Revitalising the Western Trade Coast: A Call for Effective Governance

A key goal of the Western Trade Coast (WTC), WA’s premier industrial area, is to maintain and enhance the community environment to benefit both the community and industry. More than half of its financial support is provided to the Cockburn, Rockingham, and Kwinana communities. By fostering such a collaborative environment, the Western Trade Coast continues to set a global standard for industrial symbiosis, driving both economic and community prosperity.

There’s more to it than that, though. The WTC enhances Western Australia in many ways and can even be described as foundational to our prosperity. But despite its strengths, it has weaknesses that, if left unaddressed, will threaten its ability to deliver for the State over time.

This is not a future prediction; it’s happening now and has been for a while.

Before the last State election, Regional Development Australia (Perth) and the Kwinana Industries Council separately presented a proposal to the McGowan government to set up the WTC Development Board. The Board would take over the management of the WTC from the 13+ state government departments and three local governments currently involved. Under the current regime, the WTC is showing signs of stress, indicating that the system is failing the people of this State and the companies operating within or connected to the industrial area.

The proposal suggested a Board made up of successful private sector business people with a mandate to fix and prepare the WTC for its future. Supporting it would be a small, private sector ethos management team. The Board would hold the management team accountable for achieving its goals, with a “noses in, fingers out” approach applied to the departments. This structure would resemble a hybrid between the South West Development Commission and the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, both of which have demonstrated their effectiveness.

In response to the suggestion, the Premier asked the Department of Jobs, Science, Technology, and Investment  (JTSI) to bring back a plan for the new governance arrangement. Unfortunately, what came back was another taskforce, destined to fail from the start.

The membership makeup and supporting structure were dysfunctional, and it was called the pretentious “Global Advanced Industries Hub.”

Over two and a half years later, the taskforce has, in my view, failed miserably. Its biggest achievement was commissioning a report outlining the constraints on WTC companies, which told JTSI what industry had been saying for years. The money spent on this and other reports could have resourced the Development Board for years.

Now, more than six months past the pre-determined end date for the Taskforce, it hasn’t met this year and never addressed the pressing governance issues. These issues fall within government departments to fix. The bureaucrats’ governance model, approved by the Premier, has failed. They need to admit their failure and come up with a model that will work, then disband the Taskforce as a failed experiment.

The WTC Development Board needs to be constituted by the government to run the State’s premier Industrial Area. This raises a broader issue of competence in WA’s bureaucracies.

Are our key strategic industrial areas (eg Kemerton, Port Hedland, Collie, Anketell) being properly governed? I’ll leave you to judge that, but I think you can guess what my views are…