Social
At GeelongPort we are committed to identifying and managing business impacts on people. By creating a prosperous, safe and stable business we can contribute to the local economy, employ locally and provide good working conditions.
Worker health and safety and stakeholder relations continue to be critical social topics in our latest materiality assessment.
In FY24, we progressed our Diversity Equity and Inclusion Roadmap commitments and became a Work180 endorsed workplace for all women. We also provided mental health first aid training for all people leaders and health and safety representatives, launched our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan and achieved satisfactory Community Sentiment Survey results indicating our role in the community is mostly seen as valuable.
CASE STUDY:
Spirit of Tasmania brings $21 million tourism boost
On the first anniversary of Spirit of Tasmania’s arrival at GeelongPort in October 2023, economic data showed that the service brought a $21 million tourism boost to the Greater Geelong and Bellarine region.
Spirit of Tasmania’s move has also brought 750 direct and indirect jobs to the region across tourism and freight, and data highlighted visitor expenditure exceeded initial projections of $57.3 million by 2030.
The move to Geelong has been a resounding success for the region, with a record number of passengers, 450,012, sailing and passing through the terminal during the 2022-23 financial year.
Mobility data showed that visitors who arrived via Spirit of Tasmania tended to stay longer in the Geelong region, ventured further, and spent more generously than average visitors.
Over 12 months, overnight visitors spent approximately $2.3 million, while day trip passengers injected $18.7 million.
GeelongPort’s development of Spirit of Tasmania Quay is an excellent example of a local business rejuvenating a blank canvas in the north of Geelong into a world-class tourism precinct. It provides an insightful case study for other companies exploring opportunities in regional centres.
CASE STUDY:
BLACK SWAN Testing our team’s emergency response
Emergency exercises are vital to test an organisation’s capability to manage emergency events.
In October 2023, a range of stakeholders participated in ‘Exercise Black Swan’ to evaluate GeelongPort’s emergency management protocols in response to a simulated protestor incident.
Developed collaboratively via an Exercise Planning Group (EPG), the desktop exercise delved into various strategic risks such as asset and infrastructure damage, injury and negative media coverage.
The exercise engaged GeelongPort’s Emergency Management Team (EMT), executive team, wardens, and external stakeholders, including Ports Victoria, port users and the port’s new security supplier, to test a range of interfaces and interdependencies.
As custodians of critical infrastructure, we must protect people, the environment and our business. The GeelongPort team demonstrated that it had incorporated improvement opportunities from previous exercises into its systems, and appropriate risk mitigations and controls were in place to prevent a vast array of risks, including intruders and protesters.
The exercise tested GeelongPort’s working relationships with stakeholder organisations, which will be invaluable if required during future emergencies.
Several opportunities for improvement were identified and implemented, further reinforcing the port’s commitment to continuous improvement and emergency management.
GeelongPort demonstrated an established risk and emergency management system protecting the port, its people, its users, and the community.
CASE STUDY:
Improving team mental health awareness
Throughout May 2024, all GeelongPort people leaders and health and safety representatives completed the Mental Health First Aid International course with Jules Haddock from The Anxious Bird.
Most people are familiar with the idea of physical first aid courses, and Mental Health First Aid training adopts a similar approach.
Using a practical, skills-based action plan, participants learn the skills to recognise and respond to someone experiencing a mental health problem or mental health crisis, until professional help is received, or the crisis resolves.
The training provided insight and tools for how to best support someone dealing with anxiety, depression, psychosis or substance abuse.
Mental Health First Aiders play a vital role in reducing stigma and promoting pathways to support for those experiencing mental health problems in our workplaces, communities, schools, and tertiary institutions.
GeelongPort annually supports R U OK? Day and will offer mental health awareness sessions to all staff throughout FY25.
CASE STUDY:
Critical support to save local organisation
In late 2023, GeelongPort partnered with the Give Where You Live Foundation to lead a fundraising campaign to raise $75,000 for Northern Futures, a not-for-profit organisation that was facing closure.
Northern Futures provides pre-employment training, foundational skills development and mentoring for Norlane and Corio residents, where the unemployment rate is almost three times greater than the state figure.
These funds sustained Northern Futures until the end of the 2023-24 financial year, allowing them time to partner with another Geelong organisation and shore up the sustainability of their services.
CASE STUDY:
Families embrace pedal power
In January, GeelongPort partnered with worldrenowned cyclist and Australia’s only Tour de France winner, Cadel Evans, to sponsor the internationally recognised Great Ocean Road Race 2024 Family Ride.
As part of our commitment to the local community where we work, live and play, the free event focused on bike riding at every level, not just for elite cyclists.
