Statement | 30 September 2025
Shane Love MLA
Leader of The Nationals WA
Shadow Minister for Mines and Petroleum
Today’s announcement that Alcoa’s Kwinana refinery will be permanently mothballed is a devastating blow for workers, their families, and the WA economy.
These 220 additional job losses brings the total to around 1,000 direct losses for Alcoa workers in recent months, with a further 5,000 flow-on jobs at risk across the supply chain and wider economy. That is thousands of households facing uncertainty.
The refinery has been a cornerstone of Kwinana’s industrial strip for more than 60 years, making its closure not only an economic hit but also a deep loss to the community’s identity.
The Cook Labor Government will try to spin this as a ‘future redevelopment opportunity’ but the reality is it represents the loss of a major industrial asset on their watch.
This is a damning legacy for a Government that has failed to protect jobs, failed to support the resources sector, and failed to provide the right policy settings to keep WA internationally competitive.
WA’s resources sector is under siege from red and green tape, heavy-handed industrial relations changes, and a Labor-driven push for unionisation that is driving up costs and eroding investor confidence.
The Kwinana closure follows a string of losses in nickel, bauxite and alumina, all industries which are supposed to be central to the energy transition that Labor boasts about but refuses to properly support.
Today is a stark reminder that when Government’s get policy wrong, it’s workers, families and communities who pay the price.
ENDS
