A conference will he held in Rockhampton next week to discuss the issues surrounding FIFO workers in Central Queensland.
Independent MP Tony Windsor, Capricornia's Kirsten Livermore and resource industry leaders will be amongst the speakers at the conference, The Bulletin reported.
The conference is set to discuss how the balance between the needs of regional communities and mining companies who use a transient workforce can be better managed.
Capricorn Enterprise CEO Mary Carroll said with Central Queensland set to receive $146 billion worth of investment over the next decade, it was important to strike the right balance.
"It is critical that we ensure that workers are carefully balanced between FIFO and resident opportunities in order for the region to see long-term benefit from this boom," Carroll said.
"Latest population statistics certainly reflect the growth that our greater CQ region is experiencing.
"Whilst the incredibly strong growth predicted for the Capricorn Coast has not come as a surprise, the fact that its percentage growth rate is ahead of Mackay and Townsville proves our destination is well and truly being sought after for people to live, work, play and invest."
A new report examining the impacts FIFO and DIDO has on regional communities was released last month exposing the downsides of using a transient workforce.
The findings of the 209-page report were tabled in Parliament last month, making 21 recommendations to government and 14 to industry including better resourcing communities under pressure from large FIFO workforces and removing tax benefits for companies using transient workforces.
The report found that an influx of temporary workers is creating housing shortages, driving up prices, and straining public services.
Independent MP Tony Windsor, who chaired the committee, wrote in the report's foreword that governments of all levels needed to recognise and act on the issues impacting regional communities who were hosting large FIFO workforces.
Windsor said a policy mix was needed to ensure FIFO did not lead to "a hollowing out of established regional towns."
The conference will be held at the Rockhampton Plaza Hotel, George St on Monday and Tuesday
Ignore posts by The Whole Truth · View Post · End Ignoring The forum fuckwit goes RRRAAARRRGGHHhhh - But not a fuck was given..................by anyone.
I have said previously that I did not blame FIFO workers for the situation that has emerged here of rental costs and housing prices driving ordinary income earners out of their hometown. But now I hear anecdotal evidence that many of the investors driving the price rises are FIFO's themselves, with a relative working late nights to accomodate the desire for shift-working FIFO's to enquire about Gladstone investment properties.
There is almost no shortage of derogatory terms I can think of for people who are earning some of the highest non-executive salaries available anywhere destroying the social fabric of other peoples communities by depriving local people of homes.......in the pursuit of even more money to shove in their pockets. Of all the choice words and phrases and profanities I could muster, I still think the most accurate descriptor of all is AVARICE. I'm not a religious man but I can see firsthand why the bible regards it as a deadly sin.
They are like a plauge of locusts, devouring all in their path before moving on - even parasitising each other. I'm still not saying that all FIFO's are engaged in this behaviour but I am saddened to observe that the FIFO culture appears to encourage some of the more destructive and repulsive traits in human nature.
Quote:
Capricorn Enterprise CEO Mary Carroll said with Central Queensland set to receive $146 billion worth of investment over the next decade, it was important to strike the right balance.
"It is critical that we ensure that workers are carefully balanced between FIFO and resident opportunities in order for the region to see long-term benefit from this boom," Carroll said.
"Latest population statistics certainly reflect the growth that our greater CQ region is experiencing.
Frank, you're an intelligent bloke - do you really believe in the notion of a never-ending boom?
I have said previously that I did not blame FIFO workers for the situation that has emerged here of rental costs and housing prices driving ordinary income earners out of their hometown. But now I hear anecdotal evidence that many of the investors driving the price rises are FIFO's themselves, with a relative working late nights to accomodate the desire for shift-working FIFO's to enquire about Gladstone investment properties.
