Moranbah mine safety inquiry probes alleged cover-ups, ‘rancid culture’

A new inquiry into Queensland’s coal mines has revealed alarming allegations including cover-ups, a ‘rancid culture’ and miners crying over pressure to not seek medical attention.

Coalface whistleblowers have shared shocking alleged safety failures across Queensland’s mining industry including claims a “tiny error” in state legislation “means the boss can kill or maim you without repercussions”.

Robert Heron, who made a submission to the Inquiry into Coal Mining Industry Safety ahead of its public hearing in Moranbah on Wednesday, said the probe’s scope fell short on adequately covering harm and safety risks to coal mine workers.

The inquiry aims to determine how many of the 65 recommendations handed down after the Grosvenor mine blast on May 6, 2020 – that seriously injured five workers – had been enacted across Queensland coal mines over the past 2.5 years.

Mr Heron, in his submission, said so long as prior data about potential mining areas had “not been directly associated with catastrophic consequences” then they were considered “only theoretically dangerous”.

“From a legal perspective, it is a defence to argue that an outcome was unforeseeable,” Mr Heron said.

Turi Wiki (left) and Wayne Sellars (right) were two of the five men injured in the Grosvenor mine explosion.

He further slammed certain mine managers as “narcissistic” with a recent Brady Report into mine safety “paint(ing) a disturbing picture”.

“Managers are often workers that are handpicked, received patronage and move up through the organisations with the blessings of executives that apparently don’t give (redacted) about the workers,” Mr Heron said.

Submissions also contain numerous allegations of a “tick and flick” safety culture across Queensland coal mines with limited incident reporting in the face of production pressures and bonuses.

A now retired paramedic contractor with clinics and mine rescue teams across Queensland wrote, “I was appalled at the amount of cover ups by mines’ safety officers to keep injury statistics lower”.

The anonymous submissions alleged some mine officers “ma(de) all efforts” to prevent workers seeing a doctor “as this would elevate” reporting.

The entry to Grosvenor Mine, near Moranbah. Picture: Daryl Wright

“I have had mine workers come to me in private crying as their mine supervisor would make sure they did not see a doctor or if they did, the mine supervisor would make their life hell and the worker would leave,” one submission stated.

The former paramedic said the “culture is rancid” and alleged sites operated by a certain major mining company “were the main offender to these disgusting events and bullying control”.

Mine Manager’s Association of Australia Incorporated president Gavin Taylor wrote there had been “both statistically and anecdotally … a decline in safety and health” including a scarcity of “suitably qualified (mines) inspectors being recruited and retained”.

Mr Taylor wrote mining site senior executives were currently “not required to have any qualification in mining”, despite this being recommended in the Regulatory Impact Statement released in 2013.

Speaking at the Moranbah public hearing on Wednesday are Isaac Regional Council Mayor Anne Baker and Bowen Basin practising statutory official Scott Leggett.