Take part in the Local Voices Community Survey to help inform Port Waratah Coal Services about your local community concerns and opportunities. The short 5-10-minute survey is open now until 14 April and focuses on understanding community views on key operational, environmental and investment aspects.

Built from a foundation with CSIRO, the survey is conducted independently by Voconiq, a data science, research and community engagement company that bridges the gap between communities and companies.

Newcastle residents are invited to have your say on our operations, employment and economic contributions, environmental performance and impacts, and our community engagement activities.

CEO of Port Waratah, Hennie du Plooy said the Local Voices survey helps us listen to community needs and expectations and has been a significant part of our community engagement since 2018.

“Last year, over 1,100 surveys were completed with more than 800 comments from participants. This is incredibly valuable to us. We want to thank everyone who took part and invite them to participate in this year’s survey.

“The survey results are used to strategically shape our operations, informing our decisions and building in greater improvement opportunities that ensure we understand and strive to meet stakeholder expectations to perform better in the short, medium and long term.

“Already, the comments from last year have informed us of local views on economic contributions and climate change, and we in the process of reviewing our strategies to further reduce our emissions footprint by investigating new technologies, efficiencies and energy alternatives.

Voconiq has been conducting the independent survey for the last two years following on from CSIRO. Co-founder and CEO of Voconiq, Dr Kieren Moffat, says the continuation of the community survey across multiple years allows Port Waratah to track trends in community views.

“The Local Voices survey results show trends in community and stakeholder opinions, clearly demonstrating positive or negative changes, or maintaining sentiment, over time, which allows the company to see where they are improving and where to respond and make improvements.”

“There is enormous value for communities in being heard by the companies that work alongside them. Through Local Voices, portside community members and people in the broader Newcastle area are directly influencing how Port Waratah thinks about its operations, plans for the future and invests locally,” said Dr Moffat.

Survey results have highlighted investment in Health community projects as the top priority area for the community, which has influenced greater investment through our Community Investment and Partnership Programme with more than $419,000 committed to health projects over the last two years. The Youth Sport in Portside Suburbs programme was developed as a direct result of the Local Voices Community Survey and has provided more than $50,000 to junior sporting clubs over the same time. We’ve also provided greater access to independent air quality information and attuned our range of communication methods to meet the preferences of the community and other stakeholders, encouraging two-way communication through traditional and digital platforms, all thanks to the feedback provided through the survey.

Click here to take part in the survey.