Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 12 October 2010 Durack constituent Jan Ford, owner of Jan Ford Real Estate, Port Hedland, won the Commonwealth Bank Business Owner Award at the prestigious Telstra Western Australian Business Woman of the Year awards. The Commonwealth Bank Business Owner Award is for owners with a 50 per cent or more share in a business who have the responsibility for key management decision making. Jan is principal and licensee of Jan Ford Real Estate, an agency opened 10 years ago in Port Hedland. Jan Ford Real Estate opened its doors in April 2000 and has grown from a one-person operation to an immensely successful business now employing 13 staff.

Jan chose to start a business, in her words, ‘in a town that was sliding backwards, dominated by men, with red dust, cyclonic weather and temperatures of up to 50 degrees’. It was not an ideal business climate for anyone starting a new enterprise. With Port Hedland in the early nineties being such a male dominated area, both in real estate and in mining, Jan was resolute about the need to create a family friendly business. With a lack of infrastructure impeding the growth of Port Hedland, in 2001 Jan became part of a community action group to instate changes needed to support development. Subsequently, she was elected to the local shire and is now on the Port Hedland Port Authority board. Port Hedland port, I might add, is the largest tonnage port in Australia, with a throughput in 2009-10 of 178.6 million tonnes, made up of manganese, solar salt and iron ore. Port Hedland is the home of BHP Billiton and Fortescue Metals Group, led by the famous Twiggy Forrest.

Jan is renowned in the local Port Hedland community for working tirelessly for the betterment of the town. She has been involved with the creation and continuation of alliances between local and state government agencies and also federal initiatives. Rather than despair, back in 1999, at her husband’s relocation to an isolated mining town, rather than become despondent because she could not gain employment in the real estate industry upon her arrival, Jan took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and opened her own real estate agency.

The Pilbara cities of Port Hedland and Karratha are much different today. With the Pilbara Cities initiative underway, with the support of the state government and, hopefully, the federal government, the Pilbara will be the city of the north and the place to live. It is people such as Jan, who live in isolated and harsh environments and succeed against all odds, who deserve applause from all Australians. Jan is a pioneer in every sense of the word. I congratulate Jan Ford on her win and wish her continued success for many years to come. (Time expired)