contentsDuster Pads Up, Takes Guard, And Plays A Straight Bat On The Skills Crisis
As president of the Goosebury Hill and Associated Districts Suburban Turf Cricket Club, one of the more influential community sporting bodies this side of the Darling Scarp, Duster has encountered many challenges both on and off the field over the course of what by any measure has been a prodigiously long, storied and peerless reign. Duster has been there through the good times and the bad. Indeed, over the journey, I've dealt with more drama, intrigue, backstabbing, misconduct and general skulduggery than after-work drinks and nibbles at Gillard HQ. But it doesn't end there: when the clubhouse septic tank malfunctioned during the great floods and subsequent power outage of 1997, venting an unrestrained and seemingly endless stream of effluent, dire cataracts of unimaginable ordure, it was a quick-thinking Duster who called in a favour from industry mates, utilising the tried and tested plug and abandon to promptly bring the situation under control; and when the former treasurer, 'Clive', who due to ongoing legal action shall remain anonymous, succumbed to a long-standing battle with an extravagant, and apparently particularly spanking, case of retifism, it was Duster who followed the long and winding trail of stilettos, setting the club once more on the fiscal straight and narrow.
Yes, no doubt about it, at times it's been a bumpy road, and old Duster has had to constantly be on his game. Back in the day a crafty off-spinner with a trenchant turn of phrase and a bag of tricks that'd put Max Malini to shame, Duster has long since hung up the cricket whites, but, in addition to a full catalogue of administrative duties, retains an active interest in what happens on-field. In recent years, by far the club's biggest challenge has been retaining and attracting players for the Goosebury Hill First XI: identifying and developing local talent, and providing a supportive environment in which players can develop, thrive, contribute to both the club and the community, and post-match get enough beer down them to drown a baby elephant.
Of course, recruitment and retention has also been an ongoing issue for the Australian petroleum industry, especially in recent times. As noted in APPEA's submission to the Draft Energy White Paper, around $180 B of new gas projects are currently under construction, with thousands of skilled workers being mobilised on construction sites and workshops around the country; and, furthermore, with production on most of these sites scheduled to begin by 2017, thousands more will be needed. As reported in the previous edition of PESA News Resources, Chevron alone has launched a recruitment drive for hundreds of engineers to work on its Gorgon and Wheatstone projects, while the Queensland CSG industry currently employs over 12,000 people.
`Duster is all for developing home-grown talent, but in the short-to-medium term both the government and industry need to be innovative in addressing the skills shortage, and this includes migration reform. As noted in APPEA's White Paper submission, the government's role should be to:
"Provide a responsive and efficient skilled migration system, and short-term, semi-skilled migration options that recognise the complex structure of oil and gas projects and the international nature of the industry's workforce and capacity."
As previously noted by Woodside CEO Peter Coleman, Australia needs to integrate with the Asian region. Duster agrees. Let's do what we can to promote Australian industry in a highly competitive international marketplace; the last thing our great country needs is union-sponsored protectionism hindering growth and putting the brakes on projects that are the lifeblood of our economy. (And, on a side-note, while we're on the subject of the card carriers, Duster also wholeheartedly endorses APPEA's proposed reforms, designed to remove institutional investment barriers, of the Fair Work Act 2009 – check it out at: http://www.pnronline.com.au/article.php/242/1833.)
It's crunch time for industry, and the family day sausage sizzle and get-to-know-you just doesn't cut it any more. Duster shared a shandy or two with a few old stagers at the annual APPEA Conference and opinion was uniform, the government needs to act transparently and decisively, to send a clear message by providing more support for an industry that, in uncertain economic times, is Atlas-like in its shouldering of the Australian economy.
As for the Goosebury Hill First XI, Duster is keenly anticipating the upcoming season and is confident of adding more silverware to what is an already handsomely stocked trophy cabinet; while, on another, mostly unrelated, note, anyone interested in purchasing a secondhand pair of stilettos, slightly scuffed but in good condition, can get in touch with Duster at www.pnronline.com.au (discretion assured).
