WESTLAKE, Mr Luke, Chief Executive Officer, Kimberley Ports Authority CHAIR: Welcome. I understand that information on parliamentary privilege and the protection of witnesses giving evidence to the committee has been provided to you. I invite you to make a short opening statement, and at the conclusion of any remarks, I'll invite members of the committee to ask questions. Mr Westlake : Thank you for the opportunity to appear today on behalf of the Kimberley Ports Authority. We welcome this inquiry and its focus on preparing northern Australia for the next generation of emerging industries. The largely untouched Kimberley region is rich in natural resources, and the ports are central to enabling growth and investment in the region. The Kimberley Ports Authority, or KPA, is a government trading enterprise of the Western Australian state government. We were established to manage and operate the ports of the Kimberley region, being Broome, Wyndham, Derby and Yampi Sound. Yampi Sound covers the marine area around two primary islands, Cockatoo and Koolan Island, 140 kilometres north of Derby. KPA's mandate is to ensure safe, sustainable and efficient port operations while supporting regional economic development and facilitating trade growth. KPA operates under a commercial governance structure, with a board of directors appointed by the Minister for Ports, currently the Hon. Stephen Dawson MLC. We manage marine safety, port infrastructure, long-term planning for development and the operations at the Port of Broome. Managers and leaseholders are appointed to operate the Port of Wyndham and the Derby ports. Our operating model is deliberately flexible, enabling us to respond and provide support to emerging industries—from critical minerals to defence, energy, aquaculture and tourism—while maintaining the reliability required by established sectors, such as offshore oil and gas and agricultural exports. The ports in the Kimberley support a diverse industry and trade base. Key activities include offshore oil and gas support, with Broome serving as the primary logistics base for the Browse Basin drilling operations; iron ore exports via Wyndham and Yampi Sound; fuel imports to support regional communities, industry and tourism; cruise shipping, which continues to grow, with the Kimberley region known as a marquee destination for expedition and luxury cruise lines; agricultural exports, including livestock and containerised cotton; fishing, pearling and charter vessels; defence and government, servicing Navy, Border Force, parks and wildlife, and fisheries vessels. In recent years, KPA has undertaken a comprehensive master planning process for all of the ports in the Kimberley. This is soon to be released. This work recognises that Broome is the Kimberley's principal deepwater port and that Wyndham has the most potential for growth in supporting new developments for mining and critical minerals exports. The master plan is designed to be adaptive. It recognises that northern Australia's economic landscape is evolving and that ports must be capable of responding to new opportunities without compromising safety or operational performance. The Western Australian government has been a strong supporter of port development in the Kimberley, with the aims of strengthening the port's capability and facilitating trade. For example, it is investing in a mobile harbour crane for Broome, at a cost of $6 million, to improve service provision to the oil and gas industry as well as making it possible for the export of bulk products via a rotating container loading system. This is currently used for mineral sands exports. It is investing in Broome wharf facility upgrades at terminal 1, totalling $15 million, to remove impediments and construct new areas to improve terminal 1's operational capability. It is investing a total of $24.5 million in first-point-of-entry infrastructure in Broome and Wyndham to enable direct international imports of general cargo and containers. The port of Wyndham has already been able to provide services to the new cotton trade in the East Kimberley because of this funding. Other funding has been provided for feasibility studies for a potential cruise passenger processing terminal in the port of Broome and for an additional fuel terminal in the port of Broome, to introduce increased competition and assist in reducing retail prices of fuel in the region. KPA and the state government also support private investment in port infrastructure like the KMSB facility, which is the new second terminal in the port of Broome. I was going to let them speak for themselves. However, I understand they're not here today, so I'm happy to take questions following this. And there's the proposed Crestlink multi-user facility developing in Yampi Sound. These investments and KPA's delivery of projects reflect the state's recognition that the Kimberley ports are essential to unlocking economic opportunities across north-western Australia. The Kimberley Ports Authority is committed to ensuring that the ports in the Kimberley are planned for, ready to support the next wave of emerging industries across northern