I spent all my working life in coal mines before retiring in 2020. In that time I learned a lot about how to cut coal, but even more so, I learned a lot about the people who work in those mines. Their fears, hopes and dreams and how they feel about the changing world.
I also worked at three mines that closed. It was temporarily devastating for myself and my coworkers, but that doesn’t mean that mines should stay open forever. It means that governments and coal companies need to plan properly for when they close.
As our understanding of climate change has developed, it has become crystal clear that the digging, exporting and burning of coal is not compatible with a safe future.
The decision by the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) to approve a 19-year extension to the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO), a joint venture between Glencore and Yancoal, will have major ramifications for both the Hunter region and Australia.
The decision has completely ignored the massive effects that climate change is having on our environment and our health. There were more than 3,000 submissions against this extension, many were from residents of the Hunter region who have been battered by floods, fires and rising living costs.
These people are rightly concerned about the rapidly changing climate, but also about their health, water quality and the irreversible damage being inflicted on what was once pristine countryside.
The massive cost of living increases we’re now facing are being worsened by increasingly frequent and intense storms, floods and fires. Insuring our houses is already becoming an impossibility in some areas.
These changes, in themselves, should have been evidence enough to refuse the extension.
The arguments made by HVO in favour of approving the extension were short-term and economic, and their language should be of concern to everyone in the community.
HVO were very willing to sell out the workforce who have made their mine successful, if they didn’t get what they wanted. They stated that they needed an extension because they had not developed a re-training and transition plan into place for their workers.
Because the new legislation (the Future Jobs and Investment Bill) was not yet passed in the NSW Parliament, they would not have been obliged to support their workforce. When asked by the IPC what the shortest extension would be to support their workforce through a closure, HVO said a shorter extension would be “economically equivalent” to a rejection.
So they basically said that, unless they got a full extension, they would close the mine and the workforce could join the dole queue. This doesn’t fill me with much hope that they will look after their workforce if the price of coal falls, or they lose contracts.
They will do as most overseas companies do – pack their bags and take the billions of dollars they have made with them. The workers? The companies will drop them and the region without a backward glance.
These are companies that have demonstrated that they do not care about their workforce and they certainly don’t care about the environment. They care about making money and then leaving the community to clean up the devastation to families, the local economy and the environment.
Since retiring I have become a passionate advocate for renewable industries and for those industries to be established, where possible, in areas where coal mines will close.
The driving motivation behind this is to cut climate pollution so my grandkids have a shot at a safer future; but also so the people who have helped to power Australia for decades have jobs to transfer into when those mines are shut down, to avoid the devastating effects that mass unemployment has on rural communities.
Establishing renewable industries in these areas doesn’t betray workers, it protects them. It keeps communities alive, giving young people a reason to stay, and gives all of us a fighting chance at a safer climate.
Australia has the skills, the resources and the workers ready to build what comes next. What we need now is for governments to stop delaying, stop pretending the world isn’t changing, and get on with the job. Because our communities, and our future, are worth it.
Darryl Best is a NSW resident and former coal miner
