CMPA Annual Report

GAVIN MOREIRA, CMPA Member Services Manager, provides a summary of the CMPA Annual Report.

Chairperson’s Report – Jason Comben

Following is a summary of the Chairperson’s report by Jason Comben prepared by Dr Elizabeth Gibson.

The most important set of issues confronting the Extractive Industries sector are the identification, security, and certainty of access to Victoria’s supply of extractive resources.

CMPA has continued to support and advocate for the construction material industry in 2022/23. One great success was advocating for Construction and Demolition waste recycling (undertaken by many Members) who were
facing $10s of millions in EPA Financial Assurances. After a number of meetings and site visits by EPA, where the sites demonstrated adequate controls, it was determined by EPA that the Financial Assurances would be $0.

Quarries Building Communities: A 30 second infomercial for the community had multiple airings in November 2022 on regional VIC 10, VIC BOLD and VIC PEACH reaching ~1.4 million viewers.

The CMPA has held five workshops / webinars totally 151 attendees. Also held, a first in Australia – training (delivered by Box Hill Institute) in the new unit RIIMEX303 – Conduct Local Geotechnical Risk control in surface operations.

Many thanks to Associate Members, Voting Members and Government Regulators who have provided expert speakers to these events.

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) remains a vital component of the sustainability and the employment risk profile attached to the extractive industries. All industry sector participants be they business management
colleagues, extractive and plant operation employees, mobile plant, haul, or highway truck drivers, who in many CMPA Member instances, are friends and relatives, rightly have the fundamental expectation they will return safely home from their day’s work.

The CMPA will strengthen its endeavours to work with Members, their employees and WorkSafe to continually improve safety in our workplaces through the development of necessary educative tools, training, consultation, and guidance such as Issue 2 of Working Safely with Geotechnical Risk in Quarries.

Guidelines produced by the CMPA are aimed at supporting Members to meet industry best practice and thereby improve both OHS practices and business sustainability.

The CMPA Secretariat continues to tirelessly represent Members’ interests to State and Federal Government on a broad range of industry related issues, copies of these submissions are available on www.cmpavic.asn.au.

• Ongoing and future State and Federal Governments’ Extractive Industries sector legislative reform issues that are forecast to occupy a substantial part of the Association’s effort in the ensuing year, include, but are not limited to:
• Mineral Resources Sustainable Development Amendment Bill 2023.
• Rehabilitation and the rehabilitation bond calculator.
• Simplification and cost reduction of Extractive Industries Work Plan approvals including a review of conditions in Work Plans and Planning Permits.
• Working with Government on Aboriginal Heritage information for Members.
• Advocating for separation of Extractive Industries (quarries) from the mining, coal mining and coal seam gas sectors in the Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act.
• Development of various submissions for Government Policies, Regulations and Codes of Practice that impact the future of the industry.

• Review and update the Work Safely Reference Manual.
• Development of:
° Environmental dust and environmental RCSDmanagement Guidelines.
° Greenhouse gas emission reduction in the construction material processors industry Guideline.
° Slimes Management Guideline review.
° Progressive rehabilitation Guidelines.
• Providing input to Department of Transport and Planning on a range of strategic issues such as introduction of recycled materials where fit for purpose and freight transport.

Editable versions of the CMPA guidelines are provided free to Members via your login in the Members Area of the CMPA website and pdf copies can be viewed / downloaded by the community also via the CMPA website.

We continue to advocate for the entire construction materials industry with specific focus on the needs of our CMPA members, both voting and associates. The CMPA attends numerous forums, events, workshops and meetings with politicians, bureaucrats and other stake holders making detailed submissions, valuable contributions, providing advice and insight. Like a swan on a pond, above the water line is calm and graceful but below the water there’s a lot of activity going on.

Finally, thank you to the Management Committee and Associate Member Committee for the contribution of their valuable time and the continual support of all CMPA Members.

Associate Chairperson’s Report – Jason Rudge

It was encouraging to see our industry remain strong throughout the year. Global supply and labour constraints have continued to challenge associates and members alike. This coupled with the high demand for products and services had all of us chasing our tail. The continued partnership between our Voting Members and Associates has seen all of us continue our businesses with some confidence. The associates are very proud to continue supporting the privately owned businesses represented by the CMPA.

Our Associate Members continue to sponsor and attend the various Training programs run by the CMPA in the regional areas – whilst the working landscape has changed somewhat. Face to face catch ups continue to be popular and still have overwhelming benefits for Voting Members and Associates alike to share experiences and network.

Virtual Training certainly has its benefits and can help reduce the amount of travel for our large and diverse Member base. It goes without saying that we have still been able to facilitate high quality interactions among attendees, with many business opportunities being covered off. Moving forward, we should continue using a mixture of face to face and virtual based workshops as part of the new world we live in.

The increasing presence of the CMPA on LinkedIn has also provided the Association with an excellent platform for both media releases and articles of interest. This area has seen a significant growth in recent times and will continue to do so moving forward.

The increasing presence of the CMPA on LinkedIn continues to provide the Association with an excellent platform for both media releases and articles of interest. With the additional launch of Facebook and Instagram pages, the CMPA continues to try and reach a wider and diverse audience. This area has seen a significant growth in recent times and will continue to do so moving forward.

The CMPA website re-development, the first since 2014 is exciting. It continues to push the strong message of the Extractive industry and the value it offers our communities. This, in conjunction with the ‘Quarries Build Communities’ TV commercial in Regional Victoria will hopefully allow local residents to better understand quarries and value the opportunities having resources close by provides.
We congratulate the CMPA on embracing change and becoming more visible.

