The Environmental Protection Authority has been forced to recruit a new acting chairman as it struggles to find a replacement for Wally Cox, who unexpectedly quit his role in February.
The Environmental Protection Authority has been forced to recruit a new acting chairman as it struggles to find a replacement for Wally Cox, who unexpectedly quit his role in February.
Dr Cox officially left the government’s environmental advisory agency in May, with deputy chairwoman Andrea Hinwood elevated to acting chairman.
But from August 1, Waste Management Board chairman Barry Carbon will assume the acting chairman role for a three-month period.
Mr Carbon is also chairman of the state marine policy stakeholder group.
A spokesperson for Environment Minister, David Templeman, said Dr Hinwood was unable to continue in an acting capacity due to “other commitments”.
WA Business News understands that Dr Hinwood has a full-time role at Edith Cowan University.
Mr Templeman’s spokesperson said recruiting a permanent replacement for Dr Cox was well advanced.
Dr Cox left with more than two years to run on a three-year contract.
The EPA is also experiencing difficulty recruiting staff to fill a number of other roles.
EPA spokesman Charlie Maling said the agency experienced high turnover and difficulty attracting and retaining staff, however it had been given additional financial resources by the government so that it could recruit more staff.
“The problem is getting the people and then retaining them,” Mr Maling told WA Business News.
It is a widespread problem for many government agencies, which are struggling to compete against the private sector to attract and retain staff.
Several sources within the resources sector said they were finding it difficult to secure meetings with EPA representatives and blamed the problem on a lack of resources.
“There are some good people trying to do a good job, but the mining industry wants to engage with these people so we can get the job done,” one frustrated resources executive said. “We don’t want to be perceived as meeting them to get some kind of influence, this is about making sure we’re doing things the right way.”
Hawker Britton director Megan Anwyl said many government agencies were under pressure because of the volume of work created by the economic boom.
“The skills shortage is hitting agency staff more acutely than the private sector because of the competitive salaries that are being offered,” she said.
One mining executive said he had head-hunted someone from within the EPA to help it work on getting relevant environmental approvals.
He said many people working within the EPA wanted to work there for “ideological” reasons, despite the pay being substantially less than what was being offered by the private sector.
“We offer as much as two or three times their wage,” the executive said.
“The government doesn’t need to double wages because these guys are ideologically driven and there’s a level of security involved with a government job but there comes a breaking point.”
One source close to the EPA said higher wages were affecting the authority’s budget and there was a risk the EPA could run out of funds to pay for field visits to inspect projects.
“If there is a major proposal up north later this year they [EPA] may not have enough the money to go and take a look at it,” the source said.
Mr Templeman’s spokesperson said the strong economy had made recruitment more competitive than ever.
She said the minister had asked the Department of Environment and Conservation to report to him on how government could best address staffing issues in the areas most under pressure from the resources boom.
She said the minister had also asked the department to come up with more innovative and aggressive recruitment techniques.
