Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to bring the House's attention to the mining industry in Western Australia and how important it is to our economy. The mining industry in WA produces around 45 per cent of the nation's mercantile exports and is mainly concentrated in my electorate of O'Connor and the electorate of Durack—that of Melissa Price.

It was with great pleasure that we were able to host the new Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia, Josh Frydenberg, in Western Australia last week. The minister made himself available for a full week, and it was a real pleasure to show him around the mining industry in WA. The week began on Monday morning with a breakfast with 100 stakeholders in Perth, sponsored by AMEC and the CME, and it was very well received. The minister vowed to that audience to promote and support within cabinet the mining and energy sectors. He also reinforced his view of the need to maintain ministerial efforts on boosting the industry's productivity through taxation reform—which is the debate that we are currently having—industrial relations reform as well as deregulation and improved infrastructure. I would like to take this opportunity to thank AMEC and the CME for their very strong support for that event.

Later on Monday, I took the minister to Kalgoorlie. Kalgoorlie, in my electorate, is the heart of the WA mining industry, where it all began in 1893 when Paddy Hannan found gold, and it has been the heart and soul of the WA mining industry ever since. When we were in Kalgoorlie, we took the minister to Hahn Electrical. That is a business run by Daphne and Alan Hahn, and their son, Craig. A wonderful Goldfields success story, the business produces electricity components for underground mining and is exporting those components to the world. It employs 65 employees and has an extended family of businesses that employ over 200. The importance of Hahn Electrical, and businesses like it in Kalgoorlie, is to demonstrate to the minister that the mining industry is not just about the headline projects—the Gorgons and the $40 billion investments; it is also about those small-to-medium enterprises that support the mining industry. I would like to thank the Hahn family for hosting us for lunch and putting on a wonderful day and also for the work that they do within the Kalgoorlie-Boulder community.

Finally, no trip to Kalgoorlie would be complete without a visit to the Super Pit. The Super Pit, at the top end of Hannan Street in Kalgoorlie, was an amalgamation of all the existing mining leases by Alan Bond back in the late 1980s—one of the very good things that Alan Bond did in his time—and has now grown to be 3.5 kilometres long by one kilometre deep. The Super Pit produces 650,000 to 700,000 ounces of gold a year, employs 1,200 people directly in Kalgoorlie, along with the ancillary workers.