"Our legislation has to be forward-looking and not lag behind other jurisdictions – or worse, drag us backwards."
CME Chief Executive Officer, Rebecca Tomkinson
The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA (CME) said the introduction of legislation that allowed multiple government departments to process project permit applications at the same time was common sense.
CME Chief Executive Officer, Rebecca Tomkinson, said delays caused by complicated assessment processes involving multiple government departments posed a significant deterrent to investment in projects in WA.
"Our sector relies on regulatory frameworks that maintain our strong environmental protections, but obviously these must be delivered in a timely and efficient manner," Ms Tomkinson said.
"Any perceptions of inefficiency, delay or WA being hard to do business with automatically impacts our reputation with investors and our trading partners. Our legislation has to be forward-looking and not lag behind other jurisdictions - or worse, drag us backwards.
"Our commodities are superior quality but Australia is a relatively high-cost jurisdiction so we have to be easy to do business with, and we have to maintain our ESG standards. Those two factors set us apart from other countries vying for the same market share.
"CME contributed to the consultation on the government's 'parallel processing' solution and its inclusion in the reforms is a good outcome, with the changes focused on delivering much-needed processing efficiencies.
"These legislative changes are good but one part of the larger puzzle. Now we need government to focus on the other recommendations from the Vogel McFerran review, like ensuring that internal departmental processes are focused on lifting productivity."
Ms Tomkinson said the introduction of clear, time-based metrics and transparent reporting were critical at all stages of the assessment process for all departments involved in project permit approvals.
She said to capitalise on the efficiency improvement opportunity, granular understanding of the end-to-end assessment process was required and encouraged the government to invest in completing the puzzle.
"We look forward to reviewing the amendments in the coming days," she said.