As we all know, our Preferred Supplier & General Information Reference Manual is a very informative source of information, covering Associates product and service offerings. It is a popular booklet with the operations team of the Voting Members. With this in mind, please note that it remains the responsibility of the Associates to highlight their presence in the booklet during their site visits – to facilitate in-the-group product sourcing.

I would like to take this opportunity to formally thank the Associates Committee and non-committee members for their attendance at our meetings, constructive participation, efforts to address topical industry issues, ideas sharing (on progressing our purpose) and providing a good think tank to represent the views and expectations of our Associates.

My special thanks go to our dedicated team of Dr. Elizabeth Gibson, Gavin Moreira, Sarah Andrew and April Everitt for their unwavering support throughout the year.

I would also like to record my personal thanks to each and every member of the CMPA Management Committee, and the Associates Committee. Together, we continue to work in cohesion and tackle issues with a common purpose – to make our industry better.

Thank you for making the role of Associate Chairperson a pleasurable one.

Education Committee Report – Dr Elizabeth Gibson

CMPA has continued to maintain its representation of members’ education and training requirements to government, peak training bodies, RTOs and other industry organisations.

A number of educational events by CMPA were conducted throughout 2022/23:
• Working Safely with Geotechnical Risk in Quarries, Service & Maintenance – Fixed Plant, Safety Management Systems and RCSD Management workshops
• Drug & Alcohol Policy and Financial Management webinars

The Mining and Automotive Skills Alliance has commenced with Dr Elizabeth Gibson appointed to the Strategic Workforce Advisory Panel for RII – Resources and Infrastructure Industry Training Package (Federal VET Education).

The Future

The Secretariat is planning to hold workshops and training in:
• August 2023: Cyber Security and Data Management Webinar
• October 2023: Legal Management Webinar
• November 2023: Slimes Management Workshop

Treasurer’s Report – John Pititto

With the 2022/23 finacial year coming to an end I am pleased to present my Treasurer’s report on the Audited Financial Statements for the CMPA.

The association has seen a increase in total operating costs for the year compared to last year, the increase in expenses was related to the annual dinner costs.

Total Income was up on last year. This increase in revenue is manly due to the CMPA able to host the annual dinner event and an increase in publication advertising. The major source of income was membership subscriptions, with contributions from meetings and events, newsletter advertising and operator document sales.

Employment expenses were the single largest expense in the period. This covered one full time employee and two part time employees. Other expenses included publications, consultants and the cost of holding meetings and events.

The CMPA has and will continue to assist our members by allocating significant funds to provide support and legislative guidence to hopefully ease some of these burdens going forward. These funds will be used to continue to support members of the CMPA and to be a vocal voice in the industry.

We would also like to recoginise all the asscociate members that continue to be part of the CMPA and are still willing to support the association through membership renewals for the upcoming year.

Secretariat’s Report – Sarah Andrew

The Secretariat enjoyed another stable year, with Elizabeth, Gavin and April continuing in their respective roles and bringing great benefit to the Association and its Members.

Likewise, the support provided by Members to the Secretariat is greatly appreciated and we look forward to your continued support, welcoming others who may be able to assist.

Elizabeth and Gavin have continued representing the CMPA on the various bodies. Gavin attends the Earth Resources Tripartite Safety Committee (Chaired by WorkSafe Victoria). Elizabeth invests considerable time and energy representing the CMPA to Ministers, Shadow Ministers, advisers and senior public servants; and in particular the following committees:

• Earth Resources Regulation Industry Reference Group and associated working groups focused on resolving issues arising from the introduction of the risk-based work plan, Resource Management System Vic, Public Reporting. Unfortunately, work plan approvals remain low with the tonnages of construction materials approved per annum not yet published by ERR.
• Extractive Strategy Taskforce which is focused on ensuring the security of access to construction materials.
• Heavy Vehicle Consultation Group to advise The Hon Ben Carroll MP – Minister for Public Transport, Minister for Roads and Road Safety and The Hon Melissa Horne MP – Minister for Ports and Freight on Victorian freight issues.
• Chair of the Extractive Industry Reference Committee (Federal VET Education).

A limited number of site visits took place 2022/23, however, more frequent phone calls have been made to Members and Elizabeth is keeping everyone updated.

Information Flow
Sand & Stone continues to be the primary communication tool of the CMPA, keeping Members informed. Our thanks is extended to the designers at Newspaper House in Kilmore and publishers at Enviroprintgroup. We of course extend our sincerest thanks to Sand & Stone’s many contributors, especially those who present articles for every edition; and those Associates who advertise making the magazine possible.

CMPA Updates via Mailchimp have been distributed throughout the year keeping recipients informed of recent incidents that have occurred across the state, nation and internationally to improve the state of knowledge in the industry and upcoming events.

LinkedIn has received considerable attention this year, with the Secretariat making regular posts on the CMPA’s account. Other social media accounts have been created including Facebook and Instagram. All Members were invited to follow the CMPA earlier this year and we acknowledge those who chose to.

I would like to again highlight the essential support received by the CMPA from our valued Associate Members whose continued support is greatly appreciated. We cannot stress how much this assists the association and I would again ask Voting Members in return to use the skills of our Associate Members when possible.

Membership
Membership numbers over the last financial year dropped as several Members enacted exit strategies due to the onerous requirements of ERR and referral authorities not being conducive to their continuing in the marketplace. The Secretariat is determined to ensure the industry’s future composition will not be characterised by a decline in small to medium businesses.

We thank all our Members for their continued support and look forward to working with them over the coming year.

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