James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Amendment Bill 2009. As always, I like to say that the Labor Party is the miners’ friend. It has always been and always will be the miners’ friend because it is the party that delivers for the mining industry.

In speaking in favour of this bill, we are here to make sure that workers’ rights and entitlements are protected—unlike those on the other side of this House. This bill will amend the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Act 1999—known as ‘the funding act’—and related legislation, including the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Act 1992 and the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Collection Act 1992.

This bill ensures the portability of long service leave entitlements for all employees in the black coal industry. The scheme applies universally to all workers in the black coal mining industry. Amendments made by the bill will commence on 1 January 2010. Employees in the coalmining industry are entitled to long service leave on the basis of service in the industry, rather than their service with a particular employer. Funding of long service leave entitlements is supported by an industry scheme established by the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Act 1999, the funding act, and related legislation, including the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Act 1992 and the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Collection Act 1992, as I previously mentioned.

Under the funding act employers are reimbursed from the Coal Mining Industry Long Service Leave Fund for any long service payments they make to eligible employees in respect of their long service leave entitlements. Firstly, the amendments will clarify that the existing long service leave entitlements preserved by the Fair Work Act 2009 will be covered by the funding act. Secondly, the amendments also extend the current long service entitlements in the industry award to all eligible employees who do not otherwise have an award-derived long service leave entitlement. Thirdly, the bill will also introduce definitions of ‘black coal mining industry’, ‘employee’ and ‘employer’ and amend the definition of ‘eligible employee’ in the funding act to ensure that the scheme applies universally in the black coal mining industry. Fourthly, the bill has the support of key stakeholders in the coalmining industry, including employer and employee representative bodies.

If workers for whatever reason do not have an award-derived long serve leave entitlement, they will have one from next year. We are about providing for workers entitlements; we will never be about stripping them away. We will ensure that workers have their rights. Bills such as these are the kinds of protections that a Rudd Labor government is delivering for Dawson and for workers in the coal industry. I am proud that this government truly does look after workers, particularly workers in the mining industry which is so prominent in my electorate. The Rudd government firmly recognises the importance of the coal industry to our local economy and our local jobs.

The Rudd government believes in a coal industry with a future and is investing strongly in its future, for both the industry and the workers in the industry. I have listened to coal workers and their families. I meet them all from time to time on the street, at mobile offices, at markets and at schools. They email me and they call my office. They tell me very clearly that they want a coal industry with a future. They want what is best for their kids. They want job security and they want a government that delivers for their communities and will into the future.

As far as communities go, coal towns are relatively new communities but they are dynamic communities. The Bowen Basin coal fields have been producing coal and growing communities for over 30 years. Communities which border my electorate like Moranbah, Dysart, Middlemount, Nebo and Coppabella are mining towns with schools, hospitals, sporting clubs, pubs, small businesses and community groups. There are workers in those communities who have been there from day one. There are workers there who have only just been put on. All these workers will be protected by these new laws being debated today. These laws protect all workers in the black coal industry.

We on this side of the House will always stand up for workers in the coal industry. Unlike those opposite, we will never stick up the white flag of surrender on the industry and its workers in Australian coal fields, we are proud of this industry and proud of its workers.

We stand in this place to make laws that protect and provide a strong future for these workers. We make laws in consultation with and for the benefit of all stakeholders, including the workers’ representatives like the unions and the employers, through providing certainty and predictability. Unlike the Liberal and National parties, we are about protecting the rights of workers in the coal industry. Workers know that, unlike those opposite, we did not support Work Choices and AWA’s in the mining industry, Work Choices and AWAs which unashamedly stripped away workers’ rights. Workers know that in government we have delivered on our promises by abolishing AWA’s and Work Choices.

We support the coal industry’s existence because, unlike the Liberal and National parties, we do not support a nuclear future for Australia. Unlike some of those opposite, we do not want 50 nuclear power stations dotted across the continent—absolutely no way. That is the Howard government way and they made it clear that it had not ruled out a nuclear future for Australia; nor do the current members of the Liberal and National parties. They want a nuclear future. As little time ago as last week, we had the National Party’s Senator Joyce making it clear in the media yet again—Senator Joyce is the man who wants to mine for oil in Antarctica—rehashing his idea that shire councils should decide whether their communities should be home to nuclear plants. Can you imagine being a counsellor on a regional council in Mackay, in the Whitsundays, in the Burdekin or Townsville Regional Council going to your council chamber and saying, ‘I want a nuclear power station in my backyard and all that comes with it’? I do not think so. Barnaby Joyce has lost contact with his community, he has lost contact with the people he purports to represent in rural communities. I know we do not want a nuclear power station in Dawson and I do not want to see any nuclear power stations anyway around Australia. That is not the road we are going down. We are not going to go down the nuclear road; we are going to go down the renewable energy road, the sustainable energy road. That is the way forward for Australia.

To have a Leader of the Opposition who wants Australians to adopt the French attitude towards nuclear power in Australia is simply unbelievable. How out of touch can you get? By embracing a nuclear future for Australia, those opposite are saying that they are giving up on a future for coal. Look at the European experience, where nuclear power stations proliferate. There is virtually no coalmining industry left in the UK. There is virtually none in France or across the rest of Europe. Why? It is because of nuclear power. I tell you what: you may cut emissions but you will cut dead the coal industry if you go nuclear in Australia. The mineworkers know that very clearly. I do not see them campaigning—as Barnaby Joyce would want—their local shire councils and saying, ‘We want a nuclear power station in the backyard of Dawson.’ No way. It is not going to happen on my watch.

We reject a nuclear future for Australia and I support a future for coal that is clean—that is, a future for coal with a international market now and into the future. That is the way to go, to embrace clean coal technologies and export those technologies to developing countries so that they can continue to use coal fired power stations. We believe in new technologies and innovations for coal, like carbon capture and storage. In fact, the government has contributed $2 billion for carbon capture and storage technologies to help clean up the industry, to support other infrastructure projects and to help improve our export capacity. The difference between the Labor and the Liberal and National parties is that we know and understand that many of the workers in the industry are in it for the long haul. It is their career. Mining is their livelihood and their children’s livelihood, and we owe it to them to protect it, to grow it and to ensure there is a market for coal internationally and into the future.

Coal and its associated industries are a major driver not only for the Australian economy but also for the economies in my electorate of Dawson. Many of the working families in the mining sector live in Mackay, Bowen and the Whitsundays, and they want a government that will stand up for them now and stand up for them in the future. Mining communities know just how important coal is for Australia’s economy, for jobs and for the bottom line of the wealth of this nation. Workers and their families know that under a Labor government the coal industry will always continue to grow. Treasury modelling shows that the coal industry will continue to grow by 50 per cent by 2050. Workers know that under a Labor government we will always see a future for coal. It will be an optimistic, clean future for one of our national exports. We see a future for coal. That is why we have invested $14 million in the Mining Technology Innovation Centre, based in Mackay in my electorate of Dawson. I wish to commend Peter van Iersel, the Centre Director, for doing a fantastic job in helping firms from around the nation support the mining industry in cutting edge innovation and new, smart business practices.

In conclusion: mining communities in Central Queensland—in Dawson, in Capricornia and in Flynn—will not forget John Howard and his Work Choices laws. Workers will not forget the threat that these laws posed to workers’ entitlements such as long service leave. We are instead about delivering for workers, not taking away their rights. I fully and wholeheartedly commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context