Perth the new San Francisco: Cook

Deputy Premier Roger Cook announced $600,000 a year for the Western Australian Life Sciences Innovation Hub at CEDA’s More than Mining event, as part of a plan to diversify the economy.

The contribution was to assist in the roll out of the state’s first Health and Medical Life Sciences Industry Strategy, which was launched at the lunch today.

The focus of the strategy is to strengthen innovation, facilitate commercialisation, develop skills and attract talent, encourage investment and support infrastructure for advanced manufacturing.

Health and medical life sciences was one of the eight key focus areas outlined in the Diversify WA plan which was also launched by Mr Cook at the event.

The eight key areas are: energy, tourism, international education, defence, mining, space industries and primary industries.

“By 2035 we aim to be at the forefront of a cleaner, greener technologically driven economy that provides tens of thousands of well-paid WA jobs,” Mr Cook said in his keynote.

He said he wanted WA to act as a ballast to the cyclical nature of the boom bust raw materials sector of the state.

“By 2035 we aim to be a state that has confidence in its strengths has built purposefully outwards and has diversified its economy into strong external facing sectors that are targeted and prioritised," Mr Cook said. 

His signalled a departure from Perth’s identity as just a mining town.

“We want WA to be the California of the Indian Ocean and Perth to be its San Francisco…smart and self-assured,” Mr Cook said.

Renewables such as battery and hydrogen were also highlighted as crucial industries to this transition, with the deputy premier describing Kwinana as "the centre of the universe" in reference to a growing number of projects in the area. 

Discussions on China were absent from the speech, with the exception to compare growth metrics, where WA’s economy was the dubbed as the second fastest growing in the world after China.

Comments from Chief Scientist of WA Peter Klinken drew particular interest from the 330-strong crowd, in which he suggested it was time for a mature conversation surrounding an amalgamation of the state’s universities.  

“We could do a heck of a lot better if the universities combined,” he said during the panel discussion. 

Drawing further on the WA-California parallels, he suggested that a system similar to the University of California model could make Perth universities globally competitive.

Mr Cook jested with confirmation that Mr Klinken’s comments were not a government position, but acknowledged that WA universities needed to ensure they remained competitive on a global stage.