Adelaide most competitive place to do business

Who would have thought

 

BHP wants to employ 350 more people at its Olympic Dam mine with diverse talents

Ms McGill said she and other business leaders would be visiting the Holden plant next week and BHP was keen to talk to Holden workers looking for their next opportunity.


BHP wants to employ 350 more people at its Olympic Dam mine in Far North South Australia in coming months, and boss Jacqui McGill has urged people to rethink their traditional image of a “miner” and consider applying.

The company is forging ahead with its expansion into the Southern Mine Area at the copper, gold and uranium mine, and Ms McGill, Olympic Dam’s asset president, said the company was looking for people with “transferable skills” who could be trained up to enter the resources sector.

She also stressed that mining was now a diverse and hi-tech industry with various roles, and the company was looking for what it called “transferable skills”.

“We’ve got some great examples of transferable skills in industries in South Australia,’’ Ms McGill said.

“Very obvious to us is there’s a lot of people with manufacturing backgrounds,

“There’s people with trades skills, people who are focused on doing work safely and to a high standard. We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in our operations, infrastructure and people so it’s a very exciting time to join the BHP Olympic Dam team.

“Around half the current open roles will support new production from the mine’s high-grade Southern Mine Area which is central to Olympic Dam’s future growth.’’

Ms McGill also encouraged women to apply, with BHP committing last year to a 50-50 gender split by 2025.

The company also wanted to encourage people in the Upper Spencer Gulf region to apply for what could be drive-in, drive-out roles.

“We are asking for people who want to work safely, they want to be an effective employee and part of powering the world.

“And if they fit that mindset and that criteria we’d love to talk to them. For us it’s about bringing diversity of thinking and diversity of background to really help Olympic Dam prosper.’’

Ms McGill said the new employees would be brought on over the next few months and people interested in applying could get more details by looking up “Work With Us” on the BHP website.

Superintendent Geology at Olympic Dam, Sarah Chinner, said she had worked at the mine since 2005 and had found it a “positive and inclusive environment’’.

“Like any profession there are challenges, such as remote locations, commuting, or working on a roster, but mining is so rewarding,’’ Ms Chinner said.

“There are so many opportunities for career advancement and personal growth.

“I know there is still somewhat of a stigma around mining that it’s a ‘blokes only’ environment but I have never felt as though I wasn’t welcome, and the gender equality progression in recent years is seeing more women in mining than ever before.’’

Ms McGill said she and other business leaders would be visiting the Holden plant next week and BHP was keen to talk to Holden workers looking for their next opportunity.

 

The State Government’s soon to be operational venture capital fund aims for the Sky

As pasted from the Advertiser:

BRISBANE-based investment group Blue Sky is believed to be the front runner for the management role of the State Government’s $50 million venture capital fund.

The company is understood to now be finalising official documentation in preparation for a launch prior to July 1.

Despite Blue Sky’s headquarters being in Brisbane, it has a strong South Australian connection, including a Gawler Place office. University of Adelaide-educated Elaine Stead heads up its venture capital division, while Kain Lawyers founder John Kain has been chair of Blue Sky’s ASX-listed Alternative Investments entity since 2011.

A spokeswoman for Blue Sky declined to comment, while Innovation Minister Kyam Maher said only that the State Government was progressing through the process and that the fund was on schedule to commence operation prior to July 1.

The fund’s co-investment model will see public money invested alongside private funds. Local early-stage companies will be the focus, while interstate operators who relocate to SA will also be eligible.

Building relationships between local companies and venture managers is also a key focus of the fund.

