With the nickel industry in WA on its knees, Roger Cook could have leveraged the Prime Minister and Federal Cabinet visit last week to throw a lifeline to the industry.
Instead, he used it as a photo op and provided no assurance for the security of 10,000 WA jobs.
The WA Premier, with a front row seat at the table with his federal colleagues, had the perfect opportunity to advocate strongly on behalf of this $5 billion industry, that delivered $140m in royalties into State coffers in 2022-23.
The ineffectiveness of that advocacy was blatantly clear.
The demand for nickel is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, driven by the rise of electric vehicles and the transition to renewable energy sources.
With 99 per cent of the country’s production in WA, sustainability of the industry is vital.
This is a government that talks a big game on priorities and the future but lacks the long-term strategy to deliver on it.
It has been sitting on its laurels while the iron ore sector props up the bottom line, producing glossy pamphlets on the importance of critical resources to WA without ensuring there are agile policy settings to support them in the long-term.
With its abundant natural resources and immense potential, WA stands at a crossroads.
Many of the challenges facing the broader resources sector, from duplicated and burdensome environmental approvals processes and changes to industrial relations policies, are ones WA Labor have initiated.
It’s almost like they seem intent on making the cost of doing business in this state as uncompetitive as possible.
We need to lift this handbrake on state development in WA to ensure the next generation of Western Australians can afford the same opportunities as ours.
We nurses are being taken for granted:
It would be no surprise to anyone that Western Australia simply doesn’t have enough nurses.
The Health Minister has gone to great lengths to point towards the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason nursing shortages are plaguing our health system at home.
The truth is, WA has had the lowest number of nurses per capita in Australia ever since Labor came to power.
Jetting overseas to poach nurses from other countries isn’t going to fix the problems currently keeping nurses out of our workforce.
Burnout, low morale and the lowest wage in the country is a problem caused by a Labor government putting its bottom line ahead of the health system.
In their first few years of government, WA Labor took an axe to the funding of our health system. Western Australians are now suffering as a consequence of those failed Labor policies.
The previous failed Health Minister, now turned Premier, must ensure that this government’s first priority is to look after local WA nurses first and foremost before trying to poach nurses from overseas.
Any other approach is a slap in the face to nurses working across this state.
UWA Liberal Club O-Day:
O-Day marks the beginning of many students’ times at university. It’s an opportunity to meet like-minded people, sign up to clubs of interest and get to know your way around campus.
It was a pleasure to join the WA Young Liberals at their stall at the University of Western Australia to support them in signing up new members and handing out materials to new and existing students.
Congratulations to the UWA Liberal Club on a successful and well-attended stall!
Comments