Change the game with seafarer support, PPA boss says

PILBARA Ports chief executive Sam McSkimming says there is a need to “change the game” when providing support services to visiting seafarers.

Addressing the Wellbeing at Sea Conference 2026, Mr McSkimming also spoke about the new Port Hedland Seafarers Centre which is under construction to replace an existing centre that is more than half a century old.

The new centre is to fulfill several roles, including providing support to visiting seafarers, as well as a site for commerce and as a  tourist attraction.

PPA provides extensive support to the centre but Mr McSkimming said this was not about charity.

“That centre [will do] nothing without an organisation that can tenant it and provide services. There are many 'white elephants' [in the world] that get built because people think the building is enough,” he said.

“But what we really wanted to do with our local initiative is ‘change the game’.

“Why would we build a $21m facility and then put in a non-profit entity that is subject continually to the vagaries of chance in terms of whether the mining industry is generous enough to provide funding,” Mr McSkimming said.

“That doesn’t work, that makes no sense, how can that organisation plan and grow? How can it consistently deliver services?”

He said the PPA was funding the launch service to provide shore leave, but more importantly, they had sought to change the thinking around seafarer services at port.

“And notice I don't say ‘seafarer welfare’. I say ‘seafarer services’ deliberately and for a very clear reason. Because I'm not interested in providing welfare. I'm not a charity. I'm interested in running the business,” Mr McSkimming said.

He said what they were doing was neither a grant nor charity.

“We want to know that the centre is going to be open. We want to know that when a seafarer wants to use that centre, an appropriate range of services are available,” he said.

“That the chapel is there. That the shop is there. The money transfer services are available. The Wi-Fi is made available,” he said.

“So, we're not giving people money. We're giving money because it's an essential service to our port.”

The Wellbeing at Sea Conference 2026 is being held at the Grand Chancellor Hotel in Adelaide.