INSIDER MAGAZINE: How Paul Everingham helped to save WA mining from COVID-19 and why he’s called it quits

As the ogre of coronavirus descended on WA in early 2020, Chamber of Minerals and Energy boss Paul Everingham hatched an ambitious plan that would keep the State’s lucrative resources sector operating through the pandemic. Supported by a small team of the industry group’s staff and representatives from member companies, Everingham hunkered down at the CME’s Mill Street offices in Perth over a weekend to work out how the $200 billion sector could protect its army of fly-in, fly-out workers and keep the lights on. The 40-page document that emerged from those vigorous discussions provided an effective “how-to” manual for companies navigating their way through COVID-19. It laid out protocols around pre-flight testing, mask-wearing and social distancing on planes and buses, cleaning regimes and infectious disease management plans on sites, as well as a range of other measures aimed at preventing infection and halting spread. It also reassured both Federal and State governments that the sector could continue its operations safely, amid suggestions it would need to close. At the time, there was genuine panic in the community that Australia would fall victim to the wave of illness and death that had already beset Wuhan, in China, and was sweeping parts of Europe and New York. Mr Everingham recalls fervent discussions at senior levels of government based on an assumption that someone in everyone’s family in Australia would die from COVID. And WA’s resources sector had a big target on its back because of its ongoing, mass movement of workers within the State, interstate and even internationally. Its remote sites also sat within some of Australia’s most vulnerable Aboriginal communities. “I’d heard from colleagues in the Federal Government that the NSW and Victorian Governments were going to oppose mining and industry staying open,” Everingham says. But he and his members knew that any cessation of activities would have a devastating impact on the economy of WA and ultimately Australia. A resources shutdown would also cripple the small, remote communities it sought to protect. “It was really important for us to stay open so we decided to work with government on ways that might be possible,” Everingham says. “We didn’t know that it would be ... we didn’t know if they’d agree.” But the politically astute Everingham knew that governments would only consent to the CME’s plan if it looked so safe that people in the wider community would accept the resources sector continuing to operate while they were forced to stay home. Not only did the chamber’s comprehensive plan win Federal and State Government approval, it was also rolled out in Queensland and CME member company BHP used it as a template for safely operating across its global operations. Everingham observes the CME effectively became a COVID crisis centre for the industry during the pandemic, with its historical functions of policy and advocacy taking a secondary role. It helped ensure Australia’s resources sector generated a record $310 billion in export revenue last financial year, and is on track for another record $379b this year. It also ushered in a new era of collaboration in the resources sector’s dealings with government and other industry stakeholders. In the years preceding Everingham’s arrival at the CME in 2018, the lobby group was best known for its public brawls with government whenever there was an attempt to raise taxes on the sector. In 2010, the CME fought alongside the Minerals Council of Australia in a bitter stoush with the Rudd Government over the Resources Super Profits Tax. In 2016, it fought against a $5-a-tonne iron ore levy floated by former WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls and the following year it railed against a proposed hike in the State’s gold royalty rate from 2.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent. The CME successfully saw off all three of the proposed threats, but the sector also lost some skin in the process. Many came to see it as a greedy political bully, doggedly determined to protect its, at times eye-watering, profits at all costs. It’s an observation Everingham made when he interviewed for the CME job four years ago and was asked by the organisation’s board how he personally perceived the resources sector. “You’re a very productive part of the economy, you create jobs and wealth,” Everingham recalls telling the board at the time. “But at the political level and in the bigger metropolitan cities, they think of you as some industry that is far away, digging holes and putting dirt on a truck and if anyone tries to impose on you, you bring out a massive steel baseball bat and you clobber them. “It’s very effective but it probably means people observe you as this big bear and you’ve got to use that sparingly if you want people to think of you differently ... and I think they (the board) liked that.” The immediacy of the COVID threat in early 2020 did not afford time for a political bunfight and Everingham knew that only a collaborative and consensus approach would allow the sector to achieve its goal of maintaining a healthy workforce, ensuring uninterrupted operations. “There’s a place for picking public fights, there’s a place for aggressive advocacy and there’s a place for contested ideas,” he says. “But if my core objective is to enable our miners to keep operating, then not being able to communicate effectively and regularly with the regulators that enable that is not smart.” Everingham says he believes industry bodies that have picked political fights during COVID, such as the Australian Medical Association, have been ineffective in achieving their goals. He notes the overwhelmingly collaborative approach between the resources sector and government on COVID has led to success in other policy areas such