AMPLA Limited ABN 98 006 037 529 (A Company Limited by Guarantee) THIRTY SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 1 July 2018 – 30 June 2019 AMPLA Limited ABN 98 006 037 529 Registered Office & Secretariat: Suite 7.13 365 Little Collins Street, Melbourne 3000 Telephone: +61 3 9248 5400 Email: [email protected] AMPLA Annual Report 2018-2019 AMPLA Limited Board of Directors Keira Brennan Tanya Denning Ryan Hartfield Barry Irwin Martin Kudnig Natalie Lonergan Leanne McClurg Mark Pistilli Susan Timbs Jennifer Tobin Linda Tompkins Board Advisory Committee Jason de Boer Baden McMaster Simon Orton Staff Susan Timbs - Executive Director and Company Secretary to 25/1/2019 Gordon Bunyan – Executive Director and Company Secretary from 26/1/19 Robyn Feher - Accountant Joanne Phillips - Membership and Events Manager Natalie Barber – Project Manager to 15/08/18 Darelle Kearins – Membership, Events and Administration Officer AMPLA Annual Report 2018-2019 President’s Report It is my great pleasure to present the President's Report for 2018 – 19. It has been a privilege to serve in the President's role for the last two years and to work with a great many people who contribute their valuable time and expertise. I want to thank members, branches, committees, staff, board members, speakers and authors, sponsors and volunteers for their support, as AMPLA continues to offer an effective and relevant platform of peer to peer education and development despite the constantly changing landscape of the legal profession and the resources, energy and renewables industry.. Year in review As I reflect on the past year, I am proud of what we have achieved together and impressed by dedication of so many already busy individuals to achieving AMPLA’s aims and objectives. The Board recognises that the environment in which we operate is changing, but it is also looking to the opportunities that the changes we are making for our future growth and longevity provide us and is committed to continuing to uphold the values at the core of AMPLA since its establishment in 1974. This year saw a significant change in AMPLA with a new Constitution, a change in Board structure and composition and the resignation of Sue Timbs as Executive Director after 7 years. Sue made an extremely significant contribution to AMPLA’s development assisting in leading the Board through a major governance and membership review. She will be greatly missed but she has successfully worked to reset AMPLA’s structure to prepare it for its next phase. To that end, I am pleased to have welcomed and worked with Gordon Bunyan, who took up the reigns of Executive Director this year and has done a great job in such a short period of time. This year also saw the departure of Natalie Lonergan, Jennifer Tobin, Linda Tompkins and Nick Johanssen from the Board. They have all made significant contributions to AMPLA for which we are all grateful. The Board is now more diverse than it has ever been with its mix of private practice and inhouse lawyers and business specialists. Jason De Boer, Baden McMaster and Simon Orton, who come from diverse, non legal backgrounds and bring the benefits of their different experience and skills to the deliberations of the Board, have already contributed to improvements in the Board’s operation. The structure of the Board has also changed with the creation of four Board Committees: Membership Growth Committee (Ryan Hartfield), Promise Delivery Committee (Mark Pistilli), Audit Risk & Finance Committee (Jason de Boer) and Annual Conference Committee (Keira Brennan). The creation of these committees will help drive AMPLA’s future development and improve the efficiency of the Board. In May, the Board conducted a strategic planning workshop and refined the strategic plan and developed improved Mission, Vision, Purpose and Values statements together with planned one, five- and ten-year targets and an implementation plan. In addition, the Board has increased its strategic focus devoting a greater proportion of its deliberations to strategic issues As I look back on the achievements to date, I am excited at how far we have come in such a short period of time. The membership review commenced in 2018 was completed early in 2019. From it emerged a new membership model changing the structure and value of membership and improving operational efficiencies and increasing opportunities for young professionals and people new to the industry to become members and be more engaged with AMPLA. It also included a learning and development AMPLA Annual Report 2018-2019 3 strategy as an integral component. The review confirmed the importance of ensuring that the value of membership is increased and that the learning and development strategy is an essential component of the plan. The new membership model also builds on one of our strategic priorities, namely our commitment to building the next generation of members and future leaders. The Emerging Leaders Committee, formed in 2018, was active throughout the year and from 2020 Corporate Membership will entitle Young Professionals (“Emerging Leaders”) in those organisations to enjoy free membership. The Board also recognised that it needed to invest to upgrade the website and membership management system to improve customer service and office efficiency. The IT Committee comprising Ryan Hartfield, Baden McMaster and Simon Orton supported by Jo Phillips made recommendations to the Board which will see a new web platform in place early in 2020 Key Activities in the Last Year 2018-2019 has been a very active with a full program of events and achievements, including the Annual Conference 2018 in Perth and State Conferences in both Brisbane and Perth in May 2019. Some of the highlights for the year include Annual Conference 2018 (Perth) AMPLA once again delivered an informative, current and thought-provoking business program to over 200 delegates in Perth, at the Crown complex from 17-19 October. With an overarching conference theme of ‘Energy Transformation’, our expert Keynote Speakers kicked off the conference on Thursday. Melissa Bray (General Manager, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science) considered the global energy transformation and its implications for Australia’s resources – gas, metallurgical and thermal coal and battery commodities; while Paul Simshauser (Executive General Manager, Infigen Energy) addressed energy transformation in the domestic arena, tracing back over the last decade to highlight what went wrong, when, and the policy adjustments that are required now. The program covered mining, petroleum, inhouse and energy topics which kept the delegates engaged with hypotheticals and panels adding to the mix. The AMPLA Annual Conference is recognised as the premier resources and energy law conference in Australia and throughout the Asian region and would not be possible without the hard work and support of many. Our thanks go to the ongoing support and generosity of our sponsors, speakers, session chairs and volunteers for giving their time (and knowledge) so freely and generously. Branch Seminars In the last year, we continued to deliver an increased number of seminars and attendees compared to previous years. This reflects AMPLA’s education strategy and the continuing improvement it is making to its range and diversity of activities. As part of the Board’s Learning and Development Strategy, Branches have been improving their forward planning with the aim of developing annual programmes and increasing the opportunities to share topics and speakers between branches to capitalise on successes and improve organisational efficiency. The Western Australia and Queensland branches continued the roll-out a series of multipart seminars on "The Life Cycle of a Mining & Resources Projects". They have been hugely successful, and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The governance implications of the Hayne Royal commission were AMPLA Annual Report 2018-2019 4 addressed at the Annual conference and at the Queensland State conference. The Western Australian branch was again particularly active, hosting 11 well-attended and interesting events on a range of topics, including events dedicated to inhouse counsel and Emerging Leaders. The Victorian branch continued its half day energy program and inhouse counsel programmes. The South Australian branch kicked off a seminar, “Watts Up with Pumped Hydro & Battery Storage”, which was then repeated in Victoria, New South Wales and soon in Queensland. In a similar vein, seminars on ethical supply chains and the Modern Slavery Act and the implications for the resources and energy industries of Blockchain were held in more than one state. In May, both Western Australia and Queensland branches held their annual State conferences, with a one-day program of industry experts from business, government, the bar and firms speaking on current and pertinent topics for members. The South Australian and New South Wales branches have been very active, each hosting five events including "Beyond Compliance: Ethical Supply Chains and the Modern Slavery Act”, “Foreign Investment in Mining”, “Watts up with Pumped Hydro”, "Valuing Mineral Assets”, “The state of the NSW Energy Market” and “Gas 101 Tool Kit” and “Data Analytics and Machine Learning”. Thank you to everyone involved in pulling together and delivering such a diverse and interesting program of seminars and State conferences, in particular the branch committees who dedicate so much time to making these events happen. Singapore Branch I am absolutely delighted to report that the Asia Branch ran its first seminar “Blockchain and Commodities Trading” in March which attracted a larger audience than was expected. Its plans for the remainder of 2019 reflect both the enthusiasm of the committee led by Barry Irwin and the desire of the local industry professionals and lawyers for AMPLA seminars. Discussions have commenced with the Ministry of Law with a view to engagement with the government and with the local Singaporean legal profession. In addition, the Australian High Commissioner has offered his support and will host a function early in 2020.