‘Quite astonishing’: Mining workers worth $1m each to national economy

Every mining and resource worker is worth $1m each to the economy with the industry’s productivity a staggering three times higher than nearest rivals, real estate.

• Billions of dollars and 20k jobs

Every mining and resource worker is worth $1m each to the economy with the industry’s productivity a staggering three times higher than nearest rivals real estate.

But experts say demonising of the resource industry is impacting pride in the workforce and wider sentiment towards the sector, particularly coal mining.

This story is part of The Courier-Mail’s special Future Queensland: Resources series that reveals the truth about the contribution the much-maligned resources industry makes to Queensland. You can read all of our coverage on the special topic page here.

The Demographics Group co-founder and director Simon Kuestenmacher said the contribution of mining to the economy was often underestimated.

He said national economic analysis shows the productivity of mining workers was around three times higher than real estate and finance workers and 17 times more than those who work in hospitality.

“In high finance, each worker produces $300,000 worth of gross domestic product,” he said.

“That is outrageously productive, economically speaking.

“But a miner produces more than a million dollars of GDP, so that is quite astonishing.”

Brianna Jozsef (right) and her mum Chanel Jozsef both work at Bravus Mining and Resources' Carmichael Mine. Photo: Cameron Laird

Mr Kuestenmacher said without mining, entire towns could be killed off, but the pride to defend the contribution of the sector depended on “where you had your barbecue conversation”.

“If you have a barbecue in an inner suburb of a capital city, you’re not too keen to tell people that you work in a coal mine or the resource sector because that gets viewed critically,” he said.

“But if you have a barbecue in Rockhampton it’s fine to say that there.”

New polling has revealed that while a majority of both metro and regional and rural communities agree coal is critical to the economy and important for affordable and reliable energy, sentiment was more divided over the ongoing use of the resource.

The recent online poll by Freshwater Strategy of 1006 eligible Australian voters, exclusively obtained by The Courier-Mail, found a majority of regional and rural voters supported more energy from coal.

On the statements “metropolitan Australia relies on the regional communities which produce and export coal”, “coal remains important in providing affordable and reliable energy for Australian households” and “coal is critical to the Australian economy” a majority of both metro and regional/regional respondents agreed.

A majority also agreed that “without coal for Australian steel, Australia will not be able to meet its housing targets”.

But asked whether they agree or disagree that “coal is an easily replaceable energy source that is damaging our environment”, 43 per cent of metropolitan voters agreed, while 41 per cent for regional/rural disagreed.

Asked whether they agree or disagree that “the negative impacts of coal outweigh its benefits to the Australian economy and households”, 43 per cent of metropolitan voters agreed, while 37 per cent for regional/rural disagreed.

On the final question of, “Do you support or oppose producing more energy from the following sources (Coal)”, 55 per cent of regional and rural respondents said they were in support, with only 25 per cent against and 20 per cent unsure.

Mining is bringing billions of dollars into the Queensland economy.

Metro respondents to the same question answered 42 per cent in support, 35 cent oppose and 20 per cent unsure.

Senior Industry Adviser to Coal Australia Stephanie Black said coal companies were struggling to hire and retain workers because of an “anti-coal narrative” and that risked ending generations of families in the industry.

“All the narrative has been is, ‘you’re done in 2030’. Why would you come into an industry that’s going to be ‘dead’, so part of what Coal Australia wants to do is education and say we will be here past 2030 and there are fantastic opportunities in coal,” she said.

“We’re a very big industry that has been made very small by a handful of people.

“There are great opportunities for a lot of young people but they also don’t hear about it.”

Queensland Resources Council CEO Janette Hewson said public figures talking down the industry had a negative impact on workers wanting to take up a career in mining.

“Queensland needs a healthy economy made up of all industries doing well, so this demonising of a particular industry is not helping … so we really need to lift the conversation,” she said.

Ms Hewson said more transparency around what royalties were being spent on would help the industry get the respect and credit it deserves.

Originally published as ‘Quite astonishing’: Mining workers worth $1m each to national economy