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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has raised some concerns over elements of a government report into the fly-in, fly-out (Fifo) resource projects in Queensland.
The state government commissioned the Fifo review report earlier this year on the back of Labor’s pre-election promise to review existing so-called “100% Fifo arrangements”. The review has been running concurrently to a separate Parliamentary inquiry.
The panel conducting the review made a number of recommendations, including recommendations against retrospective action to alter existing approvals and existing workforce.
For future resource activities, the panel made recommendations with respect to approval conditions governing the sourcing of operational workforce, saying the government could favourably influence the economic outcomes for regional communities by conditioning new resource projects to prepare a workforce plan that supported employment in the nearby communities.
The panel noted that while policy guidelines could be provided by government for each mine plan, the content and desired outcomes for the plans, as well as the consultation of the plans, must be developed by the miner.
The report also recommended appropriate monitoring and enforcement of approved plans throughout the duration of the mining activities.
QRC CEO Michael Roche said while some recommendations were pleasing, there was still cause for concern over some elements of the report.
“Despite the sector’s enormous contribution to the state’s coffers, it is currently in survival mode due to the commodities slump and extra regulatory layers, in what is an already heavily-regulated environment, which could adversely affect productivity and our sector’s competitiveness,” he outlined.
He noted that, under existing arrangements, a project’s environmental-impact statement had to address all the matters identified in the report. However, he added that the report’s talk of financial penalties was a “sure recipe” for driving investment interest away from the state.
Roche said the concept of 100% Fifo mines in the Bowen basin was always a furphy, with all mines requiring support from many local businesses in addition to the site workers. The report also showed little evidence of consultation with workers and their families.
“Just last month we released our workforce accommodation survey, which found that better than four out of five employees would not change where they live even if they were given the opportunity,” Roche said.
“The important message from workers surveyed, is that they want to have the choice and they don’t want that choice taken away from them. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to where workers live.”