RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
 |  Subject: Idiots from Moranbah: Fly-in, fly-out doesn't do anything for our schools, our shops, our medical centres...  Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:38 pm | |
| Communities want workers to stay, writes Cosima Marriner.
MINING booms once spawned prosperous outback towns, such as the lead-zinc-ore bonanza of Broken Hill or the gold rush town of Ballarat. But as Queensland heads into another resource boom, mining towns are being downgraded to commuter stops, with most workers shipped in.
Now BHP wants to staff an entire mine in central Queensland with transient workers, who are flown in for a 12-hour day, seven-day-a-week roster, then flown back to their homes on the coast or in Brisbane for a week off, taking their sizeable pay cheques with them.
''It will be the death of us,'' said John King, who has run the newsagency in nearby Moranbah for 19 years. ''When people reside here, they add to the community. They buy products from the town and they support other industries … If BHP do 100 per cent fly-in, fly-out, there will be no more people coming to town but they'll be taking our resources."
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Flying in workers makes sense in isolated mining regions such as the Pilbara. But BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance's proposed open-cut coal mine at Caval Ridge is 10 minutes down the road from Moranbah and 160 kilometres inland of Mackay.
''Fly-in, fly-out doesn't do anything for our schools, our shops, our medical centres,'' Isaac Regional Council mayor Cedric Marshall said. The central Queensland shire produces the most coal in the state.
''The cities are overcrowded now. We need people out of our cities living where the jobs are; we need workers living with their families. We want to see as much residential accommodation as we can get to keep our towns viable.''
BHP's plan to make Caval Ridge its first 100 per cent fly-in, fly-out Queensland operation has met fierce local opposition, with concerns it will set a precedent for other mines. "It's caused a lot of animosity in the town - a lot," Mr King said.
A petition of more than 3000 signatures has been tabled in State Parliament, calling on the government to reject BHP's application for a 100 per cent fly-in, fly-out workforce on the basis it will hurt the Bowen Basin region socially and economically. Yesterday Moranbah residents staged their first protest march to highlight community angst.
''This could change the path of the mining industry,'' Moranbah Action Group president Kelly Vea Vea said. ''I don't want to sit back and reminisce with my children about the good old days when families lived together near the mine.''
BHP said it has to offer fly-in, fly-out shifts if it is to attract and retain workers in a highly competitive jobs market. "BMA has high job vacancy rates … and needs to widen employment options," a spokeswoman said.
It is a painful irony for central Queenslanders that their towns are rapidly depleting in the midst of a mining boom. In Dysart there will soon be nearly two transient workers for every one permanent resident. Yet while the inland towns suffer, the coastal communities that fly-in, fly-out workers call home are prospering.
Mining companies using fly-in, fly-out workers are accused of ducking their social obligations to local towns. ''The mining industry is a profitable industry. It should make a commitment to these towns,'' local MP Ted Malone said. ''They're wiping their hands of the whole issue of supporting a town.''
BHP said it invested $16 million in Moranbah last year, including building 100 residences.
Despite the Queensland government policy of encouraging settlement in regional areas to reduce the pressure on the crowded south-east corner of the state, it is reluctant to interfere with BHP's plans.
Queensland's Mining Minister, Stirling Hinchliffe, told The Sun-Herald the government ''doesn't tell people where to live''.
''Employers and employees will make their own decisions about accommodation which are appropriate for their circumstances.''
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CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
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| | Subject: Re: Idiots from Moranbah: Fly-in, fly-out doesn't do anything for our schools, our shops, our medical centres... Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:44 pm | |
| What a fucking bunch of morons!
Hey bitches, you don't contribute to the miners well-being with blow-jobs either...
So zip it!
Idiots!
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“The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner
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