Q: What is the Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Bill 2016?
A: The Bill aims to ensure communities situated close to large resource projects benefit from the operation of these projects, including through employment and cash flow into these communities. The Bill prohibits 100% FIFO workforces, as well as discrimination against people from nearby regional communities in recruitment processes. The Bill proposes to make it mandatory for future resource projects to prepare a ‘Social Impact Assessment’ as part of the project approval process.
Q: What’s a ‘Social Impact Assessment’? Could it be improved?
A: A Social Impact Assessment looks at the actual and potential impacts of a resource project on communities. The areas covered by the Bill include: workforce management; housing and accommodation; local business and procurement; and health and community well-being.
Local government is asking that the Bill be amended to include an assessment of the impacts of a project on local government assets, services and land-use planning schemes. These impacts can be significant, affecting infrastructure and services such as roads, water and waste management. Such impacts often lead to increased costs for affected communities.
Q: What’s wrong with the way we manage social impacts now?
A: Currently, social impacts of resource projects are managed in an ad hoc way – some projects have social impact management conditions, but most projects don’t. Even when projects have social impact management conditions, these conditions are usually ‘set and forget’ and are not updated to reflect the actual impacts that a project is having on a community, even when these impacts are significant.
Q: What do we need to do to improve our management of social impacts?
A: While it is mandatory for resource projects to have an Environmental Authority that sets out requirements for managing project impacts on the environment, there is no equivalent requirement to have a Social Impact Management Plan to manage project impacts on residents and communities. This means that projects are required to manage their impacts on wildlife and flora – but not their impacts on people!
Just like we have for managing environmental impacts, we need an ‘adaptive management’ approach to managing the impacts of resource projects on residents – one that sees both current and future projects required to have a Social Impact Management Plan, with these plans regularly updated to manage the actual impacts of a project on residents over the life of a project.
Q: Why are local councils important in managing social impacts? What’s their role?
A: Queensland councils want to work with resource project proponents to better manage the impacts of their projects on communities. As the democratically elected ‘voice’ of their communities, local councils need to be recognised as an essential partner in managing the impacts of resource projects on communities.
As well as helping to assess the potential impacts of resource projects, local councils are well-placed to identify cost-effective solutions to avoid and mitigate adverse impacts, as well as provide advice on how to assist community members to access the employment and business opportunities resource projects can create.
Q: What about the prohibition on 100% FIFO? Is that good news for resource communities?
A: Local government welcomes the Government’s move to prohibit 100% FIFO workforces. 100% FIFO projects discriminate against all Queensland workers outside identified FIFO hubs and can negatively impact the social cohesion of nearby communities. Along with the proposed prohibition on discriminating against nearby communities in recruitment processes, the prohibition on 100% FIFO workforces will help ensure the benefits of resource projects flow through to workers and their families living in resource communities.