WA sends bureaucrat to China on 'Belt and Road' mission after Premier rules out deal with Beijing

The WA government has sent a senior bureaucrat on a mission to China organised by an organisation advising the Victorian government on its Belt and Road Initiative deal with Beijing.

The five-day trip, which cost taxpayers $17,328 and included a weekend, was arranged by the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative and came just months after Premier Mark McGowan said signing up to the controversial Chinese infrastructure funding program was "not on our agenda".

The Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, which advises the Premier in his state development portfolio, sent the public servant after the government was invited by the group on a "technology industry mission".

A department spokesman said the October trip was to "demonstrate Western Australia's commitment to its overall trade relationship with China, and to promote Western Australian industries' capabilities to senior Chinese government officials and industry leaders".

But he said the bureaucrat "did not meet with anyone, or undertake any discussions, concerning the Belt and Road Initiative", despite the objectives of the organisation that arranged the trip.

The Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative, which is run by former federal MPs Andrew Robb and Lindsay Tanner, describes itself as an "engagement platform that enables Australian and Chinese industry leaders to articulate clear business opportunities available through China’s Belt and Road Strategy".

The Belt and Road Initiative is a trillion-dollar program which funds Chinese-built infrastructure projects and aims to build a trading block centred around Beijing's influence.

In June 2019 the now-departed Chinese consul-general to WA Dong Zhihua urged the McGowan government to ink a Belt and Road deal with the Chinese regime.

"West Australia and China are natural partners for we are in the same time zone and enjoy geographic proximity," she said.

"We have a solid foundation and great prospects for future cooperation. We should fully explore the huge opportunities brought by the BRI."

But Mr McGowan said: "The BRI is not on our agenda and we won’t be signing up to this initiative."

The Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation spokesman said it had not "undertaken any work to explore the Belt and Road Initiative".

"This is consistent with the WA government's publicly-stated position that it will not be signing up to this initiative. That position remains."

The spokesman said the public servant sent to China also gave a short presentation at the conference on the state’s Future Battery Industry Strategy.

He said there were also other Australian delegates on the trip, including representatives from the Business Council of Australia, Elders, Chamber of Minerals and Energy, BHP and Glencore.

The Premier did not comment, but his spokesman referred WAtoday to comments made by the department.