21S E OCIAL NVIRONMENT 21.1 SoCIAL CONSIDERATIONS I ssue: Clarification was sought on the consideration given to social issues by BHP Billiton and the South Australian Government during the preparation of the Draft EIS. Submission: 26 Response: In preparing the Draft EIS, BHP Billiton has given careful consideration to understanding the social, cultural and community issues that may arise in the construction, operation and decommissioning of the proposed expansion of Olympic Dam, and to developing appropriate management measures to reduce impacts and maximise benefits. BHP Billiton is not in a position to comment on the consideration given to the social issues by the South Australian Government. The Draft EIS was prepared to meet, and in most cases exceed, the EIS Guidelines of the Australian, South Australian and Northern Territory governments (refer Appendix A of the Draft EIS). The EIS Guidelines required an assessment and discussion of issues that could have a significant environmental, social or economic impact or benefit. This was presented in the Draft EIS. For the Draft EIS, specialist consultants worked closely with BHP Billiton management and design teams in an iterative process, where designs were modified and management measures added to minimise impacts and maximise benefits, in order to establish cost-effective and environmentally, socially and culturally acceptable outcomes. For example, major elements of project infrastructure have been planned and designed to reduce social impacts, including: • Hiltaba Village – located to take account of the views of residents, known heritage sites, the need for separation from dust and noise sources at the mine and proximity to the new airport • the landing facility – included in the project configuration to reduce the potential disruption to traffic if a road-only transport solution was adopted; and located to minimise the number and proximity of adjacent coastal homes • new project infrastructure – aligned adjacent to existing infrastructure corridors wherever possible to minimise impacts on landholders. The consideration of social effects has continued following the release of the Draft EIS and, in response, a number of changes are proposed. These are: • realigning the access corridor from the landing facility to the pre-assembly yard – as requested in public submissions and in discussion with the South Australian Government to take account of existing and future residential development • changing the method of installation for the desalination plant’s outfall pipe from trenching to tunnelling – this addresses concerns raised in submissions about marine blasting and would reduce impacts associated with access and ground disturbance to landholders and visitors. The preparation of the Roxby Downs Draft Master Plan (as presented in Appendix F4 of the Draft EIS) also provided for the future expansion of the Roxby Downs township and considered the requirements for housing and accommodation, retail and social services, recreation and open space, access and mobility, and industry to meet social planning directives. A number of chapters of the Draft EIS had a particular focus on social and community considerations. Chapter 7 described the stakeholder consultation and engagement process undertaken during the preparation of the Draft EIS, in order to identify issues and concerns about the proposed project, and to ensure that these issues were considered in the project design and addressed in preparing the Draft EIS. Olympic Dam Expansion Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement 2011 549 Chapter 19 presented the findings of a social impact assessment, undertaken as part of the Draft EIS, which examined: • employment and business • crime and anti-social behaviour • housing supply and affordability • social services and facilities • social character, well-being and amenity • access and disturbance. The methods used to assess the social impacts of the proposed expansion encompassed the following activities: • profiling the existing social environment to establish baseline social conditions • conducting social research and benchmarking to identify potential impacts • consulting with members of the public and stakeholder groups to identify potential issues • undertaking an impact and risk assessment and identifying management measures. Social issues were also considered in other chapters of the Draft EIS, including: • Chapter 9, Land Use • Chapter 13, Greenhouse Gas and Air Quality • Chapter 14, Noise and Vibration • Chapter 17, Aboriginal Cultural Heritage • Chapter 18, Non-Aboriginal Cultural Heritage • Chapter 20, Visual Amenity. In summary, in preparing the Draft EIS, BHP Billiton has carefully considered the social, cultural and community issues that may arise in the construction, operation and decommissioning of the proposed expansion of Olympic Dam; modified the design of project infrastructure to reduce impacts and maximise benefits; and identified management measures to achieve socially, culturally and environmentally sensitive outcomes. 21.2 LABOUR SUPPLY 21.2.1 LABOUR REQUIREMENTS AND SKILLS deVELOPMENT I ssue: Further information was sought about the occupational breakdown for the construction workforce and expanded operation. Submission: 2 Response: As discussed in Section 19.5.1 of the Draft EIS, the profile of the future operational workforce is expected to be similar to that of the present operational workforce, while the construction workforce is expected to mainly comprise workers in the trades or in semi-skilled labour and related occupations. Section 19.3.4 of the Draft EIS presented information on the occupational profile of current BHP Billiton employees at Olympic Dam, who are made up of approximately 40% labourers, 33% professional or associated professional occupations, 16% tradespeople or trades-related, and 11% employed in other occupations. More detailed workforce planning (including occupational categorisation and skills set requirements) would be completed and provided to government, training organisations and other relevant stakeholders should the project be approved, and as detailed engineering is completed and major construction commitments are planned. 550 Olympic Dam Expansion Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement 2011 I ssue: Further information and commentary was sought about the impact of the expansion on the labour market, including post-construction. Submissions: 2 and 78 Response: The conclusions of the labour market assessment, as presented in Section 19.5.1 of the Draft EIS, were that the adverse impacts from skills and labour shortages were expected to be high, and may affect local, regional and statewide enterprises over an extended period, and particularly during the peak construction period. The expansion would, however, also have a high residual benefit by creating sustained employment (both direct and indirect) over the long term. Section 19.5.1 of the Draft EIS presented an analysis of the impact of the proposed expansion of Olympic Dam on the labour market, based on work undertaken by the National Institute of Labour Studies (NILS). This assessment showed that the greatest demand for labour from the proposed expansion is expected in trades, semi-skilled (transport and production workers) and labourer occupational categories, which would occur at the same time as forecast growth in demand for labour in the minerals resources sector in all states, including South Australia. Over the same period, employment growth rates are forecast to decline due to changes in the age of the workforce, an increasing number of retirements and associated declines in labour force participation. The results of this analysis were summarised in Table 19.14 of the Draft EIS, which showed the projected increase in demand for labour in the minerals resources sector in Australia and South Australia compared to projected economy-wide employment growth (as an indicator of supply) for six occupational categories from 2008–2015. This highlighted the expected decline in supply in several occupational categories in South Australia, including trades and related, and labourers and related, at the same time as demand from Olympic Dam is predicted to increase. The effects of major resource projects (both positive and negative) have been recognised in a discussion paper on employment, labour and skills issues in the resources sector, recently released by the National Resources Sector Employment Task Force (2010). The task force was established by the Australian Government to address the workforce needs of major resource projects, analyse the expected demand for labour, consider supply issues, and develop a plan to address labour and skills shortages in the sector in order to support new job opportunities across the country, while avoiding the impacts of skills shortages. Subsequent to the release of the Draft EIS, a further analysis of data from the NILS assessment was undertaken to provide additional detail on the impact of the expansion on the labour market. This is presented in Table 21.1 and shows the projected growth in demand from the expansion of Olympic Dam as a proportion of projected growth in employment economy-wide in Australia and South Australia between 2010 and 2015 (i.e. the Draft EIS forecast peak construction period) and between 2015 and 2020 (i.e. towards the end of construction). The NILS methodology for projecting Australian and South Australian employment is based on non-linear extrapolations of past growth rates (from 1996–2008) combined