Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We hear constantly that mining is a big employer of Australians. It is. It is one of our largest industries in terms of directly employing people. It's not the largest. Many may not realise that in my own electorate of Bendigo we still have a lot of miners. We are going through another gold rush in Bendigo. Recent mining has discovered a new seam in our Fosterville goldmine, as well as in our Costerfield goldmine. The Forestville goldmine, in the midst of this gold rush, found more than a billion dollars worth of gold late last year, and we continue to find this high grade of gold. During a recent visit, they looked at a gold shaking table and said that, with good, old-fashioned shaking with water, they can see the gold. It's not that they have to put it through any particular process; it's gold that you can see. They were taking $1 million a day in gold off that table.

They've increased their employment to 500. Of those in employment in 2017, 82 per cent reside in Greater Bendigo. They say that they live in the greatest mining town in Australia. It's true; there are not many mineworkers who could say that they live in a regional city with 100,000 people, great shops, great community, great sporting clubs, great schools and yet they work in mining. Ten per cent of their personnel are women, and about the same are apprentices.

You could say that, in many ways, the goldmining company that the Fosterville goldmine is part of, Kirkland Lake Gold, is a good, old-fashioned mining company. They directly employ their workforce. They invest in the community. They make sure that people have the opportunity to live close to the mine. Some of the workers have chosen to live in Ballarat. They commute and stay in Bendigo during the week, but it's their choice. It is a very small minority. The mining company supports the community through sponsorship. It has a good working relationship with local suppliers. Last year alone, $55 million in wages went back to the Bendigo community. That's the commitment and good influence that mining can have.

Unfortunately, that is not the same—in fact, it is rare—for our large mining industry here in Australia. We know that mining is again going through a boom. In 2017, the Minerals Council of Australia announced that 53 per cent of total export revenue from goods and services came from mining. That is $207 billion. The value of coal exports was up 35 per cent on the previous year. There were record gold exports. It was another strong year for gold, which generated $18.3 billion in revenue. Most of that came from Bendigo, I note. Yet, despite the booms and the increasing profits, what we are not seeing from the majority of multinational mining companies is commitment to community. Gone are the days where they directly employed their workers. Gone are the days where they allowed them to live in a community and build community. An example of how the mining companies have really let down Australian workers and Australian community is Oaky North and the people of Tieri. It was heartbreaking to meet those mineworkers last week here in Canberra and hear them tell their stories. The hairdresser has closed. The local food store has shut down. They're losing their sporting teams. The number of kids going to their local school is reduced. Why? It's because the mining company prefers a fly-in fly-out and drive-in drive-out workforce. But, even worse, they've locked out their workers. So determined are they to break the community, they've locked out their workforce.

Fly-in fly-out is a problem. We see it increasingly—the way in which companies prefer easy-to-hire, easy-to-fire, fly-in fly-out workers. I've had wives and partners contact me about the impact that this is having on their families. If we're always going to be a mining nation, if we're always going to rely on export mining, then let's encourage our mining companies to invest in building Australian communities and Australian jobs.