Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. From the outset, I make it clear that the opposition will be supporting this bill because it's both noncontroversial and pragmatic. It resolves longstanding uncertainty and provides fairness to employers who have acted in good faith, and preserves the integrity of the coal long service leave scheme for the workers who rely on it.

It's quite straightforward. The legislation exists to facilitate employers who were advised previously they were not part of a scheme to now be part of a scheme and provide a pathway forward. I welcome the government's frankly pragmatic approach on this legislation as a consequence of a series of court decisions. It's also a reminder that good industrial relations legislation comes from cooperation, consultation and common sense, not mad ideology or confrontation.

The purpose of this bill is actually shockingly straightforward. It establishes a voluntary pathway for certain employers to repay historical levy debts owed under the coalmining industry long service leave scheme—debts which are legally payable, overdue and would be subject to penalties but which arose from a genuine uncertainty about coverage under the scheme. Under the bill, eligible employers may enter into repayment arrangements over six years once 80 per cent of the debt has been paid. The remaining 20 per cent associated with the LSL scheme is then waived owing to surplus funds available to it. Importantly, once an employer enters into such an arrangement, no further penalties or enforcement actions apply.

This is not a write-off. It's not an amnesty. It's a simple, structured, conditional and time-limited mechanism to deal with historic liabilities in a way that protects workers, that, hopefully, avoids business failures, that maintains confidence in the system, and that also gives a pathway forward. Despite the temptation, I'm really looking forward to the minister in question time railing that we were against this, even though I've made it very clear we're supporting it, because we support workers, and we support people working hard and hard work paying off.

The long service leave scheme has a proud history. It was established in 1949 and underpinned by a Commonwealth legislation since 1992. It provides a single national system of long service leave for black-coal miners, recognising the unique nature of work in the industry and the mobility of its workforce. In the context of Goldstein, we don't have many people, but I have spoken to lots of colleagues around the country, including those who have FIFO workers who deal with the realities of this scheme. The scheme is funded by a mandatory levy of 2.7 per cent on eligible wages paid to eligible employees. That levy is paid by employers, not deducted from workers' wages, and coal LSL manages the fund to ensure it can meet all the obligations and entitlements while withstanding market and industry fluctuations—something that present moments would remind us of. As of June 2025, the scheme holds more than 71 million hours of long service leave on behalf of 160,000 workers, including around 65,000 currently active employees. That is a significant trust for these critical workers and is one that this parliament has a responsibility to safeguard.

However, over recent years, serious uncertainty has emerged regarding the coverage of the scheme, particularly for employers providing specialised maintenance and services on coalmine sites. Companies have found themselves unexpectedly exposed to substantial historical levies and levy debts, going back many years following Federal Court decisions that clarified eligibility. It wasn't the companies doing the wrong thing—they were given one bit of advice and the courts have decided otherwise. It's now about how we get them to maintain and honour their obligations. Large miners will be able to do it, and for smaller miners it will be more challenging. It wasn't the companies doing the wrong thing. They were given one bit of advice. Courts have decided otherwise. It's now about how we get them to maintain and honour their obligations. Large miners will be able to do it. For smaller miners, it will be more challenging. They were not cases of deliberate noncompliance. They were cases where the law was unclear, the boundaries of coverage were contested and businesses structured their operations based on reasonable interpretations that were only resolved years later by litigation. The result was the real prospect of large, immediate liabilities that posed genuine risks to business viability, employment and investment.

The bill strikes the right balance because it upholds the principle that lawful levies must be paid. It ensures workers' entitlements are protected, and it recognises that imposing immediate full repayment of historical debts arising from legal uncertainty could cause disproportionate harm, including insolvencies and job losses. The staged repayment model ensures that employers contribute the overwhelming majority of what is owed, where the conditional waiver recognises the exceptional circumstances and incentivises compliance. Crucially, the fund itself will absorb any shortfall arising from the waiver, and advice before the parliament makes clear that, given the limited number of anticipated arrangements and the front-loaded nature of repayments, there is no material risk to the scheme's financial viability. This is not about shifting costs onto other coal producers or compliant employers. Their levy rates are unaffected. The integrity of the scheme remains intact.

