Calls for North West department

The Pilbara’s local governments are urging State authorities to create a new government department dedicated to developing WA’s North West by securing Federal grants.

Pilbara Regional Council chief executive Tony Friday said government planners in north Queensland and the Northern Territory were already securing large funding grants from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility fund.

Approved by Federal Parliament in May, the fund has made up to $5 billion available in the next five years for use in conjunction with private sector investment in infrastructure projects, such as airports, communications, energy, ports, rail and water.

Campaigning ahead of the 2017 State election, Mr Friday has urged the major parties to create a new ministerial position and department charged with writing up development proposals for the North West and securing a fair share of NAIF funding.

“(Proposals) are coming from northern Queensland and the Northern Territory at an incredible rate of knots, they have grand plans,” he said.

“(But) at the moment, we stand to miss out on our share of those funds simply because of a lack of proposals.”