WA mining sector sexual misconduct: Resources Minister Madeleine King angered by shocking report

Resources Minister Madeleine King has expressed “anger” and called for “strong action” following the release of a landmark report into women being raped and sexually harassed on WA’s mine sites. Ms King said she now expected female fly-in, fly-out workers outside of WA to come forward with similar stories to the horrific details heard by the WA parliamentary inquiry. Although the Brand MP has not been told of any allegations in other States and Territories, she said if powerplay behaviour was happening in WA’s resources sector, it would be happening elsewhere. The parliamentary report, released on Thursday, listed 24 recommendations for the State Government and industry to consider and implement to improve the toxic FIFO workplaces for women. “Strong action needs to be taken. Don’t doubt how angry I am about this,” Ms King told The West Australian on Friday. “I’m the first female Resources Minister and I’m always going to speak up when I hear about women being hurt on worksites anywhere in the country in any industry, but particularly the one I have some responsibility for.” Ms King said the parliamentary inquiry would be the “catalyst for more reporting” of sexual misconduct in the industry nationwide. “(This) is really good but a shame it has to take these kind of inquiries,” she said. “Sadly, it’s not just this workplace. We know in Parliament House — the abuse that happened in the place where I work and that was deeply distressing to know what was going on and this is the same for this industry and probably others as well.” Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins went public last year with claims she was raped in the office of WA Senator Linda Reynolds in Canberra in 2019. When asked if Ms King would support a blacklist of FIFO workers accused or convicted of sexual assaults — one of the recommendations in the report — she said she would be open to it but wanted to go over all the details. The register would stop sacked perpetrators from job-hopping in the industry. Data from May showed Australia’s mining sector employs about 52,500 women in its record-strong workforce of 302,600 people — that’s 18.9 per cent. The Productivity Commission in 2020 estimated that FIFO workers represented 63 per cent of the WA mining workforce, which is significantly higher than other States. The inquiry in WA, headed by deputy liberal leader Libby Mettam, was told women accounted for 74 per cent of mining workers who reported sexual harassment at work. Ms King said mining companies needed to look at gender quotas to end the bloke culture. “We need more women doing more of the things that we’ve traditionally thought were men’s jobs, but they’ve got to want to do them,” she said. “Right now if you were a young woman at school and you read this report, or your parents are talking about it, you go ‘I don’t know if I really want to go work as a trades assistant or learn to be a mechanic working on a mine site’. “The work to diversify the mining industry has to start at an earlier age.”