Industry has worked closely with government to design these arrangements. The Australian Industry Group, which has been heavily involved, has been very clear that many businesses faced hardship or insolvency without some model of reform. That would impact, of course, thousands of jobs and needlessly put them at risk. The Minerals Council of Australia has also welcomed the bill as a positive step in resolving commercial and financial uncertainty, and I note the Mining and Energy Union has also expressed support. So there you go. You've got the Liberal Party, the National Party, the Mining and Energy Union, the Minerals Council, the Australian Industry Group and the government all in one big group hug in favour of workers. How about that?

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Love it!

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There you go. The minister on the other side of the chamber is saying he loves it, but it also shows that, without ideology dictating industrial relations policy, there is room for cooperation where it's appropriate.

From a small business employment perspective, the bill is particularly important, and this is the part that matters most, of course, to many people on this side of the chamber. Service providers to the mining sector often operate on tight margins, employ highly skilled workers and invest heavily in safety and compliance. Sudden retrospective liabilities of this scale can be fatal regardless of intent or past conduct, particularly when everybody acknowledges that the employers did not engage in misconduct. If there is to be change, the government needs to be facilitators towards a better future, and the parliament is taking that responsibility.

By avoiding unnecessary business failures, it's not just good economics, though it is. It's actually just good social policy, because what we actually want is to make sure that Australians are empowered and have more agency and control over their lives, not simply make people mendicants of the state. Every insolvency avoided is jobs preserved, families protected and regional communities kept strong. This bill provides certainty, stability and a clear pathway forward. For those reasons the opposition supports the bill, and no doubt it's the reason that it's not been put forward by the Treasurer.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today in support of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. I imagine most of us take it for granted when we can just flick a switch and the lights are on, the kettle boils, the fridge is cold, the oven is warm and we can sit back and enjoy the latest bingeworthy show on Netflix. But, of course, none of this would be possible without the people who dedicate their working lives to supplying the resources we need for energy supply, and I'm talking about our mining workforce in particular.

My electorate of Shortland straddles the Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast, and these are critical centres for Australia's coalmining industry and home to thousands of coalminers. These hardworking people are entitled to the long service leave that has accrued during their employment. This is regardless of whether they have worked for one or multiple employers. They deserve to have their continuity of service recognised without penalty. Workers in the black-coal mining industry hold transferable skills, and they can and will move their employment to where there is demand. That is why it makes sense, like certain other industries, that their long service leave is portable, as is the case for building and construction, community services and contract cleaning. The coal long service leave scheme is funded by a levy on employers and ensures workers keep their entitlements even if they change employers. It's part of a dense architecture of support for the coalmining industry that's grown up organically and through struggle from workers and their representatives over decades.

It's an industry that is incredibly dangerous and risky. Every year I attend the miners' memorial at Aberdare or Cessnock, where there are listed the names of the more than 1,800 men, women, and children as young as eight, who have died in our coalmines, supplying energy to our country. Miners make enormous sacrifices in a very risky industry. Their struggle has been, in part, for safe workplaces but also for the architecture that goes around that, in a truly tripartite way. Whether it's the mining rescue service, whether it's long service leave, whether it's the broader safety scheme or the superannuation, this is an industry where it's genuinely tripartite—where workers and their representatives, the unions, and good employers strive together to have world's-best regulation. And this legislation goes towards that.

There are impediments to the success of the current scheme for black-coal industry workers. Firstly, there's the issue of historical levies owed by employers. This has meant that employees have been unable to accrue and access long service leave entitlements. Secondly, the additional levy employers must pay on late levy payments needs to change to meet current cash rates, to encourage employers to pay on time. This bill will ensure more Australian workers can access their lawful long service leave entitlements. This bill incentivises employers to comply with the coal long service leave scheme. It will ensure workers in the black-coal mining industry can be more certain of their financial future. And, ultimately, this is about the Albanese Labor government standing up for workers' entitlements.

Our miners deserve this certainty, particularly at a time when some mines are closing and many hardworking Australians are struggling with the cost of living. This is why it makes sense that this government is amending existing legislation to remove the current barriers to some eligible workers being able to accrue and access their long service leave entitlements.

