Roche urged the committee to remember that both residential and non-residential options need to be available to attract the best employees.
He cited a state-wide survey of almost 2300 resident and non-resident resources sector workers in 2012 which confirmed that choice of employment accommodation arrangements was an important consideration in determining whose services are earned and retained by the sector.
Roche said 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.
However Mirani MP Pearce this week reportedly said: “It’s a privilege for mining companies to come in. It’s not a right. It's about maximising returns and employment to the communities.
“In recent years, mining companies simply put their head down and ignored the impacts they are having on local communities.
“I've been in the region over 30 years and never seen the regions in such a big mess, their communities. Collinsville is on its knees, Dysart, Moranbah in a terrible state. There are 3000 empty houses across the Bowen Basin.”
Last year, Pearce said in a column in The Morning Bulletin that “absolute 100% FIFO employment policies are morally wrong and should be brought to an abrupt end”
“Subsidising coal producers to build workers camps meant taxpayers were paying for the slashing of job opportunities for highly skilled experienced mine workers, as well as those unskilled Central Queensland men and women who would jump at the chance to work in the coal mines. We are unwittingly financially backing the big multi-nationals to push their anti-local resident employment policies,” he said.
Queensland Council of Unions president John Battams wants the state Government to be pressured into banning 100% FIFO at new mines, but said it was hard to "unscramble the egg" on existing mine operations.
Roche said yesterday that the facts surrounding the benefits and impacts of non-residential workforce development were readily available and said the QRC would make an active contribution to the committee’s deliberations.
“QRC expects the inquiry will receive the evidence its needs – including from the workers themselves – to underpin future policy formulation, noting especially Council of Unions president John Battams’ comment yesterday questioning the value of retrospective policy,” Roche said.
