Conference Day One
Tuesday 9 April 2013
08:15 Registration and welcome coffee
08:50 Opening remarks and welcome address from the Chair
Ron Manners, Chairman, Mannwest Group
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES
09:00 State of the nation 2013: Australia’s place in the global resources race
- Assessing the competitiveness of Australian mining projects in the global context
- Australia’s competitive advantages and disadvantages
- Key challenges to increasing competitiveness
- The next chapter: from price boom to productivity boom
Gina Rinehart, Executive Chair, Hancock Prospecting (pre-recorded video address)
Introduced by Prof. Ian Plimer, Director, Roy Hill Holdings and Queensland Coal Investments
"One of the things that I'm really concerned about is the cost competitiveness of our industry because our industry doesn't sell on the local market, it sells on the world market."
Gina Rinehart, Executive Chair, Hancock Prospecting
09:40 Workforce development initiatives to increase mining productivity
- Training as the key to increasing productivity
- The impact of the industrial relations regime
- The importance of R&D expenditure and Business-Research collaboration
Innes Willox, Chief Executive, Australian Industry Group
10:20 Strengthening Australian Mining: Taxation, skills and cost competitiveness
- Policy initiatives that will strengthen the mining sector
- Discussing the impact of the MRRT
- How the government is addressing cost inflation
- Outlining enterprise migration and workforce development initiatives
10:40 Morning tea
11:10 International Keynote Address: China's long-term minerals demand and implications for Australia
- What are the plans for future Chinese investment in Australian minerals projects
- Latest trends in and prospects for China's demand drivers
- Imperatives for Australian resource players to tap the potential
Kobus van der Wath, Founder & Group Managing Director, The Beijing Axis (China)
11:50 Resource and Infrastructure Industry: Responding to challenges and opportunities
- Overview of the Australian Resources and Infrastructure Industry’s current and future skilling needs
- Outcomes of the research and how this links to workforce development solutions
- Workforce development solutions for the Resource and Infrastructure Industries. With social license to operate where communities are at the heart of operations
- The true definition of quality for training and skills development to meet industry’s needs
Carolyn Viso, Workforce Planning and Development Manager, SkillsDMC
12:30 Keynote panel: What Australia has to do to become more competitive and continue to attract investment
- Controlling costs to enable accurate forecasts
- Creating confidence in the industrial relations system
- Establishing a fair and stable system of taxes and loyalties
- Building relationships with buyers and investors
Moderator:
Ron Manners, Chairman, Mannwest Group
Panel:
Kobus van der Wath, Founder & Group Managing Director, The Beijing Axis (China)
Prof. Ian Plimer, Director, Roy Hill Holdings and Queensland Coal Investments
Innes Willox, Chief Executive, Australian Industry Group
13:00 Networking lunch
STREAMLINING REGULATION AND OPERATIONS
14:00 Improving regulation and project approvals in Western Australia
- Vision for mining in WA
- Current approvals streamlining initiatives
- Working with industry partners to produce outcomes
Tim Griffin, Deputy Director General, Approvals Group, WA Department of Mines and Petroleum
14:30 Operations optimisation to reduce costs
- Overview of optimisation strategies
- How to analyse and measure process efficiency
- Implementing optimisation strategies
- How to find resources to conduct optimisation strategies
Anthony Robinson, Partner (Consulting), Deloitte
15:00 Afternoon tea
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND IMMIGRATION FOR INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
15:30 Assessing the impact of the current IR regime on mining productivity and cost competitiveness
- Overview of key IR policies that are impacting minerals projects
- Comparing Australian IR regime with other natural resource rich countries
- Is IR policy really influencing productivity outcomes?
- Examining the Fair Work act and highlighting areas for improvement
16:00 Panel: Assessing the challenges and opportunities presented by enterprise migration
- What types of projects can benefit from an offshore workforce
- Enterprise migration for constructions vs. operations
- What additional costs should you expected to take on
- What additional training is needed for contingent workers
Moderator:
Ron Manners, Chairman, Mannwest Group
Panel:
Tony Caccamo, Director of Operations, Australian Mines and Metals Association
16:40 Chairman’s closing remarks
16:50 End of day one and networking drinks
“There’s definitely stuff that can be done within companies themselves to improve their management systems, there’s definitely an opportunity for productivity and there’s opportunity for innovation and technology, and there’s an opportunity for capital efficiency.”
David Flanagan, Chairman, Atlas Iron