We live in a world today where facts matter more than ever.
It is becoming increasingly common for the intellectually flaccid and for the dishonest to “speak to their own truth” or to put forward “alternative facts”.
When it comes to the decision by Alcoa to curtail its Kwinana refinery, the West Australian Liberals are entitled to their opinions, but they are not entitled to make up facts.
Unless you are David Honey or Opposition Leader Libby Mettam, you cannot ignore reality.
Dr Honey might see himself as an intellectual lion of the Liberals, but in truth is he more a of chihuahua than big cat. Not that I have anything against chihuahuas.
Dr Honey was parachuted into the blue-ribbon seat of Cottesloe as possible future premier.
Since then, he hasn’t even been able to hold onto the leadership of the State Liberals, though their Lower House members could comfortably squeeze into the back seat of a Ford Cortina.
He now faces the embarrassment of being challenged inside his party for his seat.
And it’s not hard to see why.
Dr Honey’s claims around the curtailment of the Kwinana refinery are flat out wrong. And as a former employee of Alcoa — a fact he did not declare in his article in The West Australian on Thursday — Dr Honey would know as much.
It is as embarrassing as it is dishonest that he continues to misrepresent the reasons behind this matter. Perhaps it is a sign of the desperate situation he now finds himself personally.
Repeatedly, most recently as this week, Alcoa have themselves categorically rejected claims from the State and Federal Liberals that the decision to curtail the Kwinana refinery had anything to do with State or Federal Government policy.
Speaking to The West on Tuesday, Alcoa chief operating office Matt Reed said any claims that local policy settings had anything to with the decision “overlooked the commercial reality”.
“The company’s decision to curtail the Kwinana Alumina Refinery in Western Australia was the result of multiple factors including its age, scale, operating costs and current bauxite grades, in addition to currently market conditions, not government policy,” Mr Reed told The West.
“We have been clear about the multiple factors that led to the decision.
“Politicisation of the matter is an unfortunate distraction at a time when the focus should be on caring for our people and others impacted.”
Let me be clear.
I am extremely disappointed in Alcoa’s decision to curtail production at the Kwinana Refinery.
This is a blow for local workers and families, most of which live in my electorate.
Alcoa has said the curtailment of production at the Kwinana refinery will not affect the broader supply chain of alumina, which is essential for our future transition towards net zero emissions.
Production at Alcoa’s other two alumina refineries in WA, the Pinjarra and Wagerup refineries, will continue operating, and alumina from Alcoa’s Pinjarra refinery will continue to be exported from Alcoa’s port facilities in Kwinana. Dr Honey and Andrew Hastie have both claimed that jobs will be offshored, and production will happen in China.
There isn’t a dog whistle they won’t blow.
China has been the largest producer of alumina for many years but is not even a top five exporter because China consumes all the alumina it makes. Even with the sad curtailment at Kwinana, Australia will remain the second largest producer of alumina in the world, and the world’s largest exporter.
The Kwinana plant was old and extremely costly to run. It was commissioned in 1963. The majority of its product was sent to overseas markets.
The Kwinana facility was producing alumina at a cost of roughly $410 a tonne in 2023, while the company’s two other WA facilities produced the product at about $250 per tonne.
The price for alumina was about $360 a tonne in January, according to ASX-listed Alumina Limited, which holds a 40 per cent stake in Alcoa’s Australian operations.
It is indeed a strange time we live in when the WA Liberals and the Minerals Council of Australia — supposed champions of free markets — think we can compel industry to meet markets that are uneconomic.
One has to wonder what that titan of the WA Liberals, Sir Charles Court would make of his old party spouting the kind of half-baked economic theory we normally hear in a first year arts common room at 2am.
Some might recall such youthful conversations with fondness, but who would have expected WA Liberals to skate into such socialist spaces? Adam Smith would be turning in his grave.
And how desperate would you have to be to knowingly misrepresent the true reasons for hundreds of people losing their jobs?
If you are Dr Honey, Ms Mettam and Mr Hastie, very desperate indeed it would seem.