In my great electorate of Shortland, I'm no stranger to the mining industry, and thousands of my constituents have spent their lives employed at the local collieries. I'm incredibly proud of that. In fact, my electorate is named after Lieutenant John Shortland from the First Fleet, who was the first European to discover coal in Australia, in 1797. Just a short drive from my electorate office sits the Chain Valley Colliery, on the southern end of Lake Macquarie. This colliery operates as part of an integrated mining operation that includes the smaller Mannering Colliery, just a few minutes down the road, and supplies the Vales Point Power Station. Underground mining operations began in 1962, with thermal coal extracted from the Wallarah, Great Northern and Fassifern seams over this period. For decades, miners have combined bord-and-pillar and miniwall mining to supply high quality thermal coal, primarily to the nearby Vales Point Power Station.

At its peak employment period in the mid-1980s, Chain Valley Colliery boasted a workforce of around 380 personnel. These employees, a skilled workforce of miners, engineers and administrative staff, have played, and continue to play, a vital role in supporting the energy supply in our region. And they're just some of the over 1,000 coalminers who work in my region, who live in my electorate. They'll cross Five Islands Bridge to work in the coalmines on the other side of the lake or go up the valley to work in the mines up the Hunter Valley. I'm incredibly grateful for the sacrifice they make, and I honour their sacrifice and the sacrifice of the tens of thousands of retired coalminers who have graced my region.

I hope this legislation sends the clear message to workers like those at the Chain Valley Colliery that the Albanese Labor government values their vital contribution and has their back. It's the right thing to do, and we know how much it will mean to miners and mining families, not only in my electorate but right across the country.

We know there have been cases of employers who have disputed whether some workers have coverage under the coal long service leave scheme, and this has caused considerable stress and anxiety amongst coalminers and their families—not knowing whether they were able to accrue or even access their entitlements and not knowing if there was anything they could do about it. So, as I said, under this bill, employers will be incentivised to comply with the coal long service leave scheme. Employers will be able to repay their debts over a period of six years, making debt management more predictable and manageable. The 20 per cent debt waiver will incentivise participation in the payment arrangement scheme by supporting employers with significant levy liabilities.

We're streamlining the onboarding pathway for employers who opt in to the payments arrangement scheme. Employers will provide Coal Long Service Leave—the organisation—with information necessary to create new or updated service records for workers coming into the scheme. Ordinarily, this information would include service records and wage data. But what about when someone's records are missing? What happens then? The good thing about this bill is that it will allow for reasonable assumptions to be made about a worker's service so they don't miss out. For example, there is no requirement that employers hold service records that are more than seven years old. In this case, a reasonable assumption of what an employee is entitled to could be made. This is designed to ensure that the loss of historical records or incomplete historical records aren't a barrier to access, that an eligible worker is not excluded from their full entitlement because their employer has failed to do the right thing or accidents have happened.

I understand that Coal Long Service Leave—the organisation—is already working with dozens of employers to assess eligibility for the scheme. These are employers that undertake a broad range of activities across the mining industry. We're talking about maintenance and repair services, labour hire firms that supply maintenance-and-repair labour, shot firer employers, emergency service providers and businesses that conduct testing, inspection and certification of mining operations. It is due to the findings of the relevant Hitachi and Orica cases that the government has moved swiftly to protect the entitlements of mining industry workers. With the clarity gained from these legal proceedings, we can move ahead with this important legislation, and this bill ensures eligible workers get their full entitlements, some dating back 15 years.

The current scheme was hard won by unionist coalminers more than 70 years ago, making it one of the first portable long service leave schemes for blue-collar workers anywhere in the world. It was founded based on their struggle and their sacrifice, and now we're refining it to make it even stronger. In a media release from the Mining and Energy Union on 27 November last year welcoming the legislation, general secretary Grahame Kelly said:

Legislation introduced to Parliament today strengthens the Coal Long Service Leave Scheme and ensures coal workers get the money they are owed.

He said it was a 'long-overdue fix that puts workers first', and I wholeheartedly agree.

