REGULARS
Chief Executive’s Message AS THE CHIEF executive of national resource industry employer group AMMA, I am proud to present the launch edition of Resource People – the first magazine dedicated to all the ‘people stories’ found within Australia’s wider resource industry. Given the ongoing strength of our industry, it is only appropriate that the underlying tone of this pilot edition is that of leadership. The national resource industry has led the Australian economy through one of the most difficult financial environments experienced for many years. In doing so, our employers are creating a legacy of record commodity exports, unprecedented international investment, vast employment opportunities and widespread community benefits. While AMMA is well known for its workplace relations lobbying and wider industry advocacy work, in recent times our association has expanded and evolved in line with the great opportunities within the sector. Most of these new initiatives and activities have focused on the ‘people’ related challenges as we all work towards solving the by-product of our industry’s phenomenal growth – the widespread skills and labour shortages. A strong sense of community responsibility combined with a desire to attract, train and retain skilled workers has led to resource employers implementing wide engagement programs for employment. These include providing direct employment pathways into the industry, and proactive efforts in transitioning workers from declining sectors into our own. Often working alongside direct company training programs, AMMA’s RTO division has ramped up its delivery of specialist leadership training programs that are successfully up-skilling current workers into supervisors and managers – an integral strategy to sustaining the industry’s growth. Workforce diversity has also become a major focus in the resource industry as employers seek to widen the recruitment talent pool and attract a diverse range of skilled people. AMMA’s commitment to the Australian Employment Covenant, a national initiative which is closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, is mirrored by the excellent work our employers are already undertaking in this area.
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Through our partnership with the Commonwealth in driving the Australian Women in Resources Alliance (AWRA) project, AMMA is leading the charge for the greater attraction and retention of women in our industry. As you’ll read in our Q&A with OZ Minerals’ Terry Burgess, many resource employers have made this diversity movement a very high priority. At a community level, the resource industry has made huge impacts on both metro and regional areas, the latter seen personally with school buildings, football fields, other community facilities, and above all else, employment opportunities provided by resource employers in regions that otherwise are too small to register on the political agenda. The improvement of health services to these regional areas is another area that many of our employers are heavily involved in. AMMA’s work with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and the Royal Flying Doctor Service is highlighted in our OHS & Wellbeing section – ongoing partnerships forged for the best interest of Australian communities. With all these strong initiatives and great opportunities come great challenges however. The current level of skilled workers in Australia has shown it cannot match the insatiable demand from new projects. While AMMA’s Migration Services has been greatly assisting employers to meet their short-term requirements, sustainable solutions must be found. Australia’s workplace legislation is in need of an overhaul, with the Fair Work Act proving to have removed the capacity for employers to achieve commercial and fair outcomes directly with their workforces. The increased power granted to trade unions has seen an unsustainable surge in wages and conditions, while the escalating cost curve of employing people and our workforces’ flat-lining productivity performance must similarly be rectified. At the highest level, there have also been policy developments that could potentially dent the confidence of international corporations looking to invest in our domestic operations. The government’s focus on distributing the benefits of our growth across Australia has unfortunately led to the taxation of our industry to a point where industry leaders, such as our cover subject Peter Johnston, have raised concerns about its future competitiveness. The increased red tape and regulatory burden around getting major projects approved is also a major concern. Rather than allow our industry to become known as a ‘grab for cash’, our government needs to implement effective policies to address the skills demand and foster a culture where people enter the resource industry for long and fulfilling careers. Coming back to the key concept of leadership; this edition of Resource People will explore some of the challenges and opportunities I’ve highlighted in this column. More importantly however, this magazine is about celebrating the true achievements of our national resource industry, and highlighting the great stories and significant contributions made by resource employers every day. These are the stories that are most often left untold. Steve Knott AMMA Chief Executive
| Winter 2012 | www.amma.org.au