 

Gina Rinehart‘s Hancock Prospecting looking to export cattle out of Adelaide to China

Paul Starick, The Advertiser
June 8, 2017 8:31pm
LIVE export of thousands of cattle a year from Adelaide is being planned by Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart as part of a multi-million dollar deal with Chinese firms.
Mrs Rinehart, the principal owner of Adelaide-based pastoral company S. Kidman & Co,
has agreed to ship 150,000 cattle, worth about $230 million into China a year, mainly from Darwin.
But it is understood Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, which has struck the deal, is hoping to export from Adelaide for about five months a year when the northern wet season complicates cattle transport.
More than 18,000 cattle were exported through Outer Harbor last year, according to figures from Meat and Livestock Australia.
Hancock Prospecting is understood to be in talks with the State Government, arguing it is a major opportunity but also bracing for criticism about the live exports.
Initial plans revealed last month had not involved Adelaide but the prospect is significant, given plans to expand the annual live export total to 300,000 head of cattle.
The Adelaide option is being pushed in a bid to safeguard the supply routes to China during the wet season by trucking cattle from southwestern Queensland’s Durham Downs station to Adelaide via the Strezlecki Track.
The state Primary Industries Department website says a live export market has developed in recent years in Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia, but the distance from SA’s southern ports has made this relatively uneconomical for local cattle.

But more than 110,000 sheep were exported through Adelaide last year, indicating a lucrative industry despite animal cruelty protests.
Mrs Rinehart’s Kidman co-owner, Chinese firm Shanghai CRED, in February, sent the inaugural live shipment of 1200 cattle to China from Portland, in western Victoria.
Mrs Rinehart became Kidman’s principal owner in December last year, paying $386.5 million in a joint venture with Shanghai CRED, which has a 33 per cent stake.

Kidman has three properties in South Australia, with a listed capacity of 24,500 head of cattle and total area of more than 22,000 sq km.
The largest is 13,552 sq km Innamincka station, in SA’s northeast, while the smallest is the 17 sq km Tungali Feedlot, east of the Barossa Valley.

 

Cloud company expands in Adelaide

as pasted from 7 news:

An IT company focused on cloud technology is expanding its Adelaide operations, creating dozens of jobs, with help from a state government grant.
PrimeQ says it will establish an innovation centre, 24/7 support hub and graduate program in the city that will create 72 jobs over the next three years.
The South Australian government is supporting the move with a $500,000 grant from its Investment Attraction South Australia agency.
The company was established last year and currently employs 86 people in offices across Australia and New Zealand, including Adelaide.
PrimeQ chief executive Andrew McAdams says the new Adelaide projects will help the company find more global clients and provide better services to them.
It will also support SA's growing reputation for digital industries, he says.
I want my own children to have technology career opportunities here in South Australia," he said in a statement.
Investment Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith says the new graduate program will be "particularly exciting".
"It represents a rare pathway for students to advance to senior ranks in highly skilled careers here," he said in a statement.
In its first year, PrimeQ's customers have included Heinz, Pacific Brands, Parliament of Victoria and the Queensland University of Technology.

 

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/busin...s/news-story/8581f4a36eb8ba99dc93fdb03fdb08e8 SA to become a tax haven for commercial IP investors

 

love this thread - its a major case of he said she said

 

Business SA: Our multi-generational relationship with France will create an abundance of opportunities

WHEN you deal with very large numbers in the abstract, it often feels unreal.

Fifty billion dollars worth of French designed submarines, hundreds of millions of dollars in new infrastructure, thousands of jobs, over a hundred French families moving across the world to Adelaide, and decades of guaranteed work for generations of South Australians doesn’t yet feel tangible to much of our community.

The backbone of the SA economy is small to medium sized enterprises and small employers (SMEs). These opportunities seem particularly unreal to those SMEs which can see all of this as being reserved for the “big end of town” and the multinationals.

It would be a tragedy to resign yourself to that view.

Real opportunities are already beginning to appear in areas like retail, tourism, culture, the arts and education.

And the green shoots of SME opportunities are encouraging. The Adelaide CBD’s new French Quarter around Gresham St will be a boon to restaurants and retailers alike who are visionary enough to get on board early. Those like La Buvette and Mississippi Moon.

Education is one of our biggest export earners and we just opened up a new frontier of opportunity which is being seized by progressive schools like Highgate School and Unley High School creating a full French curriculum.

What’s also commendable is how those schools are collaborating to achieve better outcomes together than they could apart.

