Editorial courtesy of the West Australian
It has long been widely acknowledged in WA that the sector has been the engine room of the State and national economies.
This newspaper makes no apology for regularly and loudly singing the praises of Western Australia’s resources sector.
And in particular, the iron ore producers.
It has long been widely acknowledged in WA that the sector has been the engine room of the State and national economies.
And that included finding ways to continue operating safely even at the height of the COVID-19 crisis in this State, as other sectors shut down.
As this paper has reported previously, that was only just possible — a push from the Eastern States to shut down the resources industry was only narrowly averted.
Just last month, Northern Star Resources executive chairman Bill Beament said Premier Mark McGowan had resisted the move to close the resources sector in response to the initial phases of the coronavirus pandemic in March.
“This sector was so close to getting shut down in those early days,” the gold mining boss said.
“It was driven a lot from the east coast to be honest, the National Cabinet, they wanted to shut down the resources industry because they did not understand it.”
In June, a Painted Dog Research survey of NSW and Victorian residents exposed an embarrassing lack of knowledge and understanding concerning WA’s vital role in the nation’s exports.
Asked which State was the biggest exporter of goods and services, 51 per cent of respondents said NSW, 25 per cent said Victoria and just 20 per cent said WA. And yet at the time WA exports accounted for nearly 50 per cent of Australia’s total exports.
WA was responsible for 99 per cent of Australia’s iron ore production last year — churning out 810 million tonnes of a total 819mt — and 32 per cent of the world’s iron ore production.
Yesterday, the price of iron ore jumped to fresh seven-year highs.
Prices for the steel-making commodity leapt $US4.16/t, or 3 per cent, overnight to $US136.29/t.
It represents a huge contribution to export revenue, royalties and jobs — which sustain families and flows through to further spending and jobs in other sectors.
The simple truth is that this State carries the rest of the nation.
And so The West Australian will continue reminding those across the Nullarbor of this fact at every opportunity.
At some point, we hope they will get the message and come to understand and acknowledge what WA contributes.
Such a realisation will be to everybody’s advantage.