he could offer was that if the Commonwealth wants to move away from the live export industry, it will have to provide a solution to the farmers about how that will impact on their industry.
Weasel words for “we’re washing our hands of it”.
What about the fight for skilled migration workers? What a show of strength that was.
In 2022-23, WA was allocated 8140 workers. This financial year, the State requested 10,000 spots and was instead allocated 2350.
The Premier apparently made repeated calls to Canberra for a review and an urgent top-up.
But clearly the calls fell on deaf ears. The line to the Prime Minster’s office to advocate for WA is not a good one for there doesn’t appear to be any movement.
Which may be why in his first big speech to the WA business sector after being appointed to Premier by the unions, Mr Cook announced plans for a WA embassy in Canberra.
An office to fight and advocate for WA.
An open admission that he has little influence with his Labor mates in Canberra and has to outsource his job of advocating and fighting for our State.
Thirteen months out from an election, there’s no doubt the cracks will continue to widen as the Premier digs deep to prove his leadership credentials, both internally and to the Commonwealth.
If his first Premier’s statement was anything to go by this week, he has some work to do.
In what was supposed to be an address to rally the troops, a third of his colleagues were absent from the chamber as he spoke about a Government that was “hungrier than ever” to continue its work but couldn’t actually outline what it had delivered in seven years in office.
It’s going to be a long road to 2025.
Libby Mettam is the leader of the Liberals.