This bill is another example of how the Albanese Labor government is standing up for our miners, just like we did before the federal election on 25 May, which saw Labor retain government with the start of our same job, same pay changes. This began on 1 November 2024, and it was a fantastic initiative for Aussie workers, particularly coalminers. Same job, same pay has been a game changer. I remember when the former minister for employment and workplace relations Murray Watt joined me in Newcastle just two months after same job, same pay came into force. Just in that short time, just in the first two months of operation, 120 New South Wales mineworkers saw their wages grow by up to $35,000, and, at the same time, another 1,500 New South Wales coalminers had applications in for their wage rises.

This pay rise was long overdue, because coalminers doing the same job should get paid the same amount of money.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Hear, hear.

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Coalminers who risk their lives every day—and the member for Paterson has been a staunch defender of this initiative—who get up and risk their lives to power our state, should not face wage apartheid because one happened to be directly employed and another was employed through a labour hire provider. That's why I'm so proud of same job, same pay, and that's why I was so horrified that this initiative was opposed by the Liberal and National parties, who voted against it. In fact, the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, even went so far as to call these laws dangerous. Well, it's dangerous to allow wage apartheid. It's dangerous to say coalminers don't deserve the same pay for doing the same job.

At the same time, we saw then coalition frontbencher the member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, before he defected to One Nation saying same job, same pay was 'ridiculous'. Let's not forget that his new-found friends in One Nation also voted against it or didn't even bother showing up to vote at all in their work-to-rule campaign. One Nation called the new laws a sham, demonstrating yet again that they're happy to don the hi-vis, coat their face with a bit of coal dust and claim to be the friends of coalminers but, when coalminers need them to stand up for their rights at work to say that people should get paid the same for doing the same job, they disappear or, even worse, vote against it. Let's be very clear about this. Pauline Hanson and One Nation are no friends of coalminers. They're happy to schmooze with mining bosses. They're happy to take the largesse from large mining corporations but they vote against coalminers' interests every day of the week, and people in my community are jack of it.

Let's also not forget the plight of hundreds of workers at the Myuna Colliery at Wangi Wangi, Lake Macquarie. Workers were at risk of losing their jobs there because of a commercial impasse between Origin Energy and Centennial Coal about supply of coal. That's why I was so pleased that our community campaign sprung up, led by the mining unions—the MEU, the AMWU, the ETU, the Coal Officers Organisation and Professionals Australia—to say that we need certainty for the 300 workers and their families at the Myuna Colliery. I was proud to join with the other Hunter Labor MPs in calling for Origin Energy and Centennial to do the right thing—sacrifice a tiny bit of profit to give certainty to those workers at Myuna Colliery.

Our view has long been that, as long as Eraring power station is open, it should be supplied by coal from Myuna Colliery, which is a captured coalmine that has supplied coal since the start of the power station. It has no opportunity to supply coal to the export market because it is a captured coalmine. I was delighted that the public campaign led by the workers and their representatives was successful and that Origin and Centennial have come to the party. There is a good prospect that Myuna Colliery will remain open for the life of the Eraring power station, and I pay tribute to everyone involved in that campaign.

I stand here proudly today in support of this bill with the knowledge that the Albanese Labor government is improving the wages and entitlements of hardworking Australians. Once again, we're delivering on what we promised. I stand here proudly with coal miners and their families and say, 'We've got your back. We acknowledge and are deeply grateful for the sacrifice you make to keep power on in our state and our nation, and to provide export dollars. We will always stand up for your wages and conditions and say, 'We're proud of the job you do, we're proud of the sacrifice you make, we honour the sacrifice you make and we will always stand up to protect you and make sure that you have safe working conditions and fair entitlements.' On that note, I commend the bill to the House.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bowen Basin.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'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.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

National Party.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's overtaken iron ore.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise today to speak in support of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. I do so not only as a member in this place and the very proud member for Paterson but also as the proud daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter of coalminers and the proud friend, the proud aunt—someone who is well and truly still enmeshed among those who either used to work in the coal industry or still do.

