The Commonwealth Government is working closely with Western Australian authorities to help minimise the impact of the significant disruption to WA's natural gas supplies as a result of the explosion at the Apache Corporation facility at Varanus Island last week.
The Commonwealth very much welcomes the efforts by Apache Corp to rectify the damage to its pipelines as quickly as possible and the response of major energy users to prioritise their energy consumption.
The Commonwealth is also determined to ensure that any impact on the Western Australian community and the economy is minimised as a result of this incident.
The Commonwealth is prepared to make available assistance to those businesses and employees that are genuinely disadvantaged as a result of this incident.
Centrelink and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations will be working with relevant WA Government agencies to devise the most effective way of delivering the assistance.