Transcript – Tania Constable interview with Jamie Burnett on 6PR Perth Drive

Topic: damaging industrial action in WA’s Pilbara region; potential impact on the Australian iron ore industry

E&OE

JAMIE BURNETT: All right. As I said, we have been talking about this for days and for weeks as well. It’s significant. BHP workers in Port Hedland, strike action is underway. Hoping to have a chat to Holly Edwards Smith from Nine News in just a moment. She’s up there. Get a bit of an idea of how that’s playing out on the ground. But we’ve been talking about it because this is vital.

We know here in WA how much this industry means to us. It’s been fascinating over the last few weeks to hear the view from you as well. Pretty split on this one, but make no mistake, this is about the dollars. BHP offered a 16% rise over four years that was not backed. And look, after failed negotiations on Thursday, this is where we sit. Tania Constable is the CEO of the Minerals Council. She’s written about what’s unfolding, maybe what’s in the future as well in the AFR today. G’, day, Tanya.

TANIA CONSTABLE: Hi, Jamie, Great to be with you.

JAMIE BURNETT: Yeah, good to have a chat. Look, I know not the first time over the last few weeks as we’ve seen this play out, but I suppose today is the day when the action is happening. How concerned are you by what you’re seeing up north?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Look, we were very concerned. The Pilbara produces 99% of the iron ore in Australia. The whole country relies on the Pilbara. The revenue that comes from it, the royalties for Western Australia, the company taxes for the rest of Australia that provide services. Union strike action, that’s what we’re starting to see at the moment. But if you look back in history, there’s a lot of efficiency. There’s been a lot of efficiency lost over the 70s, 80s and 90s, and we know that it’s going to return to that sort of level of activity. And, you know, that’s not going to be good for Western Australia, it’s not going to be good for the workers, and it’s certainly not good for Port Hedland.

JAMIE BURNETT: Are you concerned that this might just be the starting point of all of this? The tip of an iceberg? You’re anticipating that this might be part of a broader strategy and we will see more strike action across our mine sites here in WA and across the country?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Well, we’ve actually heard, you know, loud voices in some of the unions already saying that this is about control of the workforce. This is not even about pay for workers. The workers are well paid. The conditions that are in place with the big companies in the iron ore sector are very, very good. I think that workers would say that themselves. What this is all about is getting back control of the workforce.

I think the Federal Government changes to legislation enables that. They’ve given more union delegate powers, they’ve given more union rights of entry and horrific numbers of requests going into single companies, you know, up to a thousand in the last 12 months in just one company. And changes to the way that, that unions have demanded to bargain. Those are the sorts of things we’ve been seeing and they’re playing out on the ground. We warned of them. And this strike action is the start of, I think, bigger issues for the Pilbara and bigger issues for Port Hedland.

JAMIE BURNETT: I mean, how much bigger and how much worse do you think it could get? I mean, when you take a look at this and you think forward, how significant could this all. all end up, Tania?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Well, if you end up with long periods of strike action and we’ve done some statistics over a period and we were looking at a strike of around about six weeks costing about $9 billion in lost export revenue and that’s half a billion dollars in lost royalties for Western Australian residents. It’s significant. You think about the lost opportunity on hospitals and schools when you’re losing that sort of amount of money. So, it’s significant. Everybody should be worried about it. We need to bring the tension right down and make sure that we don’t see this sort of action occurring. It’s not necessary. It sends the wrong message to everyone across Australia about the damage that can be done to the iron ore industry.

JAMIE BURNETT: Do you have any confidence that will happen, though?

TANIA CONSTABLE: Not at the moment. I think what we’re seeing with the companies involved in unions, they’re having discussions, they continue to have discussions, but we’re already seeing a one-hour strike action occurring, rolling through a small number of the workforce and I think other unions are emboldened about what they’re seeing at the moment. So, we want to see this action stop. We want to see a good result for employees. And I think that companies want to make sure that they’re looking after workers, that we rebuild trust, continue to work solidly between workforces and employers. And that needs to continue to occur. Every single company wants to deal directly with their workforce because they need to have a workforce for their mines, that’s what they’re focused on. That’s what they will make sure that they achieve. And this union strike action is unnecessary, and we want to see it stop.

JAMIE BURNETT: So, everyone wants fairness, right? And clearly there’s some jockeying for position here. You talked about history off the top, Tanya. I mean, when you look back, there are a few things we can learn there. I mean, how dire did it get? You know, back looking at the 70s and the 80s with this industry, and when you take a look at that, what do you think that tells us about how this will play out today?

TANIA CONSTABLE: We had the worst period of inefficiency across the sector. It was so bad that the Japanese, where we were exporting our iron ore to, looked at Australia and said, okay, if we don’t have a reliable supplier of iron ore, we will look further afield. That’s exactly how South America started to operate. It’s how Brazil started to operate. That’s the sort of action that will be taken by our customers overseas.

If reliability falls over our exports and we’re seen as an unreliable supplier of iron ore to the world, then we will see that sort of action occur again and our customers will go further afield. That’s the first thing. The second issue is that will mean that the Pilbara, the ecosystems around it, and in this case, we’re talking about Port Hedland – it’s not a single company that is impacted, it is a whole ecosystem, it’s the whole city and region supporting that area. It’s everybody that works in the supply chain that ends up being impacted. We will see job losses if it gets very bad like it did in the 60s, 70s and 80s. And, you know, that is not good for the region, and it’s certainly not good for Western Australia. That’s the sort of massive impact it can have.

JAMIE BURNETT: Hey, really good to speak to you today. Appreciate your time.

TANIA CONSTABLE: Thanks very much, Jamie. Great to be with you.

JAMIE BURNETT: Okay. Tania Constable there, Minerals Council of Australia CEO. As I mentioned, she’s written a piece in the AFR tonight.

ends