Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Almost a third of Australians live in regional, rural and remote areas. On average, they die younger, have fewer GPs, earn less and watch their children leave for the city to study and rarely return. People in the most disadvantaged areas of Australia have a life expectancy seven years shorter than those in the most advantaged, and that gap is widening not closing. Regional Australians face higher rates of hospitalisation, higher rates of domestic violence, lower year-12 completion rates and food that costs more simply because of where they live. These are the results of decades of underinvestment. In my state of WA, our regions have powered this country for generations—the Pilbara, the Kimberley, the Mid West, the goldfields, iron ore, gas and gold. The wealth extracted from those communities has built cities that Australians in the regions often cannot afford to live in. But something's shifting. The global economy needs what regional WA has. This time, if we get the policy right, the regions can capture more of the value themselves.

There are three key policy opportunities. First, green energy exports—Australia has among the best solar and wind resources in the world, and countries across Asia are looking for reliable partners to supply clean hydrogen and ammonia to replace coal and gas in their industrial supply chains. Second, green iron—rather than exporting raw Pilbara ore for steel made overseas using coking coal, we have the chance to process that iron domestically using renewable energy, decarbonising one of the most emissions-intensive supply chains on the planet and capturing the value added step that has historically gone elsewhere. Third, critical minerals—the batteries, motors and turbines that underpin the global energy transition require lithium, rare earths and other minerals that regional WA holds in extraordinary abundance and that the world urgently needs.

The scale of what's already planned is remarkable. In the Pilbara, the Australian Renewable Energy Hub is a 26-gigawatt wind and solar project near Port Hedland, targeting green hydrogen and green iron production. In the Kimberley, the East Kimberley Clean Energy Project near Kununurra is a $3 billion First Nations led solar and green hydrogen venture. In the Mid West, the Murchison Green Hydrogen project north of Kalbarri has secured $814 million in federal production support. Near Kalgoorlie, the Western Green Energy Hub is progressing through approvals on Mirning traditional lands. Near Geraldton, the Oakajee Energy project is developing up to five gigawatts of renewable hydrogen capacity for Asian markets. Technology will also play a role in this transformation. AI is already being used by mining companies to improve exploration and resource extraction and may, in time, open up broader opportunities for technology enabled industries in the region. Whether that potential is fully realised remains to be seen, but it's worth planning for rather than assuming.

This is exciting, but excitement is not a plan. If we look at where transition projects have come unstuck, the same lessons keep appearing. The first is community consultation. The East Kimberley model works because traditional owners are shareholders making decisions, not bystanders being consulted. That has to become a design principle, not a risk to be managed. Genuine co-ownership and genuine benefit sharing from the beginning—that's what social licence actually looks like. Across regional Australia, community consultation must be core to all developments, not an afterthought and a box-ticking exercise.

The second is housing. In Karratha, the median weekly house rent has reached more than double the Perth median after rising 27 per cent in a single year. More than 70 per cent of businesses in the Kimberley and Pilbara say housing availability is their biggest barrier to attracting and keeping staff. BHP has committed $50 million towards worker accommodation in Port Hedland, and that contribution is welcome, but it's hardly enough. Without housing, the transition workforce cannot be housed and the opportunity collapses.

The third is digital equity. Regional WA already has mobile blackspots and unreliable internet. Virtual services cannot substitute for in-person services without that foundation. Once the internet is available, it has to be used to open up opportunities for people in the regions to access the same services as people in the cities. My private member's bill protecting doctors from criminal prosecution for using telehealth for voluntary assisted dying would contribute to this to ensure that everyone has the same access to health services, no matter where they live. The Pilbara, the Kimberley, the Mid West and the goldfields have fuelled this country. We need to get this opportunity right.

See this speech in context