South Australian Premier critical of BHP as the company cuts even more jobs
“Our strategy has always been about the diversification of the South Australian economy and I think that we’ve been working on many fronts. Whether it’s education, health industries, tourism, defence … this is an economy of many moving parts,” Mr Weatherill said.
SA Premier Jay Weatherill refuses to explain BHP Billiton’s ‘bad news’ after jobs cut announcement 891 ABC Adelaide , 11 Aug 15,
Mr Weatherill said the company needed to “front the media” after its announcement this week that jobs would go at the mine, including those of technicians, scientists, engineers and supervisors.
It follows on from the loss of 230 positions in South Australia earlier this year.
Mr Weatherill defended the Government’s record on embracing the mining industry and BHP’s expansion plans for the mine.
“People do want to know what their future plans are and so we have explained that to [BHP]. They have chosen to do what they usually do, which is to say very little indeed,” Mr Weatherill told 891 ABC Adelaide’s breakfast program.
“Every time BHP has a bit of bad news it seems … we have to explain it and we’ve decided we are not going to do that.
“So BHP have a massive stake in South Australia; there have been a number of occasions when they have asked the South Australian government for an extraordinary amount of support to get their projects up.
We’ve done that, I think, on two separate occasions, and on two separate occasions they have pulled back.”
He said people were interested in the company’s plans for the future, including a further expansion of the Olympic Dam site.
The Premier also said he would be revising the Government’s target of 5,000 new mining jobs by 2017, in light of recent cuts.
He said while mining had been a big focus for the state, the Government had been working on other sectors.
“Our strategy has always been about the diversification of the South Australian economy and I think that we’ve been working on many fronts. Whether it’s education, health industries, tourism, defence … this is an economy of many moving parts,” Mr Weatherill said.
In a statement on Sunday, Olympic Dam asset president Jacqui McGill said BHP’s cuts were part of an “ongoing review” of Olympic Dam operations in response to “global challenges” in the resources sector……..http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-11/bhp-billiton-should-front-media-over-sa-job-cuts-weatherill-says/6687222
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of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
South Australia has ‘traditionally’ been the state with the lowest economy/employment, because it has so little water (and that is highly mineralised, think of plumbing costs for industry) to be able to attract the industries that need water to run plants.. However it would be an ideal state to invest its dollars into Solar and Wind Power Generation factories/science thinktanks/research and development, because large amounts of water are not needed … so what’s stopping it?
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