PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland state government has invited the mining sector to comment on a new Mine Safety Framework Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS), which was looking to amend the state’s mine health and safety legislation.

Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said on Wednesday that ensuring Queensland mineworkers returned home safely after each shift was of paramount importance to the Newman government.

“Queensland is recognised internationally for its excellent mine safety record; however, no system is perfect, and I believe these proposals will ensure our mine sites are even safer for employees.”

The proposed reforms included an increase in the number of coal industry safety and health representatives from three to four, the clarification of the role of industry safety and health representatives, and the requirement for all mines to have a single safety and health management system that covers both company employees and contractors.

The reforms would also look to ensure that key safety positions at mine sites became statutory roles with a Board of Examiners competency certificate required; and that stone dusting and water barrier requirements for underground coal operations, to further minimise the risk of fire or explosion, were improved; while standardising the management of fatigue, drugs, alcohol and fitness for work across both the quarry and coal sector.

Cripps said he was pleased these proposals addressed the safety of increasing numbers of contract workers in Queensland mines.

“Recent data suggests contractors are more likely to be injured on our mine sites - sometimes fatally - which is why these proposals will clarify that everyone, contractor or mine employee, is required to operate under a single safety and health management system on site,” he said.

“We are also proposing to increase the number of coal industry safety and health representatives from three to four and clarify the important role that union safety and health representatives play in the mining industry.”

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed the release of the framework, saying reforms to the safety legislation were a critical element in further advancing the safety and health performance of the Queensland mining industry.

“With our coal and metalliferous mining safety Acts more than a decade old, there is now the opportunity to clean up many of the unnecessary prescriptive elements that have been loaded into the Acts over time,” the QRC’s CEO Michael Roche said.

“It should be the aim of all stakeholders to use this timely opportunity to ensure the state’s mine safety legislation supports the globally recognised best practice standard of risk-based management approaches to safety.

“The health and safety of our workforce is the industry’s number one priority and our mining industry health and safety laws, good as they are, have not in all respects promoted ongoing improvements in safety performance.”

However, trade union CFMEU has called the proposed changes a “mixed bag”, warning that its coal mineworkers should be wary of the raft of proposed changes.

The CFMEU’s Queensland district president Stephen Smyth said that while the union supported the introduction of additional industry check inspectors and an increase in the number of statutory rolls, it was opposed to turning these check inspectors into “toothless tigers”.

“The union is concerned that the inclusion of this proposal is the result of intense industry lobbying from companies that are ideologically opposed to mineworker-elected safety representatives with statutory powers,” Smyth said.

“There is no justification for the government’s proposal to drastically weaken their powers. Furthermore the election of safety reps must be done by those who work at the coal face. This system has been developed over 100 years to ensure that workers themselves have a say in the operation of the safety system covering them.”

The Department of Natural Resources and Mines will host a series of forums in Queensland mining communities, beginning on September 16, to discuss the proposed reforms with managers and employees of coal and metalliferous mining operations.

Industry stakeholders have 60 days to lodge submissions about the issues outlined in the Queensland Mine Safety Framework RIS.