Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. I wish to speak for the men and women who keep the lights on in this country, those who spend their days and nights at the coalface to ensure Australia remains a resources powerhouse. The legislation before us might seem like a mere administrative clean-up of payroll levies and service records, but in the electorate of Dawson we don't look at our mining industry through the cold lens of a spreadsheet. We look at it as the bedrock of our community, the lifeblood of our local economy and the physical foundation upon which our regional prosperity is built.

I want to be clear from the outset that the coalition will support this bill. We support it because at its core it's about fairness for the people who do the heavy lifting for this country. It's about ensuring that a worker's history isn't lost in the overburden of administrative errors or legislative confusion. However, our support is not a blank cheque. While we're prepared to help clear the path for these amendments, we have serious concerns about the legacy of mismanagement that has brought us to this point, and we have even deeper concerns about how this government intends to manage the resources sector moving forward.

In Dawson, the coal industry is the very pulse of the region. From the Abbot Point coal terminal in Bowen to the massive industrial service sector engine that is Paget in Mackay, coal is what keeps the lights on. It's what keeps the shops open, the schools funded and the families together. When we talk about coal in North Queensland, we aren't just talking about a commodity; we are talking about community. We're talking about a sector that contributes circa $100 billion to our national economy and generates over $70 billion in export earnings. It is the black gold that pays for the hospitals in the city and the roads in the bush.

Yet for too long a grey haze of legislative uncertainty has hung over the long service entitlements of our workers. It is a disgrace that it took two Federal Court cases to do the work that this parliament should have done years ago—just to clarify that these entitlements belong to the workers, regardless of whether they are full-time employees or part-time labour hire arrangements. That is totally irrelevant. This bill finally provides a mechanism for employers to onboard those workers and settle historical arrears without facing catastrophic collapse of their own financial viability. It is a suitable path, but let's not pretend it's a perfect one. It is a patch-up job for a system that was allowed to get sooty with neglect. The coalition is resolute in defending our resources sector. We know that Australian coal is the best in the world. It is high quality, it is efficient and it is the essential ingredient for the global future.

And this is where I'd like to provide a little illumination for the members opposite. There is a persistent, almost religious belief on the other side of the chamber that we can simply phase out coal and phase in renewables. It is a hollow argument that ignores the common sense of physics and engineering. If you want a wind turbine, you need steel. If you want a solar array, you need steel. If you want steel, you need metallurgical coal. You can't decarbonise the future without the carbon provided by the Bowen Basin. Coal is not a relic of the industrial past. It is a foundational component of a renewable future. Every time the members opposite look at a wind farm or a solar panel, they should be thanking a coalminer in Central Queensland.

But while we're digging deep into the future of the industry, we must ensure that the workers aren't left in the dark when it comes to their entitlements. Mining is a tough, gritty business. It requires true strength from men and women who work 12-hour shifts, often in the blistering heat or in the dead of the night, away from their families for weeks at a time. When a miner earns their long service leave, they haven't just put in time; they have earned the seam of gold in their career. They have earned the right for a hard-fought rest with their loved ones.

However, our bill for this support comes with a strong warning: the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave Funding) Corporation has a track record. Frankly, it's less than stellar. We've seen reports of underpayments and a payment system so convoluted you'd have to be a forensic accountant to try to work it out. We're not going to let this government tunnel through this legislation without proper oversight. That's why the coalition is insisting this bill be referred to as Senate inquiry. We need to ensure that the simplified calculation methods aren't just a way for the government to shave the edges off what workers are rightly owed. We want to ensure that every miner receives every single cent they have worked for.

We also need to look at the hidden costs of Labor's policy settings, because, let's be honest, it's never easy under Albanese. This government has a habit of undermining the very industries that pay the nation's bill. Their own minister for transport stood up in a question time to rattle off a list of minor road repairs, claiming Labor was investing in the Bruce Highway, while those who actually drive it know the Bruce is crumbling. The Bruce is the artery that carries the lifeblood of our mining communities, and right now that artery is in desperate need of major surgery. It certainly needs a few extra passing lanes. Real investment is what's needed, not just patch-up repairs that are packaged to look like investment.

The people of Dawson are tired of being treated like a resource to be tapped but never replenished. They see the billions in royalties flowing out of the Bowen Basin and into the city-centric projects—into light rail in Canberra or stadiums in Hobart—while our local infrastructure is left to weather in the sun. They see a government that is happy to take the cold cash but is too embarrassed to stand up for the workers because coal has become a dirty word in the cities.

In my electorate, Paget is the service hub for the entire Bowen Basin. It is a world-class precinct where innovation is happening every single day. The METS sector in Mackay doesn't just service mines; it invents the future of mining. These are small and medium-sized businesses—family run fabricators, engineering firms and specialised technicians. They need certainty. They need to know that, if they do the right thing and pay their levies, the system won't buckle under administrative incompetence. The bill is a step forward to that certainty, but it does require constant monitoring.

We support the bill because we support the 42,500 Australians who work in this sector. We support the families in Townsville, Bowen, Burdekin, the Whitsundays and Mackay who depend on the prosperity of mines out west. We support the vision of Australia that remains a resources superpower. But I will be clear on this: the energy transition pushed by this Labor government—the reckless race to renewables—is a tough gig. They want to rush headlong into a future that hasn't been properly engineered. They want to rely on technologies that still require the very resources that they are trying to demonise.

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