Western Australia’s government-funded hub in Canberra has welcomed 130 users in its first six months of operating.
Western Australia’s government-funded hub in Canberra has welcomed 130 users in its first six months of operating.
Demand for the $150,000 hub equates to being used a little more than once per business day since opening in March this year.
That figure includes state government ministers and officials who have checked in.
Among those to use the facility so far are the WA Local Government Association, Minderoo Foundation, and Exmouth deepwater port proponent Gascoyne Gateway.
Several of the hub’s users have described it as a welcome addition to Canberra following their visits.
“This is such a great resource to support Western Australia’s engagement with Federal and Eastern State counterparts and the Gascoyne Gateway team look forward to utilising the space again soon,” Gascoyne Gateway chief executive Daniel Jackson said in a post on LinkedIn.
“What a place to have a base for the week – very well appointed and so close to Parliament House,” Kimberley Regional Group executive officer Paul Rosair said in August.
WA Premier Roger Cook in August last year announced the state government would establish the embassy in his first keynote speech after becoming premier.
Mr Cook described the hub as an enabler for “team WA” to “disrupt the thinking in Canberra that holds us back”.
“If you’re the premier of South Australia, you can be in Canberra in the morning and back home for dinner,” he said at the time.
“In Western Australia, we don’t have that.”
The Opposition has criticised the hub, arguing it showed WA’s federal representatives were ineffective.
A state government spokesperson said sectors represented at the hub to date included businesses, peak bodies, local governments, and non-government organisations.
The office costs $100,000-a-year in rent and is staffed by one full-time receptionist.