There is almost no shortage of derogatory terms I can think of for people who are earning some of the highest non-executive salaries available anywhere destroying the social fabric of other peoples communities by depriving local people of homes.......in the pursuit of even more money to shove in their pockets. Of all the choice words and phrases and profanities I could muster, I still think the most accurate descriptor of all is AVARICE. I'm not a religious man but I can see firsthand why the bible regards it as a deadly sin.
They are like a plauge of locusts, devouring all in their path before moving on - even parasitising each other. I'm still not saying that all FIFO's are engaged in this behaviour but I am saddened to observe that the FIFO culture appears to encourage some of the more destructive and repulsive traits in human nature.
Frank, you're an intelligent bloke - do you really believe in the notion of a never-ending boom?
I'm not sure I "get" the source of your anguish, Lef-tee.
FIFO/DIDO workers mostly occupy work-camp accommodation, with some transient spillover into general rental housing in the area. And local landlords are no doubt making a mitt-full, while the contruction phase lasts for the various gas "trains" under construction.
But why do you hold out a FIFO/DIDO landlord out for special opprobrium? Isn't such an owner just late to the party, and a source of cash-out money to some previous local landlord?
I wouldn't have thought the reason for my distaste all that difficult to understand nipa. The presence of a large FIFO/DIDO workforce creates more pain than gain for the community - rents and house prices skyrocket, often beyond the reach of significant numbers of ordinary earning local people, forcing them out. Because the transient workers are not residents, the economic gains to the community are limited with much of the high wages simply bypassing the local area and flying away elsewhere (though pubs often do a roaring trade). As I have said in other threads, this is not the fault of the workers themselves but a failure on the part of the companies involved to provide enough worker accomodation in a timely manner and of the government that approved the projects to demand this as a pre-condition of approval. Nevertheless, their presence creates such problems.
But when the same people whose presence has created the problems - albeit unintentionally - then intentionally move to pursue monetary gains by becoming willing, active participants in the speculative behaviour that is pushing the price of the basic human need for shelter from the elements beyond what is reasonabley affordable for many - my own child may well have to leave the area in order to be able to leave home - then they are no longer innocent. The bad outcomes that their presence is causing is no longer just an accidental by-product that they did not intend - they are now creating and perpetuating the problem for nothing more than simple monetary greed. A six-figure salary is not enough? Do they need even more money again, gotten by blowing up the cost of housing for the people who unlike them, actually do live here?
It is parasitic behaviour - move into an area on a temporary basis and while having your own accommodation paid for by multinational companies with extremely deep pockets, then proceed to use your huge salary to bid up the price of housing that you have no intention of living in, driving it beyond what many locals without such huge incomes can realistically afford, all with the intention of making a mountain of lucre over and above the extremely hefty pay packet you already recieve. The local people are simply the collateral damage of such avarice - immesurate greed for material wealth.
It really shouldn't be that hard to understand at all.
I wouldn't have thought the reason for my distaste all that difficult to understand nipa. The presence of a large FIFO/DIDO workforce creates more pain than gain for the community - rents and house prices skyrocket, often beyond the reach of significant numbers of ordinary earning local people, forcing them out. Because the transient workers are not residents, the economic gains to the community are limited with much of the high wages simply bypassing the local area and flying away elsewhere (though pubs often do a roaring trade). As I have said in other threads, this is not the fault of the workers themselves but a failure on the part of the companies involved to provide enough worker accomodation in a timely manner and of the government that approved the projects to demand this as a pre-condition of approval. Nevertheless, their presence creates such problems.
But when the same people whose presence has created the problems - albeit unintentionally - then intentionally move to pursue monetary gains by becoming willing, active participants in the speculative behaviour that is pushing the price of the basic human need for shelter from the elements beyond what is reasonabley affordable for many - my own child may well have to leave the area in order to be able to leave home - then they are no longer innocent. The bad outcomes that their presence is causing is no longer just an accidental by-product that they did not intend - they are now creating and perpetuating the problem for nothing more than simple monetary greed. A six-figure salary is not enough? Do they need even more money again, gotten by blowing up the cost of housing for the people who unlike them, actually do live here?
