Billionaire coal mine owner Chris Wallin to spend up to $1m campaigning against Labor

Chris Wallin will run the campaign in crucial regional electorates ahead of the October Queensland election, in a backlash against rushed ‘secret’ laws he insists discriminate against his workers.

Reclusive Queensland coal billionaire Chris Wallin is launching a cashed-up campaign against the Labor government ahead of the October 26 state election. Picture: Steve Pohlner

A billionaire coal baron will run an anti-Labor campaign in crucial regional electorates ahead of the October Queensland election, in a backlash against rushed and ­“secret” laws he insists discriminate against his workers.

QCoal founder Chris Wallin is director, secretary and ultimate shareholder of Energy Resources Queensland, which has newly registered with the Electoral Commission of Queensland as an official third party organisation for the October 26 poll, enabling it to spend $1m on a statewide campaign.

The Weekend Australian can reveal that the political intervention by the reclusive rich-lister was prompted by the Queensland Labor government changing the law in August last year, requiring QCoal’s Byerwen mine to shut down its miners’ camp and shift all workers to the nearby town of Glenden by 2029.

A “Save Glenden” campaign by then-Isaac Regional Council mayor Anne Baker and the tiny town triggered the shock legislative amendments, which were tacked on to the end of an unrelated child protection bill and not foreshadowed with QCoal.

Glenden, about two hours’ drive west of Mackay on the central Queensland coast and home to about 500 people, was built in the 1980s to house workers at the Glencore-owned Newlands coalmine, but the Swiss mining giant is closing Newlands, and Labor mayor Ms Baker – who retired at the recent council election – called the government approval of the Byerwen mining camp the “catalyst for the final demise of the community”.

A court had earlier ruled QCoal should house its workers in Glenden.

QCoal's Byerwen mining camp.

Mr Wallin and QCoal say the August legislation is unfair because Glencore’s Hail Creek mine, which is about the same distance from Glenden as Byerwen, is allowed to keep its miners’ camp open with no requirement for workers to live in the town.

They also claim there is not enough available housing in Glenden, and that 55 per cent of Byerwen’s 800 workers live within two hours’ drive of the mine and 90 per cent live in regional Queensland. It would take up to an hour by bus to transport workers from the Byerwen mine back to Glenden, adding an extra two hours on to a standard 12.5-hour shift, QCoal says.

QCoal group executive James Black said the law meant workers had been “denied the basic human choice of where they live” and the government had “played favourites” between Queensland-owned and operated QCoal and the Swiss-based multinational Glencore.

“Of course we and our workers are the losers,” Mr Black said.

The Energy Resources Queensland television, radio, social media and billboard campaign will target Labor-held regional seats – including that of Resources Minister Scott Stewart’s in Townsville, held by 3.1 per cent – with a high proportion of drive-in, drive-out and fly-in, fly-out mine workers.

The QCoal ad.

In one advertisement, a Byerwen worker named Tammy said she had lived in Glenden for 40 years. “People should not be forced to live somewhere that they don’t want to live,” she said.

There are two more marginal Labor electorates in Townsville (Thuringowa and Mundingburra, both with margins of about 3 per cent), and ads will also be aimed at Labor’s marginal electorates in Cairns, the Sunshine Coast and Mackay.

Under Queensland’s electoral laws, parties can spend only $95,964 in each electorate they contest during the official election period, while third-parties can spend up to $1m statewide. Already, four Labor-aligned unions have registered, as well as Mr Wallin’s company and the Queensland Resources Council.

Mr Stewart said he made “no apologies for backing regional Queensland”