THE Esperance Ports Sea and Land is in for some significant changes over the next month.
With a new CEO due to be announced in the coming weeks, the EPSL is also set to announce a new Port board chairman in time for its February board meeting, after Jim Matijasevich retired from the position last week.
Prior to entering his final board meeting last Thursday morning, Mr Matijasevich sat down with the Esperance Express to share his thoughts on a number of issues – including the recent industrial action, the port transport corridor, and the lead and nickel issues.
On his retirement:
“Primarily it is for family reasons. My family are all overseas.
“I have spent the last three years organising my life around board meetings.
“It has been a fairly tough few years, but now the Port is in a position for growth.
“I’d like to thank my fellow board members, the staff and workforce at the port, and the Esperance community for all their cooperation in the last few years, and I’d like to assure everyone that things are back on a pretty even keel.
“With a new CEO coming on board soon, the Port has a lot to look forward to.”
On the Port transport corridor:
“The development of the Port in the future is looking great, but one issue of concern is the Port transport corridor.
“This really needs the support of the community.
“With the coming on of woodchips, Galaxy Mining and others, by 2011 there could be a truck crossing into the Port every 2.5 minutes. This could make getting from one end of town to the other very impractical.
“The Federal government has allocated $60 million to the project, but now we are waiting for other funds and for Main Roads to initiate the plan.
“We would really like community support on this.
“Benefits to the community include decreased traffic congestion and less noise.
“Because we will have a bridge over the train track, we won’t need to cut the trains in half to get them into the Port, so there will be less trains.
“It will make it easier to get around town.
“The plans are all done, it is just a matter of getting the State Government and Main Roads involved.”
On the recent strike action:
“The Esperance Port is the only large port in WA that is vertically integrated. We do all our own work, and sub-contract out very little.
“We think it is incumbent on us to try and retain this structure for the benefit of the community workforce.
“The commercial reality means there will have to be some adjustments by the workforce to maintain this, but if an agreement cannot be reached, we may need to move to subcontractors.
“This means the Port would only maintain a core of 22 staff.
“We employ around 110 workers, so that would have an impact on the local economy.
“We want to avoid that.
“We want the workforce to work with us for their benefit and the benefit of the whole community.”
On lead and nickel:
“The issue of nickel at the Esperance Port is very much under control.
“Significant expenditure has been put in place and we now have the world’s best practice for monitoring pollution.
“We have apologised for our part in the lead contamination, but I have always been disappointed that others we felt contributed to the contamination have not apologised.
“The Golder Report that was recently released – the Department of Environment and Conservation has had that in their possession since before the court case. If they had released that information they could have really helped us out.”
Mr Matijasevich said a changeover period would take place during February, and expected the new CEO and new chairman would be in place in time for the February board meeting.
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