These are just the very beginning of SME opportunities that are going to grow from this long-term relationship with France, French companies, French families and French visitors.

And we are going to see things start to happen that we haven’t seen before in SA.

For example, today, for the first time in Adelaide, the French Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is running a sold out national business forum: Australia 2030 — A Role Model for a Sustainable World sponsored by global French company Schneider Electric.

It’s not just that our new global importance to French industry has attracted this event, it’s that the program and participants themselves reflect the very range of opportunities and the sectors that will benefit.

These include sectors as diverse as professional services firms, local government, defence technology and innovation, universities, French technology companies, French construction and infrastructure companies, including global leader Bouyges Construction, and so on.

There’s also a whole presentation by a French sea innovation cluster and discussions around the transfer of technology.

 

Westpac's Hartzer rethinks SA investment

 

Other states will follow now. Can’t help themselves. This is not going to end well for a nation hoping to attract business investment and wanting to boost employment opportunities.

In today’s Fin Review (p47) BCA head Westacott was quoted as saying “The Turnbull government must bear responsibility for letting the genie out of the bottle. Australia is becoming a laughing stock of global investment circles as erratic governments – state, territory and federal – carelessly undermine and chop and change the rules of doing business”.

In the story journalist Phillip Coorey noted “Politics is becoming less about trying to grow the pie than a mad dash to devour what’s left”.
I absolutely agree. We need better leadership and a willingness from all levels of government to adopt smarter taxation policies. Won’t hold my breath though.

 

genuinely interested but what do people think of the new SA bank levy?

 

The Banks will charge higher fee to their customers to cover it.

If you combine this with the highest electricity costs in Aus; jobs will be leaving in droves.

 

Couldnt agree more, imo we have had no real economic reform of substance in Australlia since the keating era. There has been a mentallity of growth through reduction. From Howard/Reith trying to drive down wages and conditions through workchoices, to Abbott/Hockey attempting to draw blood out of a stone via cuts to the lowest of the socioeconomic spectrum. It is time the libs abonden economic policy on the 70s Thatcherite ideology they have been clinging to since Hewsons fightback. (It was my hope Turnbull would be the turning point on this and would adopt a reformist agenda. Its a shame and a missed opportunity on his behalf).

I have noticed recently the Ato have been running national ads about closing tax loopholes. i am assuming this is regarding the cracking down on companies involved in BEPS by the G20. If so this is long overdue and a crucial reform.

As for the banks, Tom has made the argument that the banks are undertaxed. Personally i am not sure of this, or where we stand in comparison internationally on this? If we were to hold an RC into the banks could taxation be part of the agenda or is this something that sits outside of the RC framework?

 

Looks like banks will be treated like the next ATM now that the miners are on a slippery slope downwards.

 

First of 50 electric busses rolls off production line, with 75 more jobs to come as production scales up.

First Australian-made electric bus rolls off production line in Northern Adelaide - Look North

 

Adelaide Gigcity.

Adelaide businesses soon to have super-fast internet - Manufacturers' Monthly

Adelaide is already well placed to upgrade its internet infrastructure after becoming the first city outside of the United States to join Smart City initiator and internet application development organisation US Ignite.

It was also named Australia’s first Lighthouse City by Cisco.

French industrial giant to open Adelaide office

“I think that Australia is facing an interesting moment,” he said. “Your industry has to change: this is an opportunity more than a weakness.”

The closure of the car industry is a signal of this change.


French industrial giant to open Adelaide office - InDaily

 

South Australia teams with Tesla, Neoen to build world's biggest lithium ion battery in bid to secure power

To be built in 100 days or its free!

South Australia teams with Tesla, Neoen to build world's biggest lithium ion battery in bid to secure power - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

Generator for sale/lease/hire...going cheap.

 

I know SMB is what adelaide is all about. Its a small place itself...however, if adelaide is to light a fire and go places, it will need much bigger players than 2016 established PrimeQs of this world- with all respect to adelaide and Prime Q.

 

Coulda just kept the coal power stations open and saved a huge amount of time, cost and "energy" (sorry for the pun).