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The former Barnett Government attempted local government amalgamations in Perth last decade but was forced to abandon them in 2015 after public backlash. They did not attempt to amalgamate the state’s 107 non-metropolitan councils.
Local government rates were thrust to the spotlight earlier this year after the Shire of Mount Magnet won a Supreme Court bid to levy rates on land used by vanadium miner Atlantic under a ‘miscellaneous licence’.
The industry warned that the decision was against the intent of local government laws and opened the door to local governments drawing a further $55 million worth of extra rates from the resources sector across the state.
It also prompted the WA government to step in and introduce amendments to the Local Government Act 1995 to parliament on October 23, which would prevent councils from rating land held under a miscellaneous licence.
The WA Local Government Association lashed the state government for intervening in the miscellaneous rates issue.
“Our hospitals across Western Australia are at breaking point, WA families have never been more impacted by the cost of living and housing affordability in WA is beyond the reach of many, yet the state government’s priority is to legislate to keep the mining sector happy,” WALGA President Karen Chappel said earlier this month.
“WALGA considers the proposed amendments to be unnecessarily punitive and disproportionate in their impact on local governments that have lawfully levied rates on occupied land under miscellaneous licences.
“The state government’s disregard for WA local governments forces the sector to do more with less, while the introduction of this legislation undermines the fabric of our judicial system and the Supreme Court of WA.”
AUKUS concerns
Fowles’ submission also raised concerns that the advent of AUKUS work in Henderson may push the resources sector out of the important Australian Marine Complex industrial precinct and the common user facility it hosts.
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The common user facility provides access to engineering and fabrication facilities for ship maintenance and building, and is used by hundreds of different businesses.
It will become increasingly important for the burgeoning defence sector as AUKUS progresses and nuclear submarine maintenance ramps up in the state over the next decade.
Fowles warned that the precinct was important to facilitate construction activities in the Kwinana industrial area, which is heavily linked to resource projects.
“Any reduction in access to this facility to enable defence activities will require the replication of common user facilities capabilities elsewhere in the state to support resources sector activities,” she said.
“Without the continuation of these capabilities for private industry there is a real risk that non-defence activities will be crowded out, adversely impacting the state’s local manufacturing capacities which have been built up over decades.”
Power prices doubled
Fowles has also urged the WA government to act on increases in industrial power prices for companies on the South West electricity grid.
The chamber calculated that power costs have doubled in the past five years from $125 per megawatt hour to between $210 and $250 per megawatt hour.
“These sharp increases in wholesale costs significantly reduce the viability of new electricity-intensive resources and manufacturing projects in SWIS-connected regions. They may also delay or undermine investment decisions that support the decarbonisation of existing industry via electrification,” she said.
