Have Your Say

Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025

10 March 2026

Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (12:52): I’m interested to see the member for Fenner and the minister at the table. The member for Fenner has written a number of publications in recent years, one of which is entitled The Economics of Just About Everything:the hidden reasons for our curious choices and surprising successes. Apart from the 1,152 speeches he’s given on legislation to this place, when he adds another chapter, when he adds the sequel to that 2014 publication, he may well want to include some sentences about this particular bill, which is rather an oxymoron because we have Labor talking about coalminers and we have the coalition talking about workers’ rights and, of course, we’re all in furious agreement, which is also rather unusual.

The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 is important; it absolutely is. It’s important for many of the reasons that the minister, member for Shortland, has just described. Indeed, it’s also very important because we need to protect the rights of our coal miners. The reason we need to absolutely, 100 per cent, get behind them is because coal generates 47 per cent of Australia’s electricity.

I do look forward to question time today when the energy minister is going to hopefully explain what the government is doing in the area of fuel security. But when we talk about securing our nation’s wealth, when we talk about feeding our nation, one industry which very much comes to mind, front and centre of all this, is the black-coal industry. Anyone who represents the Hunter should know that. Anybody who comes from Queensland coalmining areas would know that. And anybody in Australia should absolutely respect the job that our coalminers do. They’ve been demonised. They have.

Mr Buchholz: Bowen Basin.

Mr McCORMACK: ‘Bowen Basin’ I just heard from the member for Wright. Indeed, he is right as always. Coal is Australia’s second-largest export after iron ore. And, of course, we’ve got agriculture as well.

I often hear from those opposite, particularly the Treasurer, the member for Rankin, talking about the trillion dollars of Liberal Party debt that the government inherited when it took office in May 2022. That is not right; it was nowhere near a trillion dollars, and it wasn’t just Liberal Party debt—indeed, the Nationals were very much in a coalition with the Liberal Party for those years of government, those successful years of government.

Dr Leigh: National Party.

Mr McCORMACK: You can write in your book, Member for Fenner, if you like. If you want to sing out, add it to your next chapter! And I say it with all due respect, because you’re a learned person, and I do have high regard for your economic background.

That said, what we did during the COVID years was protect jobs and save lives, and it took a lot of money to do that. But Australia finished up as the second best in the world for COVID-19 preparedness, according to the Hopkins Centre. And, as the Deputy Prime Minister for many of the COVID years, I’m proud of that record.

Coal supplied 62.6 per cent of electricity to the National Electricity Market in 2022-23. Gas was 4½ per cent; hydro was 8.3; and other renewable energy, including wind, grid, solar and batteries, was 24.1 per cent. Australia has the fourth-largest share of coal reserves in the world, and our coal is the best in the world. It’s the cleanest in the world, and we have it as an export. It has helped the member for Rankin’s, the Treasurer, ability, to create a surplus in this nation. Without it, we would not have been able to put that surplus in place. In Australia, nearly 80 per cent of coal is produced from open-cut mines, in contrast to the rest of the world, where open-cut mining accounts for only 40 per cent of coal production. Such mining is cheaper than underground mining, and it enables up to 90 per cent of resource recovery.

They’re important figures, but behind all those important figures are workers: they are the men—and women, too—who put on the high-vis and the helmets with the torches and go out and work and help our country be powered, help our exports be strong and help our nation. Many of those people who live in our cities and enjoy their lattes and their magics and whatever other coffee brew they have of a morning don’t quite, I think, appreciate that without our coalminers they wouldn’t be able to enjoy that beverage, that morning cup of pick-me-up coffee.

Since May 2022, the Minister for the Environment and Water has approved 12 new coalmines or expansions with 725 million tonnes of lifetime emissions. I know that they’ll have to be abated. That’s just the way life is these days, until we get some common sense. But I applaud and encourage the opening of those new mines. Indeed, I would encourage even more. Without them, we’re not going to be able to power Australia. We should have the cheapest energy in the world. We should. Unfortunately, we don’t. I’d love the Minister for Climate Change and Energy to explain why that is so.

When you see that in the 12 months to May 2025 there was $45.8 billion worth of coal exports, can you imagine trying to provide the National Disability Insurance Scheme, support for public schools, support for public hospitals or just keeping the lights on and keeping the wheels of economic activity in this nation without that coal wealth? When I say ‘wealth’, I talk about the 27,000 Queenslanders employed by coalmining. Those people would perhaps not be in work. I tell you what, they certainly wouldn’t be an ecotourism. The Greens would like them to be. There are no jobs in ecotourism like coalmining wealth. Coal royalties are $5½ billion a year.

Mr Buchholz: It’s overtaken iron ore.

