Griffin Coal—Grant
39. Hon Dr Steve Thomas to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for State Development:
I refer to my question without notice 25 asked yesterday and the Cook government's extraordinary $260 million taxpayer-funded bailout of the insolvent and foreign-owned Griffin Coal.
(1) How much of the $161.4 million in grants received by the receivers and managers of Griffin Coal has been used to pay the fees and costs of the receivers and managers?(2) Will the grants end at 30 June 2026 as previously advised or is the government expecting to extend them beyond that date?(3) What retention bonuses are being offered to Griffin workers in the retention package through to 30 June 2026 as per the minister's answer yesterday?(4) Given that the bailout grants are currently budgeted to end at the same time as the retention bonuses—that is, 30 June 2026—what will be the total cost to Western Australian taxpayers of the package obviously designed to stop Griffin workers from jumping ship from an obviously already sinking corporate ship?Hon Stephen Dawson replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) The funding is not allocated to specific purposes but is provided to cover any overall shortfall between the mine's revenue and costs of production.(2) The state government's support is committed until June 2026.(3) Workers will be eligible for up to $30,000 each in retention payments.(4) The retention payments are estimated to cost approximately $8 million.