It is parasitic behaviour - move into an area on a temporary basis and while having your own accommodation paid for by multinational companies with extremely deep pockets, then proceed to use your huge salary to bid up the price of housing that you have no intention of living in, driving it beyond what many locals without such huge incomes can realistically afford, all with the intention of making a mountain of lucre over and above the extremely hefty pay packet you already recieve. The local people are simply the collateral damage of such avarice - immesurate greed for material wealth.
It really shouldn't be that hard to understand at all.
So let me see if I have this straight:
In your first paragraph, you complain that FIFO/DIDO workers "make rents and houseprices skyrocket". Presumably that rent and purchase price money is, in the first instance, paid to "local" willing landlords and sellers of real estate. And while you grumble that not everyone is housed in work-camps, you seem to have no problem with the local capture of newly-higher rents and prices by local landlords and sellers.
But then--quelle horreur!!--some non-local gets involved. Someone from "outside" Gladys, or Rocky, or Emerald gets involved in local real estate, and all of a sudden, in your apparent view, "they are no longer innocent". Mysteriously, such an outsider becomes wholly responsible, in contrast to any local antecedent, for all the ills of "participant[ing] in the speculative behaviour that is pushing the price of the basic human need for shelter from the elements beyond what is reasonabley affordable for many" yada yada yada...
Worse yet--according to you--that is "parasitic behaviour" based on having a "huge salary" and "extremely deep pockets", "paid for by multinational companies".
* * * *
But wait a sec: How did the local landlords who sold out, in the first instance, afford their spreads in the first place? Did they not have "huge salaries" and "extremely deep pockets", at least in local terms, allowing them to accumulate their local real estate holdings to begin with?
And haven't the newly-bought-in landholders--whatever their source of funds--made a more immediate and profound commitment to the local economy, than the original owners who have sold out to them at great profit?
* * * *
What then is the basis for slagging new investors in the Gladys and Rocky areas, Lef-tee??
nipa - for your average local worker in an average town, do you think it would be better for it to remain as is or to be FIFO'd?
What about a for below average worker/earner? Or a high earner?
I don't think these situations can easily be reduced to isolating "your average local worker" in "an average town", as there is no "average town" experience of a mining boom, at least in FNQ.
There are substantial towns like Moranbah, and Dysart, and Emerald, that clearly live and die by mining activity levels, and have done so for decades of boom and bust. There are cities like Gladstone and Mackay that have traditionally supported a somewhate diverse base of primary industries (sugar, cattle, etc.) but go nuts when mining/energy resource activities boom. And there are towns like Alpha and Wandoan that barely register on maps, but may become the next Moranbah under favourable circumstances.
If I were a native of any such town, I'd look first to my skill-sets, for whatever industry was coming to town. I'd look second to potential franchising or own-business opportunities reflecting sudden population growth. And as a distinct third, I'd look at local real-estate promotion and arbitrage.
I don't think these situations can easily be reduced to isolating "your average local worker" in "an average town", as there is no "average town" experience of a mining boom, at least in FNQ.
There are substantial towns like Moranbah, and Dysart, and Emerald, that clearly live and die by mining activity levels, and have done so for decades of boom and bust. There are cities like Gladstone and Mackay that have traditionally supported a somewhate diverse base of primary industries (sugar, cattle, etc.) but go nuts when mining/energy resource activities boom. And there are towns like Alpha and Wandoan that barely register on maps, but may become the next Moranbah under favourable circumstances.
If I were a native of any such town, I'd look first to my skill-sets, for whatever industry was coming to town. I'd look second to potential franchising or own-business opportunities reflecting sudden population growth. And as a distinct third, I'd look at local real-estate promotion and arbitrage.
Fair enough. I was expecting that answer
But I can tell you about the plight of the lowly skilled, below average intellect, minimum wage Perthite worker nowadays - it is not good.
