News

Western Australia has been hit hardest by worker shortages according to Institute of Public Affairs Research Fellow Saxon Davidson.

“Job number one for Premier Cook is to fix Western Australia’s worst-in-the-nation worker shortage levels, which is stifling business performance and punishing customers,” Mr Davidson said.

The Institute of Public Affairs has released new research that shows Western Australia is the hardest hit by worker shortages, which is holding the state back in uncertain economic times.

Western Australia’s ‘Job Vacancy Crunch Rate’ (the number of job vacancies as a share of the working-age population not in the labour force) sits at 10 per cent, close to double states such as South Australia.

“We are calling on Premier Cook to lead the charge in National Cabinet to have discriminatory tax and red tape barriers that are preventing our pensioners, veterans, and students removed to alleviate this crisis and he deserves bipartisan support,” said Mr Davidson.

“According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were 438,500 reported job vacancies nationwide in February 2023 and one quarter of businesses cannot find enough workers. In WA, there were almost 53,000 job vacancies, almost double the number prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

A recent survey by National Seniors revealed that 20 per cent of all pensioners would consider re-joining the workforce if tax and red tape barriers were eased. Currently only three per cent of pensioners in Australia work compared to one quarter in New Zealand, where tax and red tape penalties do not exist.

“If just one-in-five West Australian pensioners re-joined the workforce, the number of job vacancies in the state would decrease by over 90 per cent,” said Mr Davidson.

“Removing unfair barriers on pensioners, veterans, and students is a no-regrets policy which will get more Australians who want to into work, more money into local economies, while increasing tax revenue, and providing a critical source of dignity and self-esteem to our most experienced Australians,” said Mr Davidson.

Worker shortages hit WA

27.07.2023

“Job number one for Premier Cook is to fix Western Australia’s worst-in-the-nation worker shortage levels, which is stifling business performance and punishing customers,” Mr Davidson said. “We are calling on Premier Cook to lead the charge in National Cabinet to have discriminatory tax and red tape barriers that are preventing our pensioners, veterans, and students removed to alleviate this crisis and he deserves bipartisan support,” said Mr Davidson. “Removing unfair barriers on pensioners, veterans, and students is a no-regrets policy which will get more Australians who want to into work, more money into local economies, while increasing tax revenue, and providing a critical source of dignity and self-esteem to our most experienced Australians,” said Mr Davidson.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti opens door to major overhaul of contentious heritage laws

26.07.2023

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti has opened the door to a major overhaul of controversial Indigenous heritage laws, declaring nothing was off the table and “if there needs to be change, they will be changed”. Criticism of the new regime has come from all quarters, including leading Mabo case lawyer Greg McIntyre who on Monday described the laws as “unworkable” and in need of significant improvements. Responding to those comments, Mr Buti said Mr McIntyre was entitled to “have his own opinion” but that as minister his focus was on “ensuring (the heritage laws) operate in the best possible way”.

Roy Hill got into the Olympic spirit this week | #AllezAUS | #RoyHill

22.07.2023

Roy Hill got into the Olympic spirit this week, recreating the beauty and allure of Paris as we hosted Australian Olympic Committee athlete processing sessions for #Paris2024. A critical step on the road to the Games, Olympic hopefuls were measured for uniforms, had team accreditation photos taken and received essential Paris 2024 information. Our Executive Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart, is the largest individual supporter of Australian athletes and through Hancock Prospecting Group, Roy Hill is an Australian Olympic Partner.

At close of business | Business News podcast | Hanroy

18.07.2023

Interview with Mark Beyer courtesy of Business News.

Rinehart gives more to RFDS in WA

18.07.2023

WESTERN Australia-based miner Roy Hill has signed a multi-year agreement with the WA branch of the Royal Flying Doctor Service that includes provision for ongoing support, advocacy and promotion plus a cash injection of $150,000. Hancock Prospecting group operations chief executive officer Gerhard Veldsman said Roy Hill provided ongoing opportunities for thousands of people in the Pilbara, building economic prosperity. "Through the strong backing of our executive chairperson Gina Rinehart, we are committed to sharing that prosperity and recognise the significant commitment of rural and regional communities throughout WA, and their right to health care," he said. Rinehart donated $6 million to the RFDS in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020 for critical care equipment and telehealth technology to help rural and remote Australians in New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Hancock integrates project plans

17.07.2023

GINA Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has been quietly implementing changes this year that will reshape the way it operates. One key development was the acquisition of properties in West Perth so that staff at subsidiaries Roy Hill Holdings and Atlas Iron can be co-located with the parent company. Another key development was the creation of HanRoy, a new entity to coordinate the evaluation of all projects. Led by chief executive group projects Sanjiv Manchanda, HanRoy is currently working on more than half a dozen mining and infrastructure projects. At the same time, Gerhard Veldsman was put in charge of all mining operations, with both men reporting to Hancock chief executive Garry Korte.

Shane Love: Opposition leader plans to re-write the controversial Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act

17.07.2023

Describing the laws as fundamentally flawed, Mr Love said he believed the new regime risked pushing up the price of land and delaying subdivisions in the midst of a housing crisis, as well as choking small businesses in red tape.

Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act: WA Government schedules more workshops amid ongoing confusion

17.07.2023

Fourteen more “education workshops” on the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act have been scheduled across regional WA as the State Government scrambles to demystify the contentious new laws. It comes after a series of public information sessions were held in June and July as farmers and pastoralists struggled to wrap their heads around the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.The Act, which came into effect on July 1, has drawn widespread criticism from Aboriginal corporations, local governments and the Opposition, as well as the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA and WAFarmers.

Hills residents voice concerns at ACH

16.07.2023

DPLH assistant director general of heritage and property services Vaughan Davies delivered the information session for the residents, as state Labor members Darren West and Jessica Shaw helped to answer questions and moderate the discussion. Gidgegannup Progress Association Chairperson Sally Block said the presentation was badly prepared and should had been delivered before the new Act came into place. She said the Perth Hills region had many known Aboriginal cultural heritage sites such as Wooroloo Brook or the Avon and Swan rivers, and many landowners had those sites or tributaries going through their property. “This is going to affect them, and people are concerned about this,” she said.

NEW HERITAGE LAW FARCE PUTS WA ON ROAD TO NOWHERE

15.07.2023

It was like a scene from a Fellini movie. The setting is a bleak modernist concrete and bitumen tangle intruding into an ancient landscape. The principal characters are a gaggle of self-satisfied politicians performing a ritual with hardly an elector (certainly not a non-Labor one) in sight. But now Fellini strikes. Two men are arguing about their conflicting rights to the once-tribal land on which a freeway behind them has been built. And, watching, one old school news reporter who’s been around long enough to understand the significance of what’s unfolding before him.