I grew up in a household shaped by the rhythms of the coal industry, by shift work. My father worked dogwatch, which these days is known as night work, for the last 17 years of his career—17 continuous years of dogwatch. I remember seeing him come home just as I was about to go to school every morning. I can remember that a big deal in my house was when mum got an extra small washing machine to wash dad's overalls so she didn't have to clean out our normal machine after washing those clothes. Times have changed in the coalmining industry, and that is a good thing.

My father was a coalminer at Bloomfield colliery, and I'm proud to say that my grandfather worked there, too. To this very day, we still extract coal out of that mine, which is less than a kilometre from my house, where I live now. We've been doing so and sending it to Japan for 90 years. That's the depth and the breadth of coal and how much it means not only to my region and the people who extract it but also to our country and the revenue we gain from it. I want to thank each and every one of those workers who continues to extract coal from Bloomfield to this very day. It is an important part of our story.

Coalmining isn't just an industry in our region; it's actually part of the fabric of who we are—our identity. It's powered our nation, sustained regional economies like the Hunter and provided generations of working people with good incomes, with secure, skilled employment. And it will continue to be an integral part of the Hunter for many years to come. That's why it's so important that, when we say we back the coal mining industry, we mean we're backing its workers 100 per cent of the way. This bill is doing exactly that.

At its heart, this legislation is about fairness. It's about making sure that workers in the coalmining industry can access long service leave entitlements that they've lawfully earned—entitlements that recognise the physical demands, the risk, the long-term commitment required in this industry and, as was just pointed out by the member for Riverina, also the changing nature of work in the industry. In coal in the Hunter, we're not so much FIFO workers as in fly-in fly-out. People drive long hours on top of a 12-hour shift in our region. Sometimes they'll drive up to two hours to get to work, work for 12 hours and then drive home again. It's a very long day. That's why these people need to be paid fairly and properly.

Eligible workers in the coal industry are entitled to portable long service leave under the coal long service leave scheme. That has been the law for decades. But the reality is that for too long some workers have been unable to accrue or access those entitlements not because they were ineligible but because of prolonged disputes about employer coverage under the scheme. Over many years, a number of employers have disputed whether they employed eligible workers in the coalmining industry. These disputes had very real consequences. They have left workers without service records in many cases, they have prevented accrual of entitlements and in some cases they have meant that workers who dedicated years of their life to the industry walked away without the long service leave they were, in fact, entitled to. That's just not acceptable.

I want to share an example from my electorate of Paterson. Stuart, from Maitland, spent nearly seven years working almost entirely on coalmine sites while employed by a contractor. About 90 per cent of his time was on coalmines. There was no question he was working in the mining industry, but, because of the way the law operated at the time, his employer was able to avoid paying the black coal long service leave scheme. In effect, it was a loophole and one that left workers like Stuart carrying the cost. Eventually, workers challenged it. The matter went through a major dispute and was ultimately recognised but only after a significant fight—and with the support of the Mining and Energy Union, I might add.

Stuart lodged a claim for his long service leave. He had to gather years of evidence—site login records, employment documents and detailed work histories—just to have his service recognised. When his claim was finally approved, his accrued long service leave increased from roughly 300 hours to around 900 hours. He told me it was about fairness. He was working side by side with employees directly engaged by the mine. We refer to those people as the 'permanent shirts' as opposed to the contractors. He was doing the same job on the same crew day after day, sometimes night after night. They were accruing 13 weeks after eight years. He was accruing far less. It's simply not right.

Stuart now has two young children and, like many long-term miners, he hopes one day to use his accrued leave to either spend extended time with his family or as a bridge into retirement. As he said, if you're working on a coal mine, you should clearly be covered. It shouldn't depend on what logo appears on your payslip or your shirt. And that's precisely what this bill seeks to address.

This bill is designed to fix the problem at its source. It incentivises major employer compliance with the coal long service leave scheme with clear and practical focus on connecting workers to their full long service leave entitlements. Importantly, where records are missing—and there will be people listening to this wondering about their records—because records that are more than seven years old sometimes are not kept, they are no longer required to be kept. This bill allows for reasonable assumptions to be made. This is a critical reform. It ensures that workers are not denied their entitlements simply because the historical records are incomplete, unavailable or have been discarded. In other words, this bill places the focus where it belongs: on the worker, not on the paperwork or on the gaps that no longer serve any legitimate purpose.

