- New Strategic Industries Fund to drive major job-creating
hubs
- $500 million fund to fast-track clean energy and major
industrial projects
- Promoting diversification and a strong future economy across
Western Australia
The Cook Labor Government
will invest half a billion dollars to unlock Western Australia's strategic industrial
areas (SIAs) and pave the way for WA to become a global clean energy
powerhouse.
Funded in the 2024-25
State Budget, the $500 million Strategic Industries Fund will deliver
common-user and other enabling infrastructure at SIAs across regional and
metropolitan WA.
WA is home to 13 SIAs,
spanning the entire State: Browse, Boodarie, Burrup, Maitland, Anketell,
Ashburton North, Oakajee, Kwinana, Rockingham, Kemerton, Shotts, Mungari and
Mirambeena.
There has been
significant interest in access to industrial land across WA for renewable
hydrogen, critical minerals processing and other job-creating industries.
The Strategic Industries
Fund will be used to prepare land for future industrial projects, ensuring WA
is primed for sustainable growth and development.
An initial $125 million
will be invested to open up new industrial land at Latitude 32 in Kwinana,
given the strong demand for land in Perth's industrial heartland - with recent
allocations in the Kwinana and Rockingham SIAs towards a range of job-creating
projects.
A further $20 million
will be allocated to develop general
industrial land in Karratha and in the Peel region, while $20 million has been
set aside to unlock land in the Goldfields and South West.
Those investments build
on the $35 million investment into the Industrial Land Development Fund
included in last year's Budget, which has progressed planning works on priority
SIAs at the Pilbara.
The Strategic Industries
Fund is on top of the $160 million industrial lease incentive scheme announced
late last year, to attract clean energy projects to SIAs.
Comments attributed to Premier Roger Cook:
"WA is the engine room of
the nation's economy, and I want to make sure our State becomes a global clean
energy powerhouse.
"We have the renewable
resources, skills and trading partnerships to become home to job-creating clean
energy mega-projects, and our Strategic Industries Fund will help to unlock the
industrial land we need to get these projects off the ground.
"This $500 million fund
will open up industrial land right across our regions and in Perth, helping us
to attract the major clean energy industries of the future to WA.
"My Government will
always do what's right for WA, and that means setting up our State's economy
for the long term."
Comments attributed to Lands Minister John Carey:
"Through the 2024-25
State Budget and a major $500 million investment, the Cook Labor Government
continues to facilitate and support more clean energy production across
metropolitan and regional Western Australia.
"Our 13 strategic industrial
areas each attract important investment into the State to grow emerging
industries and support local jobs.
"Our Government remains
focused on supporting renewable energy industries that will help transform and
future-proof our economy, while creating skilled local jobs for the future."
