The resources sector has called on the Gillard government to revise its latest migration initiative aimed at addressing the peak skills needs of large-scale resources projects.
It argues the government’s Enterprise Migration Agreements (EMAs) guidelines, released by the Department of Immigration last month, were “too prescriptive” and set the bar too high for companies.
Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia executive officer Bruce Campbell-Fraser said EMAs would not be the panacea the industry was hoping it would be.
“The government has not made it easy or attractive for companies to take up such an agreement,” Mr Campbell-Fraser said.
EMAs have been made available to resources projects with capital expenditure of more than $2 billion and a peak workforce of more than 1,500 workers to help address the forecast need for more than 70,000 additional skilled workers over the next five years.
Australian Mines and Metals Association director Minna Knight said the threshold was too high and should be reduced to $1 billion and 500 workers.
“We commended the government on the initiative … but there are other projects out there that have capital expenditure of less than $2 billion that are just as important and would benefit from accessing these agreements,” Ms Knight said.
To be approved for an EMA, project owners are required to develop a comprehensive workforce and training plan to demonstrate the project is making best efforts to source workers locally before overseas workers are recruited.
Project owners are also expected to consult with unions and peak industry bodies and satisfy those stakeholders that such skills shortages exist.
Mr Campbell-Fraser said the high level of disclosure could also deter some companies from using EMAs.
“We are a little bit disappointed with the final guidelines … the level of prescription may prove a barrier to a company deciding to go down the enterprise migration agreement path,” he said.
“And for some companies, sharing their workforce development and training plans will be something they culturally haven’t dealt with in the past.”
Ms Knight said the association was continuing discussions with the government around the requirements for stakeholder consultation.
“Such information needs to be provided to unions and that creates problems in the sense that there is commercial and confidential information that could be potentially used by these unions in public campaigns,” Ms Knight said.
“If the government is able to go back and review the stakeholder consultation requirements, then, potentially, these agreements could be very useful.”
Mr Campbell-Fraser said the industry would need to wait until next year to see whether there was a significant take up of EMAs.
