❓ Question regarding the Ord-East Kimberley expansion project's partnership with traditional owners and creation of Aboriginal employment opportunities, and the Minister's response detailing specific initiatives and employment figures.
AnsweredQoN 690Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ORD–EAST KIMBERLEY EXPANSION PROJECT — ABORIGINAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Mr Speaker — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Members! Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Kwinana, I formally call you to order for the first time. I have given the call to the member for North West. Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS
Mr Speaker — Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Members! Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Kwinana, I formally call you to order for the first time. I have given the call to the member for North West. Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Members! Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Kwinana, I formally call you to order for the first time. I have given the call to the member for North West. Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
The SPEAKER : Members! Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Kwinana, I formally call you to order for the first time. I have given the call to the member for North West. Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Members! Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Kwinana, I formally call you to order for the first time. I have given the call to the member for North West. Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
The SPEAKER : Members! Member for Albany, I formally call you to order for the first time. Member for Kwinana, I formally call you to order for the first time. I have given the call to the member for North West. Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr V.A. CATANIA : Thank you, Mr Speaker. Building Aboriginal capacity is a primary objective of this Liberal–National government. Can the minister inform the house how the Ord–East Kimberley expansion project is partnering with traditional owners and creating Aboriginal employment opportunities? Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS replied: I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
I thank the member for North West for the question and for his passion and commitment to doing all he can to ensure that Indigenous engagement is a key component of the royalties for regions program and across all agencies of government in this term. Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Several members interjected. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : The member for North West is a very good member of Parliament and is probably unfairly judged by members opposite. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
The SPEAKER : Member for Albany, I suggest you look up occasionally. Minister for Regional Development, you have been asked a question. I do not expect a general comment. Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : Before answering the member for North West’s question, on behalf of the Minister for Health I acknowledge the children from Halls Head Primary School in the Speaker’s gallery. Welcome to Parliament. The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
The Aboriginal employment and training opportunities being delivered by private industry employers and the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation are a direct result of the Liberal–National government’s investment in the East Kimberley. MG Corporation’s MG Services team will officially commence on Monday, 24 October with the merger of the Indigenous community development program team and the Aboriginal development package team, which are many of the requirements under the Ord final agreement negotiated by the Leader of the Opposition. They will deliver employment training, business development and mentoring support associated with the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, as well as provide a service to private industry employers. MG Corporation will have approximately 32 people employed by March 2012, including 15 to 20 people working within MG Services. What we are seeing here is a major expansion in the capacity and skill of the Miriuwung Gajerrong Corporation, which is a wonderful step in delivering on its vision for the expansion of the East Kimberley. MG Services has also identified, outside of the Ord–East Kimberley expansion, 13 Indigenous workers moving into Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine over the wet season, which is a very good innovation. Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Currently, Charles Hull Contracting, which is working on the agricultural expansion, is delivering an on-the-job training program that will result in the national accreditation of 12 Aboriginal men in heavy machinery operation ready for the commencement of phase 2 works in next year’s dry season. The company has committed to employing the 12 men in its south west operations over the wet season, and is working with MG Services to develop an on-the-job training academy for 16 to 18–year-olds in the operation of heavy machinery. This is really important and complex work. Obviously with the wet season arriving we can get someone out of welfare and into the workforce. When the wet season comes along, working in jobs like this becomes impossible and we lose the momentum that has been gained. I think it is really exciting that we are now looking to take the skills that we are developing in the dry season in the East Kimberley and moving them to areas over the wet season so that people can continue to build their skills and opportunities. Maintaining that continuity of employment is really important when we are looking at moving people into the workforce for the same time. Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Other organisations such as Wunan Foundation and Clontarf East Kimberley Academy, which are involved in school-to-work transition initiatives, will be engaged to maximise the number of youths able to access mechanical training for employment opportunities in heavy machinery operation. During the 2010 dry season construction phase, Leighton Contractors, through Moonamang Joint Venture, achieved 25 per cent Indigenous employment. Leighton is currently negotiating with the Hope Downs 4 project for the fly in, fly out placement of four of the workers who worked on the Ord project at Hope Downs over the wet season. John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
John Holland, which is using commonwealth funding for community infrastructure, is the head contractor for the East Kimberley development projects and currently has nine Aboriginal employees working on East Kimberley construction sites, and a total of 31 Indigenous employees to date have worked on these John Holland projects. WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
WannaWork, an Indigenous labour hire agency, has successfully delivered labour hire for a number of construction and landscaping activities associated with the Lakeside and Coolibah housing developments undertaken by LandCorp. I publicly credit Duck Chulang, the boss of WannaWork, for the excellent effort that he has undertaken in moving people into the workforce; he has done an outstanding job. Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Ertech is also subcontracting to WannaWork on the Weaber Plain light industrial estate. Six men working for almost 4 000 hours in total were employed by WannaWork over the dry season for these Ertech projects. WannaWork has also negotiated a contract with Advent Energy, which is considering a gas project in the East Kimberley, to build the access road to that gas project. Cross Country Contractors is a new business in town — Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Ms M.M. Quirk : This is a ministerial statement! Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Mr B.J. GRYLLS : I think it is important. Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Cross Country Contractors is delivering labour hire to Kimberley Metals Group on the KMG ridges iron ore mine. This is a really important development. The government has no contractual obligation over Cross Country Contractors, like we do in the Ord expansion, but Cross Country Contractors has 38 Wyndham workers employed on port operations and 70 per cent—27 people—are Aboriginal. A private company having 70 per cent Aboriginal people in its workforce at Wyndham port is a wonderful achievement by Cross Country Contractors and we welcome that. Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
Across the East Kimberley we are seeing a concerted effort by the government to deliver Indigenous opportunity and work opportunity packages—ensuring we understand the challenges of the East Kimberley in wet season and dry season work, looking to skill workers up on the job in the East Kimberley, moving them into other opportunities across the state in the wet season and hopefully building a base of Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley that starts to solve some of the intractable problems that we spend so much time in this Parliament talking about. I commend everyone involved in Indigenous employment in the East Kimberley; it is some of the best work the government is doing.
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