It’s been another extremely busy month for WA’s mining and resources sector.
Since I last wrote to you, WA’s interstate and international borders have opened and the community spread of COVID-19 has moved towards its forecast peak. I’m very pleased to say the protocols and procedures CME member companies have been working on since the start of the pandemic have stood up well in practice and that instances of positive cases on sites have been managed both safely and very effectively. The State Government’s move to a “very high” caseload threshold, which triggers the designation of our workforce as “critical workers”, will further help this management process as cases around the State continue to number in the thousands.
The issue of behaviour towards women at WA mining and resources operations continues to be of utmost concern. CME recently made a second submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into sexual harassment against women in the FIFO mining industry, providing a detailed update on the work we are doing in this space. The commitment of CME and its member companies to improve what we do is an unwavering one, as is our resolve to create safe and inclusive workplaces for all of the sector’s 150,000-plus employees.
On a more positive note, CME will soon release its annual economic contribution data. Through a detailed survey process involving more than 55 member companies, we are able to get a snapshot of what the WA mining and resources sector contributes to communities and economies in specific regions of the State, around WA as a whole and right across Australia. It paints a fascinating picture of how our sector impacts an enormous range of communities and I look forward to publishing the fact sheets generated out of the surveys very soon.
I’m also delighted to welcome Jason Mennell to the CME team as Regional Officer for the South West. Jason will spend the next six months in the role while Sharon Upston takes an extended break to travel around Australia. We wish Sharon all the best for the trip and I know Jason, who was recently deputy editor of the Kalgoorlie Miner, will do an excellent job in her absence. Some of our South West members will have already met Jason and you can read more about him here.
Finally, I’m excited to be able to announce a new date of May 27 for our annual Women In Resources Awards. Each year WIRA is the “night of nights” for our sector, recognising the power of gender diversity, and I’m sure the 2022 edition will be no different. We had originally scheduled for early April but opted for a cautious approach and postponed while we monitored the COVID situation as community spread started to develop. We are now confident we can safely go ahead and I look forward to seeing many of you there on May 27.
