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PERTH (miningweekly.com) –The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has expressed hope that a new state Parliamentary enquiry into fly-in, fly-out (Fifo) work practices would result in an evidence-based foundation for future policy.
In her recent election campaign, now Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk launched plans to legislate against projects only making use of a Fifo workforce, but made the comment that the ban would not be retrospective.
The Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources Committee of the Queensland Parliament this week announced it would conduct an enquiry into Fifo practices in the state.
QRC CEO Michael Roche said that the proposed inquiry was a valuable opportunity to impartially assess Fifo and other long distance commuting practices across a range of industries in rural and remote areas.
“As a state-wide survey of almost 2 300 resident and nonresident resources sector workers confirmed in 2012, choice of employment accommodation arrangements is an important consideration in determining whose services are earned and retained by the sector,” Roche said.
“The key message from the survey was that both residential and nonresidential options need to be available to attract the best employees.”
Roche noted that a subsequent federal inquiry into Fifo practices ignored the views of Queensland resources sector workers while lamenting an absence of empirical evidence about workforce practices in regional Australia.
“Under the chairmanship of Queensland coal industry and Parliamentary veteran Jim Pearce, we are not expecting a repeat of the political grandstanding and opportunism that plagued the federal inquiry three years ago,” Roche said.
“The facts surrounding the benefits and impacts of nonresidential workforce development are readily available and QRC will make an active contribution to the committee’s deliberations.”
The state Parliament’s inquiry came as workers union CFMEU pushed for an end to Fifo in Queensland’s coal mines.
CFMEU Mining and Energy Queensland president Steve Smyth was quoted as saying that along with a ban on 100% of Fifo operations, the community also wanted to see workers at existing Fifo operations given job security, Fifo workers given a choice and incentive to move locally, and existing Fifo operations to be thrown open to local workers.
The Queensland Fifo probe comes as another state, Western Australia, is also scrutinising the employment practice. In August last year, a Western Australian Parliamentary committee launched an investigation into the mental health of the Fifo community after nine Fifo workers took their own lives over a 12-month period.