Sanderson backs Cook to lead Labor to next election

“We have not only a strong cabinet with some very high performing cabinet ministers, but we’ve also got a really deep backbench, some young people who are coming through who will put put my team under pressure in relation to their spots within the Ministry.

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“It goes beyond the current election cycle. It’s about changing the whole way our economy works, and it’s about creating the jobs, the health and the housing that we need to continue to take this state forward.”

Cook and Sanderson were facing media to announce the state’s new plan for local green steel to be used on major government projects.

“My government will seek suppliers to provide local green steel for major government projects, including the hospital developments that we announced in recent days,” Cook said.

“Locally made green steel is a key part of my vision to become a renewable energy powerhouse and make more things here.”

Sanderson said the plan to use local green steel came in two parts.

“So there’s the green iron industry, and then there’s the green steel recycling industry,” she said.

“We have enormous amounts of steel infrastructure, oil and gas infrastructure that gets decommissioned, that can be recycled into new steel products that can be used.

“The second part is the green iron sector, which is a precursor to the broader green steel industry. We are the world’s largest exporter of iron in the world, so we obviously produce and provide a huge amount of iron ore to decarbonise the steel supply chain, we need to be providing an opportunity to process that ore onshore, and do that with the abundant renewable energy that we have across Western Australia.”