I know we can't stop progress to save the slowest in the herd. But the government needs to ensure that they are not just thrown to the wolves. That's not good for anyone.
Slightly different slant but Perth is a variant of a FIFO town/city, similar to what Franky is gizzing about in Rocky.
In your first paragraph, you complain that FIFO/DIDO workers "make rents and houseprices skyrocket". Presumably that rent and purchase price money is, in the first instance, paid to "local" willing landlords and sellers of real estate. And while you grumble that not everyone is housed in work-camps, you seem to have no problem with the local capture of newly-higher rents and prices by local landlords and sellers.
But then--quelle horreur!!--some non-local gets involved. Someone from "outside" Gladys, or Rocky, or Emerald gets involved in local real estate, and all of a sudden, in your apparent view, "they are no longer innocent". Mysteriously, such an outsider becomes wholly responsible, in contrast to any local antecedent, for all the ills of "participant[ing] in the speculative behaviour that is pushing the price of the basic human need for shelter from the elements beyond what is reasonabley affordable for many" yada yada yada...
Worse yet--according to you--that is "parasitic behaviour" based on having a "huge salary" and "extremely deep pockets", "paid for by multinational companies".
There's no point in setting up strawmen mate. I am just as disdainful of the actions of local landlords who have been elbowing each other aside to scramble aboard the gravy train that has crushed so many of their own townspeople beneath it's wheels, and I have said so in the past. Incidentally, it's interesting to ponder exactly how many local landlords are left and how much property has been tranferred to absentee landlords who reside in other parts of the country.
You seem to have missed the entire point I was endevouring to make with the statement "no longer innocent". I have never blamed the FIFO's themselves for the situation and I have said so previously. Their presence is merely the catalyst in creating a bad situation, they themselves are not the cause which I have already outlined. Up to this point, they are innocent. But when they begin jumping aboard the same local property gravy train themselves, using their very large incomes to buy up local housing and land with the sole intention of on-selling it later at a profit, thus out-competing local people of lesser financial means who want nothing more than a roof overhead, then they are no longer just someone whose is causing problems only as an accidental by-product of being there and who doesn't intend to cause any harm - they are now willingly participating in the gutting of the local community in which they do not live, all in the pursuit of even bigger monetary gains than they already have. Perhaps their vision is so obscured by dollar signs that they simply can't see the harm they are inflicting, but I'll be fucked if you can call that innocent. My bet is that in most instances it isn't a case of "don't understand" but rather of "don't care". They are dazzled by the dollar, who cares about who gets in the way.
Quote:
But wait a sec: How did the local landlords who sold out, in the first instance, afford their spreads in the first place? Did they not have "huge salaries" and "extremely deep pockets", at least in local terms, allowing them to accumulate their local real estate holdings to begin with?
Housing costs were substantially lower until the FIFO's moved in en masse and I personally know several local landlords on fairly ordinary incomes who bought here years ago and who - to their credit - have not participated in the rent hiking craze that driven people from the area.
Quote:
And haven't the newly-bought-in landholders--whatever their source of funds--made a more immediate and profound commitment to the local economy, than the original owners who have sold out to them at great profit?
And exactly how do you figure this? They have gleefully participated in the gross inflation of the cost of a roof overhead - which you seem to think is little more than "yada yada yada", which leads me to suspect that you are a somewhat unpleasant individual with little interest in the plight of others - and just like their wage/salary incomes, much of the rental money they are charging (after hiking it sharply) simply flies away to wherever it is they live. If you are of the attitude that their actions, which have enriched a relatively small number of local toadies at the detriment of the overall community is a good thing, then I have to strongly disagree. It's a kind of small-scale economic colonialism - a powerful outsider barges in, inserts their feeding tubes and begins sucking away wealth to far-off places. The local community is simply an oil well to be pumped until dry, then it's time to move on. Their actions are indefensable in my book.
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