Pedal Power was in full force with more than 700 people descending on the Geelong waterfront for the GeelongPort Family Ride along 1.3km of the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race track.
People of all ages took part in the ride, from Cadel and his children to parents pushing babies in prams and parents and grandparents riding alongside youngsters on bikes, training wheels and scooters.
In line with our commitment to renewable energy, GeelongPort supplied pedalpowered blender bikes so children could make themselves a delicious smoothie.
On the Sunday, six young riders joined Cadel Evans for the GeelongPort lead out to kick off the Elite Men’s Race.
The GeelongPort Family Ride is focused on health and wellbeing in the community and creating benefits for the local region – two things we believe in as an organisation.
GeelongPort was proud to partner with an incredible international event showcasing our unique region to the rest of Australia and the world.
CASE STUDY:
Celebrating women in our local community
With a commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a critical day on the GeelongPort calendar each year is International Women’s Day.
The International Women’s Day 2024 theme was Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress.
While important progress has been made, women face significant obstacles to achieving equal participation in the economy. When women are given equal opportunities to earn, learn and lead – entire communities thrive.
On International Women’s Day, GeelongPort invited local school student and City of Greater Geelong Junior Mayor, Hteemoo, to speak about her experience fleeing a refugee camp in Burma. She shared her journey of living in Australia and being guided by extraordinary, courageous, strong women – her grandmother, Mum and Aunts.
Every day, Hteemoo Yohellaymusaw is driven by seeing her mother becoming a leader in the community and creating change for other women.
Another critical initiative from our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion roadmap is a commitment to social procurement. Throughout the year, GeelongPort supported a range of social enterprises that provide catering services, including the Lotus Kitchen at Cloverdale Community Centre.
Issara Saeyim created Lotus Kitchen to help women from many backgrounds, including refugees, connect with local support services and build relationships with other people in the northern suburbs of Geelong. In addition to corporate catering, every Thursday, the team of volunteers come together to cook affordable Thai meals for the local community.
It was fitting for Lotus Kitchen to provide flavoursome catering for our International Women’s Day event. We were proud to extend our commitment to Lotus Kitchen by donating a freezer to support its operations too.
CASE STUDY:
Supporting wellbeing and safety at local Men’s Shed
During 2023, GeelongPort employees voted on a community initiative they would like to sponsor, with the result overwhelmingly in support of our local Men’s Shed.
Research shows that men can be reluctant to talk about their emotions, and they usually don’t ask for help. The Men’s Shed movement has become one of the most powerful tools in addressing health and wellbeing and helping reduce the number of men who are at risk from preventable health issues that may emanate from isolation, loneliness and depression.
Men’s Sheds are for older men from all walks of life to gather and keep busy by building and tinkering with woodwork. Some men attend for the social connection, whereas others are engaged in building projects.
In early 2024, several GeelongPort team members met with members at the Geelong Community Men’s Shed in Norlane to discuss ways GeelongPort can support their activities, now and into the future.
Their group informed us they have long wanted to purchase a new timber saw for their workshop to improve the safety of their members.
GeelongPort provided a $2,000 sponsorship to help subsidise the cost of this large piece of equipment, and it allowed the Men’s Shed to purchase and install it by May 2024.
GeelongPort is now exploring ways we can continue to support the Geelong Community Men’s Shed into the future, with a focus on mental health initiatives.
CASE STUDY:
Reconciliation next steps – Our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan
GeelongPort has made it a priority to meaningfully contribute to advancing reconciliation in Australia through the adoption of a Reconciliation Action Plan and develop deep and meaningful relationships with Traditional Owners.
We partnered with the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC) to better understand, appreciate and respect the Traditional Owner history and cultural heritage values of our port land and waters, and to ensure we are taking a Caring for Country approach to everything we do.
We have done this by establishing GeelongPort’s second Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), our Innovate RAP.
The plan has guided the activity we have carried out, with a key focus on employee engagement and education, truth telling and learning from Traditional Owners about the history of Wadawurrung Country.
Since establishing the strong relationship with the WTOAC and working through our RAP, GeelongPort has been able to quickly implement many small but significant activities within the business to grow awareness and education about our Traditional Owner history and the importance of reconciliation in Australia.
Over the past 12 months, we have celebrated a number of achievements. Incredible Wadawurrung artwork was installed at our Security Gate and we supported NAIDOC Week, Pilk Purriyn and Reconciliation Week. We also continue to learn from Traditional Owners about how we can best contribute to reconciliation in our region, and more broadly in Australia, and we carry out employee engagement activities around this.