Govt to BHP: it’s time to come clean with SA
The Weatherill Government has slammed BHP Billiton’s lack of transparency over its plans for Olympic Dam, with acting Treasurer Jack Snelling demanding the mining giant “come clean with the people of South Australia”.
The company yesterday confirmed plans for a further round of job cuts at Roxby Downs as it grapples with a commodity price downturn and a bleak export outlook.
It did so via a statement distributed to selected media outlets, which failed to clarify the quantum of positions axed but understood to be about 380. The sloppy handling of the announcement resulted in some workers finding out about the latest round of layoffs from media outlets rather than the company itself.
Snelling, who opened his own 2012 Budget statement with the claim the expanded Olympic Dam mine would make South Australia “a very different place in a few years”, said the way BHP handled the announcement was “very disappointing”.
“The South Australian people have bent over backwards to accommodate BHP in every single way … to encourage investment in the state,” he said.
“I really think it’s time BHP levelled with the people of SA (and) come clean about what their future intentions are.”
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BHP Billiton has not returned calls seeking a response to Snelling’s remarks.
Yesterday’s statement, attributed to Olympic Dam asset president Jacqui McGill, reiterated that the company “continued to simplify our business to ensure we are operating as efficiently as possible”.
“This is consistent with the work being done in other BHP Billiton operations, and across the resources sector, and reflects the challenging external environment,” it said.
The new round of layoffs follows a decision in June to axe around 140 jobs, which now brings the total number of jobs lost through the current streamlining process to well over 500.
“The review was completed in our Functions area in June, and we have now completed the review for our Operations areas, which will see further workforce reductions,” McGill said in BHP’s statement.
“We recognise our decisions will impact on local communities and we will seek to work in partnership with our communities to help ensure they stay strong.”
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Bill Boehm, administrator of Roxby Downs, told ABC 891 radio this morning the town, established to service the mine, had a variable population of around 4000.
“If it’s operational areas it would be a mix of local people, fly-in/fly-out and drive-in/drive-out,” he said.
“Everyone around town knew that jobs were being reviewed and that’s been on an ongoing basis (so) the place was sort of well-tuned to that and we have all been affected by it.
“But the community up here are well aware that we’re a mining town so things do change.”
BHP conspicuously gave the Weatherill Government a political life-jacket, stipulating that the ongoing operational review “is not a reflection of any policy settings in South Australia”, but rather global challenges in the resources sector and “the need to transform Olympic Dam into a sustainable operation”.
It’s understood the Government has been in contact with BHP, but the Acting Treasurer wouldn’t be drawn on what was discussed. It’s not known whether his hardline rhetoric today was first flagged with the company.
With SA’s unemployment rate languishing as the worst in the nation, the State Opposition has reiterated calls for the Government to bring forward payroll tax relief for small-to-medium businesses and reduce its Emergency Services Levy take, in a bid to stimulate spending and employment.
Shadow Treasurer Rob Lucas told InDaily he acknowledged the Government “can’t do too much about big resource-based industry, but they’re somehow going to have to work in and around that particular issue and do something to reverse the problems that South Australia alone seems to be confronting”.
Snelling slammed the Opposition calls as “complete policy on the run”, but refused to rule out implementing any such measures.
“We of course will always look at ways we can encourage job creation, but we won’t be doing policy on the run,” he said.
