Adani hits back at Anthony Albanese on jobs comments

Anthony Albanese has lashed BHP and other companies for their treatment of miners and urged Adani to get on with exporting thermal coal.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese called on Adani to “actually create the jobs” it has promised. Picture: Supplied

Anthony Albanese has lashed BHP and other major companies for their treatment of miners and urged Adani to get on with exporting thermal coal from the Galilee Basin, as he tries to reframe the political battlelines in Queensland.

The Opposition Leader called on Adani to “actually create the jobs” it had promised, months after leading party figures refused to ­endorse the project during the federal election campaign.

“I call upon Adani to actually create the jobs. It has been ­approved. They need to proceed with creating the jobs that will come,” Mr Albanese said in the mining-reliant town of ­Rockhampton.

READ MORE: Albanese welcomes jobs Adani would create’ | Mayor, MPs tell Labor to stand up for coal jobs

But the Indian company ­responded by saying the project was “well under way” and there were “more than 200 people currently onsite working today”.

An Adani spokeswoman added that there were hundreds of people employed in offices in Townsville, Brisbane and Rockhampton.

“We are also building more ­accommodation for the rail project sites to house our increasing workforce,” she said. “We welcome and encourage Mr Albanese and members of the shadow cabinet to visit.”

In an attempt to change the narrative on mining jobs in central Queensland, Mr Albanese launched an attack on the federal government for failing to crack down on the use of labour-hire workers, who he claimed earned 40 per cent less than full-time workers. He said the increase in labour hire was “blatant cost-cutting by big mining companies”.

Indicating he will go to the next election vowing to crack down on casualisation, Mr Albanese said workers who “do the same job should get the same pay”.

“At one BHP mine in central Queensland, permanent workers are paid $160,000 but labour-hire firm WorkPac pays $114,000,” he said. “The federal government is supporting employers appealing a decision in the Federal Court, which ruled the permanent casual model to be unlawful. The ­Coalition should explain why it supports lower wages for mine workers, which hurts them and is a drag on the national economy.”

Labor went to the last election promising to change employment laws so labour-hire workers earnt the same as direct employees.

Queensland Labor senator ­Anthony Chisholm said big mining companies were culling jobs through automation in central Queensland, with the employment losses not transparent.

He said BHP and Japanese company Mitsubishi Corporation last month announced plans to ­automate 86 trucks that operate in the Goonyella Riverside Mine in the Bowen Basin.

“It means 300 jobs are going to go. They can say none of those people are going to be made ­redundant because they are all ­labour hire and it is not impacting any permanent employees,” Senator Chisholm said.

“Ten years ago, Goonyella employed about 2000 people. Now it has got a 1000 permanent workforce. All the other employees are on labour-hire contracts. What that is doing is changing the nature of these regional towns … people are living day to day or week to week.”

Adani has committed to using Townsville and Rockhampton as its employment hubs, with miners based in the two cities. Construction has begun on the Carmichael mine and it is expected to start shipping coal to India in 2021.

The construction phase will create 1500 direct and 6750 ­indirect jobs.