Communities are eroded by FIFO workers. While the resource boom has largely shielded Australia from the effects of a volatile global economy, the impact on regional communities has not been entirely positive.
Councils like Mt Isa in Queensland, Cooper Pedy in South Australia and Port Hedland in Western Australia are being inundated with large fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) populations.
Our cover story looks at how local governments are responding to the influx of these transient populations.
Several adverse impacts have already been examined in a report commissioned by the Western Australian Government’s Regional Development Council.
The first of these is economic drain. FIFO workers repatriate most of their income back
to their home region, causing significant economic leakage away from the region in which they work.
By comparison, resident workers spend more of their income locally to cover their living costs, particularly when they permanently relocate and bring family members with them.
This local spending creates a demand for new small businesses to be established. Residents are more likely to benefit from these small business opportunities than to find opportunities with large mining companies, which often centralise their purchasing activities in capital cities and do not use local services.
The second impact is labour supply. Resident workers often relocate with spouses, who bring professional skills, such as teaching or nursing, which may otherwise be difficult to attract to a regional area.
Unskilled or semi-skilled spouses can also make valuable contributions to lower-wage industries, such as hospitality, which have difficulty attracting and maintaining workers in regional areas. FIFO workers do not bring these workforce benefits.
The third impact is social. A growing resident workforce brings new community leaders and volunteers for local services, such as fire and ambulance, sporting clubs and associations.
FIFO workers do not participate in their host communities to the same extent because they identify more with their home communities.
As a consequence, regional areas are in danger of having their towns and communities eroded as they are over-run by transient populations.
