A promotional sign adorns a stage at a BHP Billiton function in central Sydney August 20, 2013. Australian shares edged 0.1 percent higher on Wednesday morning, as a mixed bag of earnings kept buyers in check with top miner BHP Billiton Ltd sliding after
A promotional sign adorns a stage at a BHP Billiton function in central Sydney August 20, 2013. Australian shares edged 0.1 percent higher on Wednesday morning, as a mixed bag of earnings kept buyers in check with top miner BHP Billiton Ltd sliding after its profits undershot forecasts, though a rebound in the banking sector helped support the market. BHP dropped 2.5 percent after it missed analysts' forecast in its full-year profit late on Tuesday and said it delayed production the $14 billion Canadian potash project. Picture taken August 20, 2013. Reuters/David Gray

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has not changed his decision on extending the BHP FIFO accommodation lease in Newman, in spite of several criticisms from his own party members and the local residents of the area.

Barnett stands with his decision and he still supports the Kurra Village plan to ensure shelter to the Mount Whaleback workers. The village will be a shelter for hundreds of fly-in, fly-out workers of the iron ore mine. To make sure the workers get a place to stay in, he has renewed the lease, extending the tenure to another 20 years with 1,200 beds available for the inhabitants.

The Liberals and the Nationals have, however, aligned to insist upon reducing the beds in the camps to 600. Long-time resident Paul Foster, popularly known as the “Grandad” of Newman, said that what BHP Billiton was doing differed from what it promised to do in the community meeting in early 2000s. He said that when the company put its camp there, the staff members said that they would hand it over to the town so that it could be used as a caravan park.

“I was chairman at St. John’s at the time, and they looked us straight in the eye and told us that,” Foster told the ABC. He has the documents from July 2004 that prove “village demobilisation” by mid-2007. “It is estimated that the village will be occupied for two and a half years,” the document read.

Shire of East Pilbara CEO Allen Cooper said that he believes that it is the social responsibility of BHP Billiton to provide more houses to the workers. In early November, Barnett defended himself and told parliament that the mining company have the obligation to build FIFO accommodation for its workers like the Kurra Village in Newman and extend its lease from time to time under its original 1964 state agreement.

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