Mining camps want longer leases to prevent ‘jamming’ 400 FIFO workers back into Kalgoorlie-Boulder homes

Mining contractors fear they will have no choice but to “jam” 400 fly-in, fly-out workers back into residential homes in four years’ time if the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder does not double two mining camp leases from five years to 10. MLG Oz founder and managing director Murray Leahy, co-owner of facilities on Vivian and Hopkins streets in Boulder, spoke to councillors during Monday night’s meeting ahead of their debate for two separate motions to extend the tenures of the facilities. After hearing his speech, a procedural motion was raised by Cr Nardia Turner which sought to have the matters return to next month’s meeting, allowing councillors more time to discuss with the parties. Cr Turner said workforce accommodation was “always a contentious issue in our community”, and she wanted council to be “proactive” when they make their decision, “not reactive”. By putting the matter off for an additional month, Cr Turner said it allowed the companies the opportunity to share with council some “commercial in confidence” items that could not be spoken about publicly. Mr Leahy’s pitch urged councillors to approve the extension as all three partners — MLG, Topdrill and Rangecon — were being asked to tender works with Northern Star Resources, Evolution Mining, and Norton Gold Fields for major expansions. He said the companies had to ensure they could provide accommodation for staff for upcoming projects, some of which were for 7-9 years down the track, exceeding the expiry date of the current facilities. “We’re really concerned that with only 48 months to run, the capacity for the State Government and industry to build enough houses to house those people, we’re going to find ourselves having to take more than 400 people and jam them back into houses in a very short period of time . . . and artificially driving up the rent costs,” he said. “Which isn’t great for our businesses, it’s not great for the community, and it’s going to leave us transitioning back into a situation that we’re only just starting to come out of now . . . and that’s having FIFO people in houses again.” Mr Leahy said his business employed 640 people, 400 of which were residential, and since the inception of the camps the company had transitioned about 26 families and couples into homes that had previously been used as FIFO accommodation. He said the camps were also coming at a higher cost to customers as the owners paid about $5.5 million more for the developments at the time, than they would have if it came before the council now. He said this was due to the council implementing a workforce accommodation policy after their project was taken to State Administrative Tribunal and ultimately approved. “So, we spent a large amount of money on things such as stormwater management, landscaping, general amenity of the facility and the area that was really designed as a far longer-term facility,” he said. “During that period of time, the city adopted a workforce accommodation policy and we found ourselves with a capital commitment to build a long-term facility, but only an approval for a five-year tenure. “So at a high level, we’re standing here with a huge amount of opportunity in front of us for our relative businesses, industry that’s going through a major expansion, we think we’ve contributed to freeing up some houses, but that is coming at a high cost to our customers given the development standard that we put into this facility.”