EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Serge DeSilvaRanasinghe, Managing Editor,
WA DEFENCE REVIEW
Paul Everingham.
PAUL EVERINGHAM: “THE RESOURCES SECTOR HAS AN OPEN APPROACH TO WORKING WITH DEFENCE TO HELP ENSURE OUR MUTUAL OBJECTIVES ARE ACHIEVED.” Despite the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, the Western Australian resources sector continues to be one the pillars of both the state and national economies, with iron ore exports climbing to record levels and a global focus on renewables creating opportunities for many other commodities, such as rare earths. WA DEFENCE REVIEW spoke with Paul Everingham, the Chief Executive of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CMEWA), to discuss the state of the resources sector in WA, its synergies with Defence, and the outlook ahead to future opportunities and challenges. Can you outline the current state of Australia’s minerals and energy sector and the contribution the sector in WA makes to the national economy?
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POLICY AND ADVOCACY
Rest of Australia
31.83
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83.8
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Community organisations supported
Local governments supported
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monwealth any tax, FBT, re royalties
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18.03
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EDITION 4 • 2021-22 2827.71
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The state of WA’s resources sector is healthy at present, with an optimistic outlook over the mediumterm future albeit with the significant uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the WA sector’s traditional areas of strength – notably iron ore and gold – continue to perform extremely well, and new and exciting opportunities continue to emerge in the battery minerals space. The predicted growth in electric vehicle uptake is expected to drive increased demand in WA’s lithium industry, while an increased global focus on renewable energy is also good news for commodities such as nickel, copper, bauxite, cobalt and rare earths. Additionally, there are a number of resources companies with WA operations that are investing in the hydrogen industry, which has great future potential for WA and Australia. WA’s resources sector contributed $12.7bn in royalties, North West Shelf grants and lease rentals to the WA government in the FY2020-21 -
accounting for 31% of all state revenue. In WA alone, an average of more than 140,000 people were employed in the sector during the 2020 calendar year. Meanwhile, company tax payments from resources companies operating in WA helped the federal government fund important COVID-19 recovery mechanisms, such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker. A report released earlier this year by the Minerals Council of Australia found that company tax and royalty payments by Australian mining contributed more than $39bn to governments across the country. In the FY2019-20, mining was the single biggest contributing industry to Australia’s economy, with a gross domestic product totalling more than $20bn.
Which specific commodities are currently experiencing growth and why? How sustainable is this growth likely to be into the future? Exports of iron ore have climbed to record levels over the past year, while Australia became the biggest gold producer in the world during the first six months of this year. There is also continued growth for lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earths as demand for
