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Committee’s report

The committee tabled its report on 4 November 2022. 

View: Report No. 25, 57th Parliament - Coal Mining Safety and Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022
View:  Government Response - tabled on 8 November 2022
View: Introductory speech 
View: Bill 
View: Explanatory Notes
View: Erratum to Explanatory Notes
View: Statement of compatibility 

about the bill

On 12 October 2022, the Minister for Resources introduced the Coal Mining Safety and Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 into the Queensland Parliament.  The Bill was referred to the Transport and Resources Committee for detailed consideration.

The principal objectives of the Bill relate to two Queensland Government priorities:

1. Safety and health – to provide for exceptions to direct employment requirements for coal mining statutory positions;  and
2. Resources – to enable implementation of a key action in the draft Queensland Resources Industry Development Plan (QRIDP), as well as several housekeeping amendments to a number of Acts in the Resources portfolio to address operational issues and correct clerical errors.

Safety and health 

A key objective of the Bill is to provide for some exceptions to direct employment requirements under the Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999 (the CMSH Act) for coal mining statutory positions which come into effect on 25 November 2022, when the transitional period ends. The direct employment requirements commenced on 25 May 2020 and require that a person must be an employee of the operator of a coal mine to be appointed to a safety critical statutory position at the coal mine. The impacted statutory positions required to be directly employed by the coal mine operator are:

• for all coal mines ⎯ site senior executive (SSE)
• for surface mines only ⎯ open-cut examiner (OCE)
• for underground mines only ⎯ underground mine manager (UMM), ventilation officer (VO), explosion risk zone (ERZ) controller, electrical engineering manager and mechanical engineering manager.

Since the direct employment amendments were passed, challenges to implementing these requirements have arisen relating to corporate and operational structures, unplanned short-term absences, economic viability for low-risk operations (exploration activities) and situations where a contractor is substantially responsible for the mine operations. Coal mining industry representatives have stated the requirements, if not amended, would have the potential to impact its ability to consistently supply coal and, as a result, would affect the financial viability and sustainability of their businesses. 

The exceptions to direct employment requirements included in the Bill are needed to ensure coal mining industry companies have practical ways of implementing the direct employment requirements that do not unreasonably disrupt their current corporate structures and employment arrangements. 

Resources 

The Bill also proposes the following amendments to the Resources Acts:

• Amend the Mineral Resources Act 1989 (MRA) to implement a framework to defer rent for specific critical minerals mining leases.
• Amend the compliance provisions to remove the requirement for resource authority holder agreement to a monetary penalty for non-compliance under the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 (P&G Act) Act, the Geothermal Energy Act 2010 (GE Act), and the Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2009 (GHG Act).
• Minor amendments to reflect the consequential renumbering of provisions in the GE Act and the GHG Act and to correct a provision heading and an error in the Mineral and Energy Resources (Common Provisions) Act 2014.

timeline

Submissions close:    3:00 pm, Friday, 21 October 2022
Public briefing:          Monday, 24 October 2022 - Program - Broadcast - Transcript
Public hearing(s):      Tuesday, 25 October 2022, 8:15am - 9:15am - Program - Broadcast - Part1  Broadcast - Part 2  - Transcript
Report due date:       4 November 2022