The benefits of this bill will be felt across a wide range of employees in the coalmining industry. At this stage, it's difficult to quantify the precise number of workers who will benefit, as employers will need to submit service records and eligible wage data. But what we do know is that the Coal Long Service Leave is actively engaging with dozens of employers to assess eligibility. These employers operate across a broad range of activities within the industry, including maintenance and repair services, labour-hire firms supplying maintenance and repair workers, shotfirer employers, emergency service providers and businesses conducting testing, inspection and certification. This really matters, because the modern coalmining workforce is very diverse. It extends well beyond the mine gate, and it includes thousands of skilled workers whose labour is essential to the safe and efficient operation of the industry.

This bill also recognises the realities facing employers, particularly in the light of recent legal activity. Findings in the Hitachi and Orica cases have clarified coverage for many employers in the coalmining industry. As a result, some employers have now accrued substantial historical levy debts, often going back many years. This legislation does not ignore that reality. Instead, it introduces practical, sensible measures to support compliance while easing the financial and administrative burden on employers. We can't forget that these employers need to generate a revenue too. We should never forget that. Under this bill, employers will be able to repay the historical levy debts in a predictable and manageable way over a six-year period. This gives businesses certainty, stability and time to plan, while ensuring that the scheme receives the funds needed to support workers' entitlements. It is a win-win.

This bill also introduces a 20 per cent debt waiver for employers who opt into the payment arrangement scheme. We want to reward these proactive employers who want to do the right thing. We're going to reward them with a 20 per cent debt waiver. Particularly for businesses with significant levy liabilities, it encourages participation rather than avoidance. In addition, where employers have already paid long-service leave entitlements directly to employees upon cessation of employment, those amounts can be deducted from their historical debt. This avoids double payment and recognises good-faith actions already taken by employers. I want to thank the employers who do the right thing for that. It is very important. Importantly, participation in the payment arrangement scheme is entirely voluntary. Employers can choose the approach that best suits their circumstances, and, if an employer chooses not to opt in, employees still retain the ability to pursue queries about their eligibility for the scheme through existing mechanisms.

The bill also provides a time limited opportunity for employers to access a more streamlined onboarding pathway, one that's expected to be significantly faster than the current bespoke onboarding process, which can take up to 12-to-18 months. The streamlined pathway includes simplified wage calculations, reducing the need to recreate historical payroll slips, which can be a bit of a nightmare. It allows for reasonable assumptions to address unavoidable historical data gaps, and it enables payment arrangements to progress without needing to resolve every historical data issue up front, ensuring that debt repayment and worker connection to entitlements are not unnecessarily delayed.

Finally, this bill strengthens compliance with the Coal Long Service Leave scheme by addressing a technical defect related to the additional levy applied to late payments. The additional levy exists to encourage employers to pay their levies on time. However, it's currently calculated using a rate that's no longer published by the Reserve Bank of Australia. As a result, it doesn't effectively deter late payments and doesn't align with the scheme's original intent. This bill that we're moving in the House today fixes that defect by tying the additional levy to the Reserve Bank of Australia's cash rate. This restores the integrity of the compliance mechanism and supports timely payments into the scheme, ultimately benefiting workers and allowing employers to know where they stand in relation to the RBA cash rate.

This bill is grounded in fairness, practicality and respect for working people and those who employ them. It acknowledges the central role of coalmining regions like mine, the mighty Hunter. It supports employers to do the right thing. Most importantly, it ensures that workers, the men and women who have given so much to this industry and our country, can access the long service leave entitlements that they've earned. As the daughter of a coalminer and as a proud representative of the Hunter, I really want to commend this bill to the House, and I want to thank those people who get up early in the morning, go to work and don't go to bed until very late or work through the night. It is a hard job in the coal industry. No-one denies how hard it is. It's still full of risk, but it's also full of good reward, and it's something that each one of us in this place can feel proud of, not only because of the employment it provides the people of Australia but because of the wealth that it provides our nation as well. I commend the bill to the House.

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

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour, and the member will be granted leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.