FIFO city living claims dismissed
An academic from Murdoch University has dismissed the assertion most fly-in, fly-out workers would rather live in the city than the outer suburbs of Perth.
The claim was made by peak resources body the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA after it was purportedly shown in a FactBase report about the demographic makeup of the sector.
CME chief executive Reg Howard-Smith argued people in the community stigmatised FIFO employees and perpetuated myths about them, despite what he called a "growing bank of research" highlighting FIFO employees shared the same health and lifestyle outlook as other West Australians.
"While regional WA is a great place to live and work, the vibrancy and amenities available in Perth make living near the city an attractive choice for many in the resources sector," he said.
"It should come as no surprise that FIFO employees use the same rationale as the rest of the community when making decisions about where they choose to live.
"They look for attractive, safe neighbourhoods, with a clean environment, quality schools, playgrounds and sporting facilities.
"They also wanted to be within driving distance to the CBD and airport."
But psychology lecturer Libby Brook, who has done extensive work with FIFO workers, said the statistics in the report provided no indication the workers preferred life in the inner city.
"It is all somewhat misleading because it is talking in general about the resources industry - not FIFO - even though they mention the magic word to try to put it into that context," she said.
"Their data is from the Census, which doesn't take note of FIFO, so it should not have been mentioned in this context because there are many non-FIFO resources employees.
"The problem is they have no way of knowing which people in that 'resources' sample actually do FIFO."
A smaller, yet more specific sample used by the university indicates the top five places for FIFO to live are in the areas near Cockburn, Warnbro, Clarkson, Bibra Lake and Baldivis.
