Saudi Arabian-based engineering contractor NSH Corporation set up shop in Perth today and announced plans to provide services to the oil and gas sector, including the use of foreign labour to shore up skills gaps.
NaSAH Australia will focus on providing workers to the liquefied natural gas sector in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
It also set up a second company, OGM Technical Institute, to work with Tafe’s and universities to train a local talent pool to service infrastructure projects.
NaSAH Australia chief executive Peter Linford said the company would employ foreign workers only if it could not fill roles with Australian employees.
It was more expensive to import workers from overseas than to employ locals, costing an extra $40,000 per recruitment on average.
But there was certainly a need to look globally to meet short-term gaps in skilled labour.
Mr Linford said he expected opposition to the plan.
"Through programs that we're going to do in coming weeks, we'll explain our position," he told a media conference.
"We would like to employ Australians first and foremost."
He said it was unlikely the company would seek to secure an enterprise migration agreement (EMA), intended for projects of a substantial size and value.
"NaSAH doesn't have that size - certainly not now - and I don't envisage it will get to that size in the short to medium term."
The ratio of foreign to local workers would be highest in remote areas where workers were generally harder to attract.
"If you're in a project on the east coast that has greater proximity to a larger population base, the foreign-worker need would be minimal if at all," Mr Linford said.
"If you're getting into some of the more remote areas where there are specialist skills (required) ... it may be higher, but I would think there was always going to be a majority of Australians, never the reverse."
Former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh said he had become NaSAH's "ambassador" because he had an association with its executives and admired the company's safety record.
"Business is now something I'm really interested in getting into, and this sector is obviously the one that's booming in Australia."
