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coVeR

Diggers and I felt like I hardly knew anyone
at first. You normally see the same
people there, but everywhere I went
diversity to had lots of younger brokers and
finance people and new faces. It
wasn’t the traditional ‘reunion’ con-
ference we’ve come to know at Dig-
gers.”
Pilbara Minerals Ltd managing
ncreased gender diversity director Ken Brinsden was widely
Iis a hot topic throughout the praised for dedicating a slide to the
industry and is only reinforced Australian Government’s “Unmute
Yourself” campaign in the middle of
at Diggers & Dealers where his presentation, drawing important
the main stage is dominated attention to the industry’s role in
by men and the evening stamping out disrespectful behav-
iour.
functions often feature “We are a better industry than a
scantily-clad waitstaff. lot of the behaviour that’s unfold-
ed in the last 12 months,” he
said. “I encourage you
all to work harder on
the culture in and
rganisers re- around our work-
Oported wom- force, in and
en made up 20% around our
of the 2,520 at- work sites, in
tendance with and around
a record six our camps.
women – in- “If you have
cluding ses- a dinosaur
sion chairs who hasn’t
Courtney Libby got with the
and Jane Tandy p r o gr a mm e ,
from event spon- don’t just im-
sors Canaccord mediately send
Genuity – appearing him down the road
on the main stage. because somebody
“This is my first time on else is going to pick up that
the podium of Diggers, but my same problem. If we’re going to
name is not Peter,” Westgold Resourc- get the other 50% of the gender balance
es Ltd chief executive Debbie Fullarton into our workforce, we’ve got to do it bet-
said, making reference to both her pre- ter than we’re doing today.”
decessor, the popular Peter Cook, and Gaines said it was important for the in-
previous comments by Gaines about the dustry to continue promoting its progres-
lack of women on the Diggers stage. “I sive culture.
am, however, proud to be representing “I don’t see any reason why women
women in mining as the CEO of a major shouldn’t want to work in the industry…
Australian gold company.” but of course we have to lead by exam-
Vermey said the atmosphere at this ple,” Gaines said.
year’s forum was more welcoming for “I think there’s a lot of good work that’s
women than previous iterations she had happening in the industry. There’s a lot
attended, suggesting historical reputa- of jobs that are very different to the jobs
tions of the conference were starting to of 10, 20 years ago…there’s plenty of
fade. opportunities.
“I definitely noticed a huge shift in the “Our goal at Fortescue is to have a
[side] functions that happen and were workforce that’s representative of the
not in areas where you could potentially population and the population isn’t 20%
be compromised by seeing skimpies,” women. Rather than setting targets, it’s
she said. “I did the whole Diggers with- just to have a workforce that is repre-
out seeing one and it was just as produc- sentative of the population.”
tive as it has ever been.
“I have been going for about 14 years

Page 26 SePTeMBeR 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT