Prime Minister hopeful Peter Dutton headed to the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie today after a whirlwind visit to Western Australia to engage with industry leaders.
The opposition leader told a media pack he’s had a number of debates and discussions around ways in which to deliver a “huge surge in mining activity in WA”.
With the next federal election being held on or before 27 September 2025, all 150 seats in the House of Representatives and likely 40 of the 76 seats in the Senate will be contested.
Dutton is hoping to secure some seats in Western Australia. And at Diggers & Dealers his politicking was at full throttle.
“When Western Australia is strong, Australia is strong, and WA is the economic powerhouse of our country, the people employed, the royalties paid, the amount of company tax paid,” he said.
“We are international best-in-class in terms of what we do in mining, and we should be very proud of it. I think there’s a lot more the East Coast should take notice of in terms of what’s happening here in the west. It’s been a good opportunity to speak to some of the players, and we’ll have further meetings this afternoon.”
Dutton detailed a meeting set with the Director General of Security at ASIO, Mike Burgess, in relation to the Prime Minister’s announcement on increasing Australia’s terrorist threat level from “possible to probable” in the wake of spy agency warnings.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the change this morning at a press conference in Canberra with Burgess.
They outlined at the time that a threat level of probable is reassessed as a greater than 50% chance of attack planning in the next 12 months – but does not mean the government has intelligence about a current attack planning or expectation of an imminent attack.
However, the only attack today was on the ASX which has been a bloodbath, dropping 289.20 points or 3.64% to 7,654.00 and setting a new 20-day low as of 3.30pm AEST.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au
