Carving out employment futures for Aboriginal ex-prisoners in the resource sector
Abstract
The resource sector in northern Western Australia draws its workforce from local purpose-built towns (drive-in/drive-out (DIDO) workers) and metropolitan areas fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) workers). However, each of these arrangements has a downside. Mining towns are costly to build and maintain. Staff turnover is high. FIFO lifestyles adopted by city-based tradesmen seeking high incomes can lead to social dysfunction. Hence, the question: is there a viable alternative in these regional and remote areas for local communities to provide workers and ancillary support for the resource sector? For example most of the inland mines in Western Australia are located near or within Aboriginal communities. Returning to these communities are ex-prisoners who have had the opportunity to gain trade skills while in metropolitan prisons. This article considers whether Aboriginal ex-prisoners might be gainfully employed in the resource sector in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia.
RAS ID
20155
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2015
Faculty
Faculty of Business and Law
School
Centre for Innovative Practice
Copyright
subscription content
Publisher
National Institute of Labour Studies Incorporated
Recommended Citation
Giles, M., Larsen, A., & Whale, J. (2015). Carving out employment futures for Aboriginal ex-prisoners in the resource sector. Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/1586
Comments
Giles, M., Larsen, A., & Whale, J. (2015). Carving out employment futures for aboriginal ex-prisoners in the resource sector. Australian Bulletin of Labour, 41(1), 38-57. Available here.