Broome 'cannot accommodate' FIFO influx
Broome Shire president Graeme Campbell has told a parliamentary inquiry that the town would struggle to cope with an expected influx of more than 6000 FIFO workers and they would have to be housed elsewhere.
“This town cannot accommodate them – I make that very clear,” he said.
“You are talking a major, major project with major imposts.
“If people were to come to town and buy houses or stay in a non camp environment, our rents would go up and our local people will not be able afford to live here.”
FIFO workers would comprise 85 per cent of the construction workforce at Woodside’s proposed gas precinct at James Price Point over four to six years.
Mr Campbell told the Federal Government inquiry into regional Australia’s fly-in, fly-out workforce today the workers must be bussed in and out of the airport to a workers’ camp.
He said there were significant concerns about the behaviour of people at the camps but it “was the lesser of two evils”. He pointed out the Shire had little influence on how any worker influx was handled.
Mr Campbell told the inquiry dealing with the impacts of the project threatened to exhaust the town’s financial resources, but the Shire’s requests to the State for additional funding had so far been ignored.
“It’s not our project … we’re not privy to agreements apart from what has been put in the public arena … we virtually don’t have a say,” he said.
The inquiry also heard residents’ fears that the arrival of big numbers of FIFO workers risked destroying Broome’s social fabric and natural environment, bringing soaring rents and an increase in anti-social behaviour.
Sonja Goebel, who recently moved to Broome, cried saying she had to leave Hedland after 26 years because FIFO workers had priced other people out of town.
“My town has been wrecked by people who … live in their own little bubbles on the outskirts of town and have no need to support local business,” she said.
“Broome will not be spared … unless something is done in the immediate future.”
Ian Perdrisat, a Broome resident of 20 years, said the town would not benefit from FIFO workers as they didn’t spend their money in local shops, on tours or enriching the local community.
He said more than $1 billion was being spent in the Pilbara to try to bring Karratha and Port Hedland up to a standard of life already enjoyed in Broome.
“If there is any sense at all that this development is going to take place, we need $1 billion upfront to try to maintain the quality of life in Broome before it is lost.”
Shely Ourana queried why the emphasis was on accommodating FIFO workers without destroying the community instead of changing the practice of big miners.
“Why aren’t we demanding that the mining companies employ family men who bring their families into these towns and live here, so they can become an active working part of the community?” she said.