Mr McCORMACK: The member for Wright talks about overtaking iron ore. Indeed, without those two industries, without our great miners—our brave miners—where would we be?

This bill creates a voluntary pathway for employers to pay historical debts related to unpaid portable long service leave levies of employees in the black coal industry. We know that workers in that industry often change employer. They often go from mine to mine, employer to employer, and they take their experience with them. They take their know-how, their skills, and they move about. As I said, the black coal industry remains a critical pillar of Australia’s economy. Anybody who comes into this place and decries coalminers—I know the member for Paterson wouldn’t; I think she’s the daughter of a coalminer, and she’s nodding, she says that’s correct—or the coal industry is decrying Australia. They are going against what this nation stands for—those miners who have helped build this nation, those miners who have made this country what it is today. We should say to them: ‘Thank you. We are grateful. We are appreciative. We look forward to you doing more in the future.’

This bill will enable the employers to ensure that they provide the support that is needed. The coalition supports this bill and we very much support the industry. It is an industry that backs tens of thousands of workers, an industry that has provided so much hope and aspiration, fulfilled the dreams of so many Australians. Industry has welcomed the legislation. The minister’s intention to grant extension of time for repayment plans are in light of ongoing litigation. We don’t want to see too much of that, because of lapsed legislation or procrastination within this place, when we line the pockets of lawyers. That’s not a good thing. That’s not an outcome for anybody. That’s why the bill is important.

The Australian Industry Group says that many businesses would face hardship and potential insolvency if required to pay historical levy debts immediately. A large number of jobs were at risk. Therefore, the introduction of the bill into parliament is very welcome. We recognise that the bill needed to strike a balance between the interests of all parties. This balance was achieved following the government’s lengthy consultation process, in which the Australian Industry Group was heavily involved. That’s an interesting thing, because all too often—I stand in this place and I speak on most bills—we find that the government hasn’t done the proper consultation, unfortunately. Often we have found, particularly in this term of parliament, that the government is all too willing to rush legislation through the parliament without proper debate, clamping down, nullifying debate, gagging democracy, sending the legislation off to the other place and hoping for the best over there.

I do hope that when this bill goes to the other place the senators can see reason and will understand that this has received bipartisan support. I’m not sure where the Greens stand on this. Then again, who would be sure where the Greens stand on anything, quite frankly. We saw that little stunt by the member for Ryan this morning—just unbelievable, quite frankly. If the Greens are ever the answer to a policy in this place, it must be a pretty stupid question.

The opposition supports passage of this bill. We support wholeheartedly—vehemently—the black coal industry. I know that sometimes, for those opposite, saying the words ‘black coal’ must make them feel like they want to grab a glass of water and wash their mouth out. I know that in the Treasurer’s first budget he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘black coal’ or even ‘coal’. They were words he just wasn’t able to say. He described them as ‘the things we sell overseas, the things that make our wealth’—the things that helped make his budget surplus.

Again, I say that we should be applauding our coalmining workers. Without their work, without their effort—their zeal, their determination, their commitment, their perspiration—we wouldn’t have that great industry, we wouldn’t be able to keep the lights on, and we wouldn’t be able to turn the wheels of industry and manufacturing in this nation and also provide a great export. I say again, thank you coalmining workers.

This bill will go towards delivering certainty, stability and fairness while also strengthening the confidence of the coal long service leave scheme. I’d note that the member for Fenner has texted me saying, ‘Thank you for the kind words’—and I look forward to his next book, his next publication, where perhaps he might bring himself to exalt and applaud the efforts of our coalminers. I appreciate that he is a member representing many Canberra constituents. This city, great city that it is, would not be the capital of Australia that it is without the beautiful roads and infrastructure—something that has been acknowledged by visiting parliamentarians and world leaders—without black coal, without the mining industry, without those hard workers from the member for Wright’s electorate and no doubt the member for Dawson’s and others besides.

They’re the workers who are doing the hard yards. They’re the workers we should be very much applauding. Many of them, as the member for Wright comments, are FIFO workers—fly in, fly out workers. The former member for New England, Tony Windsor, an Independent, and I did an inquiry into fly in, fly out workers. That inquiry report is called Cancer of the bush, or salvation of our cities? The member for McEwen was also on that committee. We did some good work. We took a lot of evidence from mining workers at Moranbah and elsewhere, and by gee they do a mighty job. I know the member for McEwen understands that as well. Families spend a lot of time away from home. They come from the member for Moncrieff’s electorate and from electorates right across Australia. Indeed, they come from my electorate, to work in Queensland or to work in Western Australia, whatever the case might be.

So thank you, coalmining workers. This is important legislation. It’s got the support of the coalition, and let’s see that it hopefully gets through the Senate as well.

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