Queensland has a huge future in mining but the skilled workforce needed to dig holes, find the raw materials and ‘build the world’ is shrinking, the head of BHP in Australia has told the QUT Business Leaders’ Forum.
BHP President Australia Geraldine Slattery said mining would remain central to Queensland’s energy future as demand grows for metallurgical coal in steel-making to support the transition to renewable energy.
But the workforce needed to keep Queensland competitive is in decline and the ‘sugar’ hit from coal royalties won’t attract new investors.
“Queensland is a premier coal producing region, and a major exporter to the world’s steel making sector,” Ms Slattery said.
“Yet the state’s royalty regime is the highest in the world, with the maximum rate some 43% higher than the next nearest jurisdiction.”
Ms Slattery said she was encouraged by a new state government that was open to engagement on the topic and said Queensland mining was still in an advantageous position.
“Australia’s largest customer, India, will quadruple its capacity by the end of the decade,” Ms Slattery said. “The opportunity certainly sits there with Queensland.
“Queensland can compete, we need to think carefully about what the nature of competition looks like and how it will attract the skills and capabilities needed in the resources sector.
“Interest in mining and mining graduates has been on the decline since 2016. The apprentices in the jobs that support mining are on the decline. To compete we need to encourage the workforce of the future.”
Business leaders from across Australia’s resources sector came to The Star Brisbane to hear Ms Slattery discuss her vision for the future of mining in Australia and her own career journey which started when she left her family dairy farm in Ireland to become a project engineer.
She now leads Australia’s largest mining company, BHP, which employs more than 35,000 people and says simplicity and clarity of message are tools she uses to help elevate the workforce.
“People value that sense of being part of something bigger than themselves and making a difference to society and lifting the community,” she said.
This is the first QUT Business Leaders’ Forum to be held at The Star Brisbane in a new partnership that was announced during the event by moderator, award-winning journalist and 2024 QUT Outstanding Alumni Award-winner, Ellen Fanning.
The QUT Business Leaders’ Forum will return in 2025 with Airbnb Country Director for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania Susan Wheeldon in a conversation moderated by Ellen Fanning on 12 March.
Main picture: BHP President Australia Geraldine Slattery addresses the QUT Business Leaders’ Forum in Brisbane on Monday. Picture: QUT
