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

I rise initially to speak about two matters involving Central Queensland that have occurred in recent times. Just this week we saw the report of the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry into a shocking workplace incident, the Grosvenor mine explosion. This is an underground coalmine where, as a result of methane gas leaks, we saw an explosion that left five workers seriously injured—burned. They very narrowly avoided losing their lives. These workers, and their workmates who were present on the day, will never forget that explosion, and they will never fully recover from the injuries that they experienced.

We all know that mining is a dangerous job, and that's part of the reason why we respect miners for putting their lives on the line to produce coal and other minerals which we all depend upon for our energy and other needs in today's society. So we know it's a dangerous job, but mining is made a more dangerous job when management don't do their job properly, and that's what the finding from this board of inquiry was. This inquiry found that mine management at the Grosvenor mine put workers at an 'unacceptable level of risk' by prioritising mine production and the making of profits over workers' safety.

I and many other Labor members have been very vocal about the fact that we strongly support the mining industry. We support the jobs in it. We support the earnings in it. We support the profits and the exports that are generated from it. But this cannot be at the expense of worker safety, and steps always must be taken by mine management to ensure that workers are safe. It is very clear that, in this particular incident, this did not occur.

One particular feature of the Grosvenor mine is that about 75 per cent of its workforce were engaged either as labour hire or as contractors—insecure forms of work that I and many other Labor MPs and senators have spoken up about for a number of years now. I don't know how many times I've spoken in the Senate chamber about the problems associated with the rampant abuse of labour hire and casualisation in the mining industry in Queensland, and I know it's a problem in the Hunter Valley and other parts of the country as well. Day after day, we see government members and One Nation members come into this chamber and tell us how much they care about miners, but they never lift a finger to actually fix the casualisation and labour hire crisis that we have seen in the mining industry for so many years. Unfortunately, in this case, at the Grosvenor mine, workers again paid the price of being engaged through labour hire arrangements.

One of the findings from this inquiry into the Grosvenor mine explosion was that labour hire workers did not report safety concerns, in many instances, because they feared they would lose their jobs. This is exactly the point we have been making for years: one of the problems with labour hire and casual employment, as we have seen occur so often in the Queensland mining industry, is that workers do not have job security. They can't afford to take out loans; banks won't give them loans, because they haven't got permanent employment; in many cases they get paid less than the permanent workers they work alongside; and, because they don't have job security, they are too fearful of reporting safety concerns because they're worried that they'll get sacked if they speak up.

I've got to tell you: I've met miners across Queensland who haven't spoken up about safety concerns because they are so concerned about losing their jobs. That is not the way that any workplace should be, whether it be in the mining industry or another industry. It's about time this government and its allies in One Nation actually delivered on the claim that they stand for mining workers. They don't stand for mining workers and, as a result of that, mining workers like those at Grosvenor mine are exposed to unsafe conditions which they just should not be put in.

Labor's policy, on the other hand, is very clear. Both before the last election and in the last few months, we have been clear that a Labor government would introduce a very simple policy that would apply to mining workplaces and to workplaces more generally. It's a very simple policy with a very simple name: 'same job, same pay'. If a labour hire worker is engaged at a mining workplace or any other workplace, they will have to be engaged on at least the same pay and conditions as a permanent worker. That's what you would see under an Albanese Labor government, and it is a far cry from what we see under an LNP government aided and abetted by One Nation. These people like to dress up as miners. They carry on all the time about how they're the friends of mining workers, but, time after time, we have called on this government and One Nation to get behind our proposals to even the playing field for labour hire workers. And, time after time, the government are missing in action. They'd rather just dress up like miners than actually do something to really help them.

I saw Senator Davey in here earlier talking about mining and how Labor doesn't support mining. How about you start supporting mining workers, rather than dressing up like them and smearing a bit of fake coaldust on your face like some of your colleagues do? If you actually support mining workers—and the same goes for One Nation—you'll do something about casualisation and about labour hire. Instead, you'd rather continue to ignore this problem, which results in people not having job security, which results in people being so concerned about keeping their jobs that they won't complain about safety issues and which, at its worst, results in some of the issues that we saw at the Grosvenor mine explosion. This was a preventable explosion. The management knew that there were gas leaks and that action needed to be taken. But action was not taken, and workers literally paid the price with burns and other injuries that they will never fully recover from. It is unjust. It is unfair. And it's about time this government joined with Labor and did something about it.

The second thing I want to talk about concerning Central Queensland is something that has actually been dragging on for years but has really come to a head over the last few days, and that's the circumstances surrounding the Murugappan family, the Tamil family who had been living in Biloela for a number of years. I haven't had the good fortune to meet this particular family because they've been locked up by this government for the last couple of years, but I have been to Biloela on a number of occasions—including a couple of weeks ago, after the Callide Power Station explosion. We're talking here about a family: a mum, a dad and their two little girls, who were actually born in Australia. These two little girls didn't come to Australia by boat. These two little girls never broke an Australian law, but have been treated like criminals by this government for the last couple of years and locked up in detention on Christmas Island.

I and many other Labor MPs—right up to our leader, Anthony Albanese—have, for a long time now, been calling on this government to let this family return home to Bilo. We have been consistently ignored by this government, who have decided to try to punish and make an example of this family—including two little girls who were born in Australia—so as to send a message to people overseas who haven't looked at smuggling anyone into this country for a number of years. Let's be serious. Do you seriously think that allowing this family to return home to Bilo—to a community that loves them, to a community in which they fully integrated, to a community where dad was working in the meatworks, mum was volunteering for St Vincent de Paul and their two little girls were running around and playing in the streets with other kids born in Australia, to a community that respects them and had integrated them into their community—would actually encourage people smugglers to start smuggling people to Australia again? Give me a break! Everyone knows that is total crap from this government. Everyone knows that this decision was only designed to try to look tough in the eyes of certain parts of the public. Where is this government's humanity? Every now and then, the government should think beyond its slogans and actually think about doing the right thing. Unfortunately, it took one of these little girls getting seriously ill and needing hospital treatment that she couldn't get on Christmas Island before this government was prompted to take any action.

As I said, I've been to Biloela on a number of occasions. On at least two occasions, I've met with the supporters of this family in the community. I've met with the mayor. I've met with the supporters of the family. I particularly want to single out Angela Fredericks, who has done an incredible job over a number of years to stick by this family and be their advocate. We're finally starting to get some action from this government, but it's not good enough. I was very disappointed in question time today to hear Senator Cash rolling out the same old lines about stopping boats and people smugglers and things like that, rather than thinking about this family and this community who want to be reunited.

It's not good enough what this government has done. We need to see this government take more action, and we need to see the Murugappan family returned home to Bilo. This government has spent $6 million in taxpayers' money detaining this family on Christmas Island over the last couple of years. Just imagine how much better that money could have been spent, rather than wasted punishing a family, causing untold cost to this particular family, and depriving Biloela of a family they love. They should be returned home. (Time expired)