Report on mine safety watchdog released

Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson said today that the Bligh Government had taken a number of significant steps to improve safety in Queensland mines.

Minister Wilson said nothing was more important than the safety and health of the men and women who work in Queensland mines.

“Mining companies are bound by law to ensure miners’ safety and I’ve told mining chiefs they must do more to lift the safety performance on every shift at every mine,” Mr Wilson said.

“Those responsible for safety must fully play their part.”

“There were four deaths in the mines in the last financial year. They were tragedies that touched the lives of everyone in the community. The industry has simply got to turn those statistics around,” Mr Wilson said.

The Minister’s comments follow the tabling of a report on the Mines Inspectorate by the Queensland Ombudsman.

“I welcome the Ombudsman taking a look at the Inspectorate’s operations. Many of his recommendations have already been implemented and I will carefully examine the rest of them,” he said.

Minister Wilson said a new industry safety and health levy announced in the recent State Budget would significantly boost the safety services provided by the Mines Inspectorate.

“The industry has entered a new era of mining in Queensland. In boom times like now, it’s more important than ever to have a highly-skilled and well-resourced Mines Inspectorate,” Mr Wilson said.

“It’s the mine safety watchdog. It provides vital safety and health services that help save lives. Nothing is more important than that,” Mr Wilson said.

“Queensland has the best mine safety legislation in Australia and it must continue to be enforced mine by mine, employer by employer, worker by worker. That’s where the Mines Inspectorate steps in.

“This new levy will fund seven new specialist mines inspectors, two investigators, five scientific research staff, an occupational hygienist, a statistician and a manager of health surveillance.

“We’re asking $26 million from an industry that was worth $26 billion to Queensland in 2006/07,” he said.

Minister Wilson said the Mines Inspectorate had also been revitalised to reflect a new, modern era of mining.

“We launched a national recruitment drive to attract the brightest and the best. As a result, we’ve appointed a new Chief Inspector of Coal Mines and recruited ten new inspectors. More are on the way.

He said a number of other significant safety steps had also been undertaken.

A second round of unannounced audits of targeted mines across the state is well underway. This follows the success of last year’s unannounced audits that saw mines inspectors arrive, unannounced, at targeted mines to conduct official audits.

“The sole purpose of these audits is to boost safety. Some of the findings from last year hang a lantern on serious safety issues. That’s exactly what they were designed to do – to find faults and for mining companies to fix them,” Mr Wilson said.

The Minister had also requested an independent review into safety statistics in the annual safety report.

“I took this action after concerns were raised directly with me that some of the statistics in the report did not accurately reflect the safety performance in some mines,” he said.

“As far as those recommendations go, nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out.”

A tripartite industry committee is working on implementing those recommendations.

“Queensland has one of the best mine safety and health records in the world. It’s in everyone’s best interests to keep it that way,” he said.

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