Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday I had the very great privilege of speaking at this year's Moranbah Miners Memorial. It was only last year that this memorial was opened in the coalmining town of Moranbah in Central Queensland to remember the dozen or so miners killed on the job in coalmines around Moranbah in recent years. As you would expect, last Friday night's ceremony was a very solemn occasion. Crowd numbers were limited because of COVID, but still there was a very healthy gathering of mining families, mining communities and mining friends remembering those lost on the worksite in and around Moranbah.

One of the saddest aspects of last Friday night's ceremony was that, even in the 12 months since this memorial was opened, we have lost another coalminer on the job in Central Queensland. The loss of Brad Duxbury was a particularly poignant moment, as his friends from the Carborough Downs mine were there to remember him and to lay a wreath in his honour.

The fact that we have this memorial at all, let alone were remembering the loss of yet another miner's life on the job, is a tragic reminder that the job of improving mine safety is not complete. It was very interesting to listen to some of the speeches given at the memorial, including the one given by Councillor Anne Baker, the mayor of Isaac shire, who reflected on the fact that a hundred or so years ago it was quite common in some mine sites around the world to see children below the age of 10 working in mines in horrific conditions. We have come a long way on mine safety since those days, but obviously the fact that we have lost another miner at one of the Moranbah mines in the past 12 months is another sign that things still have a long way to go. Of course, it's not just the miners killed on the job who we were there to remember; it's also those who have been killed on the roads driving to and from work and those who die a long, slow, painful death from coal related diseases.

These miners deserve to be remembered, they deserve to be honoured and they deserve to have all of us continue to take up the fight to make sure that mining sites are safer and that workers are protected. Unfortunately, it has become all too common for some mining companies, and particularly labour hire firms who are engaged by them, to cut corners on mine safety. It's the mine workers who pay the price for this, sometimes with their lives. I congratulate the Queensland state Labor government, which was recently re-elected, for the fantastic work it has done in this space, including by extending workplace manslaughter laws to coalmining and other mining sites—something that was resisted by the LNP in the Queensland parliament.

It was very interesting to talk to miners at the workers club after the memorial and to reflect on the fact that the whole debate around mining in Queensland is a lot more complicated than some people in this chamber would like it to be. Some of the best conversations I had with miners on Friday night were actually about the failure of this government to take any action to rein in the rampant casualisation that we have seen in this industry over the last seven years. Unfortunately, this government, for all its claims that it supports coalminers, has continued to turn its back on coalminers, who continue to be engaged and exploited by labour hire firms acting on behalf of the big mining companies. In fact, this government has intervened and is continuing to intervene in a High Court appeal against a Federal Court decision that actually tries to recognise the rights of permanent mining workers who are engaged, employed and paid as casuals and denied the job security and leave benefits of permanent miners. It's another reminder that there is a lot more to be done not only on mine safety but also on respecting the basic working rights of miners in my state of Queensland.

I want to congratulate Scott Leggett, Kelly Vea Vea and all of the members of the Moranbah Miners Memorial Committee for putting on a fantastic ceremony the other night, for continuing to stage this ceremony despite the restrictions of COVID and for continuing to allow us to honour the lives of those who have perished on Queensland mine sites. I really hope that we don't have more mining tragedies and more mining losses like we've seen with Brad Duxbury and his colleagues. The memorial that was held the other night is another reminder that we still have to keep up the fight to keep mining workers safe.