About Kwinana Industries Council

Director’s Report

I began serving KIC as its Director in February 2007. Now, over 16 years later, this 2022/23 report will be my last.

In well less than 12 months I will be handing the baton to whomsoever is KIC’s new Director, because as at the end of June next year, I retire.

What that means for me between now and then is lots of work to settle as many of the remaining issues as I can.

Many are finished and momentum just needs to be maintained, some are almost done and dusted, a small number of intransient ones still need focused attention over a longer period of time, and then there are the newly emerged ones, like decarbonisation.

World events continue to throw new challenges and opportunities into the mix as the new global energy order emerges, and from industry’s perspective it will ultimately be based on pace, scale and the ‘colour’ of the molecules and electrons used, and of course, politics.

Many of the enterprises located within the Kwinana Industrial Area (KIA) are participants in major international markets and are buffeted by the vanguard winds of change rolling in before the storm.

Global and international policy makers have been leaders in defining this new direction.

Industry has been responding to this for several years now by changing the way things are and will be done. My observations are that the industry transition is well underway, and that it would be of benefit to all if the relevant public sector departments could catch up and move from ‘command and control mode’ to ‘facilitation mode’.

Industrial Resilience

For over six decades, the industrial area has proven its resilience to adverse events and its willingness to reposition itself to take part in emerging international megatrends.

Enterprises are responding to these challenges and opportunities when we take a close look at what is going on.

On the local scene we see in response to these megatrends;

» the manifestation of new industrial projects,

» clarification of responsibilities,

» the pivot towards carbon reduction and the associated renewable energy and fuels,

» the progression towards some major common-user infrastructure projects, and

» a societal demand for better environmental outcomes and circular economy.

The old chestnuts like;

» industrial buffer zone encroachment by residential housing still has not been fixed, where we see continued approvals for residential development into the critically important buffers.

» common-user freight movement infrastructure assets getting more constraining on industry’s ability to be internationally competitive.

» drying up of industrial land available for new heavy industrial development to meet demand, and

» complex State governance arrangements, despite pockets of good intent, remaining unresolved.

These old chestnuts are very hard to crack, and yet they need not be.

The ‘Global Advanced Industries Hub’ (GAIH) Ministerial Taskforce (we call it the Western Trade Coast Taskforce because this is a better name) was set up to address these issues and more.

As an observation, there is an awful amount of paddling going on, but the duck has yet to move.

I’ll run through some of my observations and highlights of the year that was 2022-23 for KIC.

Because the pool is only a certain size, this translates to robbing Peter to pay Paul. Winners and losers.

This not only applies to construction and industry redevelopment projects, it applies to the operations as well. The better approach is to grow the pool, to get more workers into the State.

The practical resolution of this is urgent; and a churn of meetings set up by well-meaning public servants where hands are wringed, teeth are gnashed, reports are presented, and where because no tangible actions emerge, the result will predictably be maintenance of the status quo. I hope I am wrong.

Governance framework

For some years the KIC has been working to achieve a better governance framework for the WTC.

This effort culminated prior to the most recent State election when KIC developed a Governance White Paper (the Western Trade Coast Development Board) and socialised it into the elected government, believing it had been quite well received at the senior political level.

What emerged in response was a taskforce model, very similar in composition to the one created under the Barnett government in 2011, but with one significant difference.

The composition of the GAIH Taskforce did not include collective industry representation.

KIC viewed this lack of industry representation as illogical and quite disrespectful.

There was no credible explanation provided to explain this. After 12 months of effort to rectify this, KIC (and the Henderson Alliance, also an industry association) were finally invited to join the Taskforce.

The Taskforce structure is complex, with it being supported by a public servant only steering committee, an industry reference group, and a couple of working groups.

In the eighteen months of activity to date, much consultancy work has been awarded, reports are being received, and it is hoped that their recommended actions will be rolled out quickly. We wait.

Membership

KIC membership has surged during the year, due in part to our increased presence on social media, and also as a result of the WTC tours that have been made widely available for some years now.

KIC’s reputation as a highly effective industry association continues to mature.

As our membership grows, so too does our ability to lay claim to higher levels of industry representation. We welcomed 7 new Associate members into the KIC family during the year, and we were especially pleased to accept IGO and Aurizon as Full members, who will take their place on the KIC Board of members in the new financial year.

Careers for high school students

Our Education Development program is featured later in this annual report.

In essence it is a program delivering industry career aspirations to Year 10 high school students, and career pathway options (pre-apprenticeships) for Year 11 and 12 students.

In total we graduate about 300 students annually from our programs, which are essentially fully funded by the members.

A small, but valued contribution comes from the 21 high schools that form the backbone of the program, and from which the students are sourced – our partnership schools.

We believe there is no other program like this in Australia, and KIC members can be very satisfied knowing they are making a big difference to community aspirations over time with this multiaward-winning program.

Looking ahead

So, what does the future hold for the State’s premier industrial area?

The industrial skyline is certainly looking very busy.

There are likely to be several large wind turbines operating and there’ll be cranes-a-plenty raising up the many new construction projects.

The Westport project could get the green light for commencement after the next WA state election, and we would see the beginning of the roll-out of the associated (road, maritime, and rail) freight infrastructure upgrades which will be necessary to support it.

Carbon reduction efforts will be well underway and a transition to green energy and hydrogen-based products for domestic and international consumption will be an internationally-recognised feature of the cluster.

Membership levels will continue to grow and we will have transitioned to an improved ‘member value’ service delivery model, increasingly aimed at the Associate member level.

I sincerely hope we will have secured, once and for all, preservation of the industrial buffer zone, but I do have my reservations on this one.

It remains my hope that the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation accepts that industry needs it to stand up to protect its own Strategic Industrial Area from residential housing encroachment. It’s nuts that this sort of incompatible development continues to occur.

The long term and apparent influence of the residential property developers in this State seems excessive, and we may see the spotlight come into focus on this in relation to public servant responsibilities as some of the current buffer zone conflicts play out.

An expansion of the heavy industrial core, being the Kwinana/Rockingham industrial areas, is necessary and now urgent.

• The only place that is suitable for its expansion is into Latitude 32, a largely undeveloped industrial area at Wattleup.
• It has the broadest buffer zone and is ideally located to be connected to the northern part of the KIA.
• The township of Wattleup was razed to provide industrial land around 20 years ago, and maybe the Westport project will be the trigger for the heavy industrial zone expansion.

So finally, let me first thank the members, Full and Associate, for their support and encouragement over the past year.

There have been many challenges raised and without the knowledge that the members ‘have my back’, I would not have been effective in carrying many of the issues they need addressed forward for resolution.

I’d like to thank the KIC members for their support of KIC; our President, Mr Albert Romano for his leadership, and to my staff, Yvonne, Debbie, and Kristy for their dedication. I’m proud to be associated with them all.