as the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act and the Code of Practice on Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace. But the former chief executive of the Liberal Party in WA, who is widely respected on both sides of the aisle, says he hasn’t consciously brought a collaborative approach to the job. “The times have suited me ... I’ve been lucky,” he modestly says. On a personal level, Everingham observes that the challenges of navigating the sector’s path through COVID have taught him that he thrives under pressure. “Under a lot of pressure that weekend, I was thinking ‘wow, this is good’,” he says. “I was enjoying it, whereas I think other people weren’t.” Although he confesses that he personally found WA’s hard border during COVID frustrating, because it prevented him from visiting his parents who live in Queensland. “My eldest daughter hasn’t seen her grandparents for three years, what do you reckon I think about that? You can imagine,” he says. Everingham acknowledges it was something he shared in common with Premier Mark McGowan whom he has worked closely with in the past two years. Mr McGowan was prevented from visiting his elderly parents, Dennis and Mary, in New South Wales by the hard border he introduced. Everingham is set to bow out as the CME’s chief executive when his four-year term expires in May after what he diplomatically refers to as an “issues-rich” tenure. Despite its successes in dealing with a global pandemic over the past two years, the WA resources sector has also battled reputational damage inflicted by the destruction of two ancient Indigenous rock shelters in the Pilbara by Rio Tinto as well as revelations of widespread sexual harassment and assault within its workforce. And Everingham has also been front and centre on both those issues. He helped in the drafting of the recently passed Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021, which he hopes will mark the dawn of a stronger, unbreakable relationship between miners and Indigenous groups after the horror of Juukan. In July, Everingham fronted the media with senior executives from mining giants BHP, Fortescue Metals Group, Rio Tinto, Woodside and Newmont to back calls for a parliamentary inquiry into sexual assault and harassment in the resources sector and unreservedly apologise to victims. The action followed a series of shocking rape allegations revealed by The West Australian, highlighting the extent of the problem across WA’s remote mine sites. “We try to own up to our deficiencies and work hard to make good on fixing them,” Everingham says. Despite navigating the WA resources sector through three of the biggest challenges it has ever faced, Everingham says the biggest challenge during his four years at the CME was finding alignment across the organisation’s diverse membership base of 80 companies, from mining giants to junior explorers. “It’s complex, you rarely get 100 per cent alignment, you’re lucky if its 80 per cent,” he shares. “Sometimes it’s 50/50 which can be really hard.” Everingham cites WA’s hard border, Australia’s deteriorating relationship with China and the consumption of alcohol on sites as issues that drew diverse views from the CME’s members and were difficult to get agreement on. The 50-year-old has ruled out a tilt at politics despite his previous forays into the arena and his lineage as the son of the Northern Territory’s first chief minister. He says he will take a break and visit his parents in Queensland before formulating any plans for his future. But he has indicated his next step would involve entrepreneurial pursuits of some kind, which could keep him in WA or see him move interstate or even overseas. “I’ve always been entrepreneurial but I’m also not ruling anything out,” he says. Before starting at the chamber, Everingham was founder and chief executive of his own company, GRA Everingham, which is widely considered one of Perth’s most influential lobby groups with a client list that read like a “who’s who” of business. He remained at the helm for 10 years before selling the business to national advertising and marketing group Clemenger. Everingham subsequently accepted the role of chief executive at Perth agency Marketforce in 2017 but quickly discovered the advertising industry wasn’t for him. “It didn’t gel with me, so you learn from your mistakes and move on,” he says. His parents instilled in him the idea that he could do whatever he wanted to, but his father had also championed the wisdom of “failing fast” and nimbly changing career tack if circumstances demanded. Asked what advice he would give his successor, Everingham says it is crucial to remember that the CME is a member-based organisation and their interests have to come first. “That means park your ego at the door, because if you come here to get a profile and pick a fight with government, you need to explain how that’s going to benefit member companies,” he says. And in a tip for would-be managers, Everingham says it is crucial to let team members take responsibility and succeed in their individual roles. “If you’ve got good people working for you, you must give them the opportunity to perform,” he says. “Success will never be a one-man band.” Everingham has previously said that he believed four years in the role of an advocate was long enough. “Advocacy requires a dedication and commitment and passion and my first passion is business and entrepreneurship,” he says. “I’ve been away from it for four years and that’s long enough.” But the married father of two teenage girls said he left the job with no regrets. “I’ve had immense job satisfaction. I have never been prouder of work,” he says. “I’m proud of this organisation, of our industry and of this State. In five years time, after you remove all the noise and forget about borders and restrictions, we’ll look back and say ‘gee, Australia and WA handled COVID really well’.”