Fears as mine near-misses jump

DANGEROUS near-misses at mines and quarries are soaring just months after an unprecedented crackdown on safety aimed at protecting lives. Since July, the latest data shows there were 1535 near-miss incidents across Queensland.

In July last year the sector and State Government agreed to a mammoth safety reset in the wake of a string of deaths.

This is on top of the 70 “serious accident” notifications made during the same eight month period, which are incidents that either cause a death or force someone to be admitted to hospital.

The figures come after one of the state’s worst mine safety periods on record with eight deaths between July 2018 and January 2020 and suggest the number of near misses, known as high potential incidents (HPI), are on track to eclipse last year’s numbers, when 1935 incidents were recorded.

The number of serious accidents reported is comparable with other years, including last financial year when there were 110.

CFMEU Mining and Energy Queensland District president Stephen Smyth said he was “very surprised” by the

number of serious accidents, which he considered to be “pretty high”.

Mr Smyth said he would like to see the investigation outcomes of the HPIS and serious accidents.

An HPI can include equip

ment failure, theft or other loss of explosives, structural failures and entrapment.

It doesn’t necessarily result in injury but must be reported.

The Government introduced industrial manslaughter legislation to parliament last

month aimed at bettering safety in the sector following a shocking eight deaths in 18 months.

The industry was also slammed in a recent review of fatal accidents at the state’s mines and quarries over the past 20 years, which found a large number of deaths were because a worker was in a preventable situation they were inadequately trained for.

But Mines Minister Anthony Lynham said the number of HPIS being reported showed the mine safety reset was working by creating a strong reporting culture.

“Queensland now has the toughest mine safety and health laws in the world,” he said.

LNP mines spokesman Dale Last said it was concerning the figures were “still at those levels”.

“My concern is that while there’s been verbal assurances and commitments to improve mine safety standards, this hasn’t necessarily flowed through to the coal face so to speak,” he said.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said that safety was the shared top priority from the boardroom to the mine site.