From The RDA Pilbara Chair - February 2026

This is our first newsletter column for 2026 but it has certainly been busy behind the scenes at RDA Pilbara to start the year.

Importantly, our February Committee meeting saw the adoption of RDA Pilbara’s Strategic Plan for the next two years. The plan is built around four pillars that are critical to equitable and sustainable development in the Pilbara:

• Industry and economic growth

• Liveability and human capital

• Humanity, equity and First Nations empowerment

• Organisational sustainability and effectiveness.

An issue that links strongly with these strategic pillars and which has been foremost in the minds of communities (and our Committee) is the affordability and accessibility of airfares to and from the Pilbara.

While the State Government’s announcement in December that the Regional Zone Airfare Cap scheme will continue until 2031 was welcome, a 30% increase in fares for “peak demand” periods will make flying to Perth (and other places in the State) unaffordable and inaccessible for many Pilbara residents.

This is clearly a topic people are passionate about – with more than 9000 signatures on an e-petition to WA Parliament - and RDA Pilbara is committed to advocating on the region's behalf. Our CEO Daiva Gillam recently wrote to Transport Minister Rita Saffioti about the issue, and alongside other Pilbara stakeholders we will continue to engage and work with the State and Federal governments towards a fairer deal.

RDA Pilbara is also preparing a submission to the Productivity Commission Determinants of regional airfares inquiry. All interested individuals and organisations have the opportunity to make a submission or comment, and we encourage community members and businesses to contribute their thoughts via the inquiry website.

Skilled migration is another priority issue for RDA Pilbara. I’ve written previously about the positive impact of the region’s Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) and we recently launched an online content series profiling DAMA success stories in the Pilbara.

The DAMA has helped a range of Pilbara businesses employ people in roles that cannot be met locally because of workforce constraints. It has been particularly effective in childcare, where an increase in skilled workers has enabled service providers to take on more children – allowing an increased number of parents to re-enter the workforce.

Despite the benefits the DAMA has provided for businesses and communities, the broader area of skilled migration remains a work-in-progress in the Pilbara. There is still much that can be done to streamline processing, make occupation lists more responsive to real-time demand for workers, and enable targeted migration aimed at long-standing, non-transitional skills shortages.

RDA Pilbara continues to work on securing an extension of the DAMA. In parallel, we contributed a submission in January to the Federal Inquiry into the value of skilled migration to Australia, outlining our experiences and observations and the specific challenges and opportunities facing the Pilbara.

February saw RDA Pilbara sponsor the CCUS Network Australia’s Hubs Workshop in Perth, exploring possible roadblocks and enabling factors for the development of CCUS hubs in WA.

It’s well-publicised that the Pilbara has inherent advantages as a hub location and that CCUS could provide significant decarbonisation and economic opportunities for our region and its industries. However, turning potential into reality will not be simple and the policy space, in particular, requires significant work.

We were pleased to be able to contribute a Pilbara perspective to the workshop discussions. Unlocking the capabilities of CCUS will require collaboration between a multitude of stakeholders, and it was good to see academia and industry engaged in productive conversation about the workshop. Securing bipartisan support will be one of the keys to further progress.

Coming up in March, we are looking forward to being involved in the inaugural meeting of the Pilbara working group on tourism, being hosted by Australia’s North West.

While tourism may not always be front of mind for people in the way that some other Pilbara industries are, it makes an enormous contribution to our communities and the regional economy. This contribution will only grow following the World Heritage Listing of the Murujuga Cultural Landscape.

It’s essential the Pilbara has infrastructure, connectivity, and human resources for tourism to thrive. Ensuring a healthy and sustainable tourism industry is a focus of RDA Pilbara’s Strategic Plan and participation in the working group is just one way in which we are working towards this goal.