Western Australia’s resources industries have contributed a direct $83 billion to the Australian economy in 2019-20 and has directly provided more than 94,000 full-time jobs. This is based on an analysis of 65 resources sector companies in the state.

Chamber of Minerals Energy WA (CME) members were asked how much they contributed and where. CME Chief Executive Paul Everingham stated that the result of the survey showed the extent to which the WA mining and resources sector underpinned economies and communities around the state and across Australia.

Everingham believes the resource sector workforce should be extremely proud of the way their sector has been able to operate both safely and effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also mentioned that the result of the survey has only captured a snapshot of the sector’s direct contribution to the broader economy and that the ‘real’ figure is likely to be significantly more than $83 billion.

The annual economic factsheets produced out of the report show:

• The direct contribution to the WA economy was nearly $52 billion.
• More than $47.9 billion was spent by 65 CME member companies on purchasing goods and services from more than 14,700 businesses, and financially supporting more than 770 community organisations and 68 local governments nationally.
• More than $10 billion in wages and salaries was paid to more than 69,000 full-time workers. Those member companies also employed a further 24,665 full-time contractors.
• More than $7.7 billion was contributed in State Government payments, with more than $18 billion contributed to the Federal Government.

Additionally, the analysis found supply chain spending by the 65 member companies created an additional 214,999 full-time jobs and generated $38.9 billion in gross value add to the Australian economy. Some of this value add is created through the sector’s demand for construction, exploration, mining support, financial and other goods and services.

Because the data has been collected on a postcode basis, the economic contributions of these companies can also be narrowed down to regions, and most State and Federal electorates in WA.

The data collected from 65 member companies covers more than 150 operational sites across the State, representing 70 per cent of the WA resources sector by production.

Source: Link

Date Published: 12 July 2021