Australia. We have a clear long-term vision, a strong record of delivery and a collaborative approach to working with government, industry, traditional owners and the community. With the right planning and investment, the ports in the Kimberley can continue to serve as critical enablers for regional development, national security and sustainable industry growth. Thank you for the opportunity to provide this opening statement. I welcome the committee's questions. CHAIR: Thank you. Senator Smith, do you have some questions? Senator DEAN SMITH: Yes. Thank you very much for your participation and for the opportunity to visit the port of Wyndham. Could you give us an update on the status of the first-point-of-entry negotiations with the Commonwealth. Mr Westlake : The first-point-of-entry determination came out of the Biosecurity Act 2015, with regulations that came out in, I think, 2016 or early 2017. Both Wyndham and Broome were designated as first-point-of-entry ports for international vessels at that point in time. However, the listed goods that were able to be imported were restricted to certain goods. For Broome, that was inorganic bulk material, which essentially is fuel, and crew baggage. Wyndham was just crew baggage at that point in time. We have made application through the new and redeveloping ports framework, which is led by the department of infrastructure. They have engaged with Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, with the Australian Border Force and, I believe, with Immigration to assess our proposal for additional cargo types to add to that determination. So we've been through quite a lengthy process of seeking and obtaining support from the department of infrastructure for the redeveloping of those ports and for expanding the determined goods. We're now at a stage where we're just finalising the detailed designs for both ports. There's a little bit of a hold-up with Broome. Our application was a couple of years earlier than Wyndham, but the initial area that we proposed in that business case to the federal government was not supported. We had to change the location of where those goods could be stored when we import them into the port. That took a little longer because there was a legacy lease that we had to deal with to get access to the land area that was required. Both of them are probably on the same level in terms of where we're at. We're regularly engaging with DAFF and the ADF on the design. We're ready to go out to tender in Wyndham for civil works. In Broome we've gone out for an operator who will operate the facility. Once that's selected we'll finalise the detailed design because we want that operator to have input into that. Then we can start the construction. What we've done in the interim for Broome is remove the very large shed that was at the front of the wharf on the land area that needs to be developed. We've made some headway and we're getting close to constructing what's needed. CHAIR: Senator Whiteaker. Senator WHITEAKER: You mentioned in your opening statement that there's lots of opportunity at the Port of Wyndham, particularly around critical minerals. What was the other thing you said? Was it decommissioning or was it something else? Mr Westlake : No. It's primarily around exports and critical minerals. Senator WHITEAKER: What would need to happen at the Port of Wyndham to make that possible? Mr Westlake : Nothing, really. There are some minor licensing types of approvals through the state that are for the export of those particular products, but there's not a lot that would hold us up. We've exported nickel and crude oil out of Wyndham before. We export agricultural product. The potential products are silver and lead and the other one is fluorite. They're bulk products. There are also other potential mines that might want to use the area—phosphate and those types of products. We're really able to do that. We also currently export iron ore from Wyndham under a transshipment model. It would just depend on the size of the volume of trade and the size of the vessels that that particular trade would want to bring in. There would be certain restrictions around the size of the vessel due to the draft. Senator WHITEAKER: Due to the draft, but not necessarily because of the infrastructure? Mr Westlake : No, not because of infrastructure. Senator WHITEAKER: This might be better taken on notice, but I'm interested in exactly what's being imported and exported by category out of each of the Kimberley ports. Are you able to do that on notice? Mr Westlake : Yes, I can do that on notice. It's readily available in our annual report. Senator WHITEAKER: Across the region I'm keen to understand what the difference is in what's happening at Broome compared to Derby and compared to Wyndham. Can you explain that a bit? Mr Westlake : Yes. Broome has natural deepwater access; it's a deepwater port. Wyndham doesn't quite have the same depth access, but it is still a deepwater port. Derby is a little different in that it's tidal access only, so there's no international shipping from Derby itself. Derby does support the Yampi Sound iron ore export operations from