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State offered NW units to Chevron

The Pelago East development where the Government owns units.

Lands Minister Terry Redman encouraged Chevron to buy apartments at Karratha's Pelago East development, which the State Government had invested heavily in, when the company asked for his approval to relocate some of its workforce.

Mr Redman said yesterday his recommendation was motivated by a desire to see resource workers contributing to towns rather than isolated in donga camps.

But the Opposition accused him of being hopelessly conflicted by acting as both the decision-maker permitting the relocation, and property spruiker with a stake in where the workers ended up.

In May, Chevron approached Mr Redman to allow it to move some employees to the mainland because it was struggling to accommodate a peak workforce on Barrow Island for the big Gorgon LNG project.

The company wanted to house some workers at the Gap Ridge workers' accommodation site outside Karratha and others at Woodside-leased premises in Dampier - both of which required lease adjustments by Mr Redman.

"I made a very, very strong case to them to say, 'If you are going to relocate some staff to Karratha, I would rather it didn't go into (temporary workers' accommodation) just out of town - that doesn't support anyone in town'," he said. "(I told Chevron), 'Before you make this decision, consider putting staff into the CBD in Karratha'. Now, that would have included Pelago."

Chevron declined the minister's overtures and relocated to Gap Ridge and Dampier.

The Government got Pelago East off the ground by pre-purchasing 50 apartments for $30 million but has been left struggling to sell 28 of them in a declining market.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said Mr Redman should have treated the issues of the workforce relocation and spruiking apartments separately.

A Chevron spokeswoman said the Gap Ridge-Dampier option was "the only one that was workable".