the two islands I mentioned: Cockatoo Island and Koolan Island. It's more landing crafts that get serviced there. It also services aquaculture, which is at Cone Bay Barramundi, owned by Tassal. It is a different trade at Wyndham. There are a lot fewer vessels, but there's larger throughput. With iron ore, for instance, there's close to two million tonnes per annum. With things like nickel, which is no longer exported out of there, there was 120,000 tonnes per annum. With the likes of agriculture, it's been mainly maize or corn that's exported out. We've done some scrap ships in Wyndham. After the Argyle diamond mine was demolished, scrap steel vessels have come to take that scrap. Petroleum imports are really the only import. This is the first year, and it has been pretty exciting, that we've been able to handle container vessels. Even with the restriction on being able to bring the empty containers indirectly from international locations, we have been able to service seven container vessels, which have discharged the containers for inspection and clearance in Darwin, and then reload onto the international vessel and then discharge those empty containers in Wyndham for the cotton trade. They then get loaded. We've loaded the export 40 foot containers with cotton. Broome primarily has been a service port. The majority of our vessels are actually small vessels—fishing, pearling, charter vessels—but we do the petroleum imports, we do livestock exports and large cruise vessels. And in the past few years we have been exporting mineral sands in bulk. So the total tonnage has increased significantly, because primarily we were a service port for those smaller industries and the oil and gas drilling operations. Senator WHITEAKER: And how susceptible are each of the ports to the impacts of climate change? Mr Westlake : We are doing studies into climate change adaption, coastal erosion and that sort of stuff. We're really in a monitoring phase and setting up some planning around that. It's something that we're aware of, and obviously that will flow through into our development applications in terms of further assessments around those things, but I guess all ports are susceptible is the answer. Senator WHITEAKER: Yes. Do you have a sense of what needs to happen with infrastructure over the next decade or so? Mr Westlake : The master planning process sought out potential developments in the region, and that's where I'd say there weren't a lot of potential new importers and exporters out of Broome. There were some, and so some growth, but the major growth seemed to be in Wyndham. The types of products would be more critical minerals, which is why I mentioned that. But I don't see any major change for Broome, except that tourism might grow, hopefully, and that for us to be able to cater for cruises we need new infrastructure for processing international cruise passengers. Within that masterplan, there is assessment criteria at different stages. If there is potential trade that comes, we do an assessment on the likelihood of that trade and what infrastructure they need, and that indicates, if things got to a certain trade level, we would need an additional berth, for instance. It gives us the capacity to assess that at different stages, and then work with the state government on that infrastructure need. Senator WHITEAKER: One of the emerging industries that we've looked at a little bit, as part of this inquiry, is decommissioning of offshore oil and gas. Of course lots of that infrastructure exists off the coast of Western Australia, and they will come to the end of their lives over the next few decades. In your view, is there capacity—I'm thinking maybe Wyndham, but also elsewhere—to undertake some of that work do you think? Mr Westlake : For some of the smaller projects, Broome could certainly play a part and Yampi Sound could play a part, which would then come back onto the mainland through Derby. With the new KMSB terminal 2, there is the capacity to handle very large cargo weights, if we're decommissioning, and to store that within the port area. Some of the barriers might be for the storage and discarding of the waste, I suppose. There are periods of time you have to store—I mean, there is storage area and there is land available in Broome. Senator WHITEAKER: Is there a lay down area? Mr Westlake : There is available undeveloped land that could be utilised for that, but the waste facility might be a bit of an issue. You'd have to travel a fair way with that waste to recycle it. And Yampi Sound, the Crestlink development that I mentioned, they are planning for a marine supply base as well as an aeronautical base, and it could play a part too. Senator WHITEAKER: Okay. CHAIR: Thank you, Mr Westlake, for your evidence today. The committee has agreed that any responses to any questions, and I think Senator Whiteaker had asked that question on notice, should be provided within two weeks of you receiving a copy of the Hansard transcript. I understand we'll be visiting you tomorrow, so it would be good to have a look at the port. Thank you. Mr Westlake : Thank you. Proceedings suspended from 15:01 to 15:37 .