Business owners worried about workers

DAVE Cooper has built a life for himself in the Western Downs but like countless other workers he is facing the prospect of moving away from his family for work if the Queensland Government does not give New Acland Mine stage three approval.

Since his employment service started in 2005, 80% of work for Coops Queensland has come from the New Acland Mine.

“For our business to stay viable in the area that we’re in, it’s critical,” he said.

“We may need to consider moving into another area and away from the region.”

Coops Queensland will be forced to adapt to whatever decision is made, come September 1.

“There’ll be staff changes,” he said.

“They want to go home to the families and their sporting groups and the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to.”

Mr Cooper has grave concerns for his employees if the time comes that they are made redundant.

“They’re stressed, they’re wanting some clarity in their lives, they’re wanting to know that they’re going to be able to support their families,” he said.

Mr Cooper described the State Government’s initial approval and revocation of that approval for stage three as a “sucker punch” to his business, and the wider community.

The instability is also affecting fellow business owner Jason White, the co-director of HEQ Services.

Mr White is expecting a child in a matter of days, but whether he is able to provide for his family is in the government’s hands.

After 18 years of providing hundreds of employees to the mine, HEQ Services are now facing the prospect of having to move out of the region to find more stable work closer to the major cities.

Mr White said the deadline for the State Government to approve the progressions had been looming for some time, but it was only now that they had seen a need to take action.

“New Hope has always maintained that stage two has been running out of coal,” he said.

“Unfortunately I think the government thought it was a bluff, or a boy-who-cried-wolf situation.

“It’s only now that they’ve actually set a deadline that people are starting to take seriously.”

Mr White’s concerns lie with the wider community, whose local employees will have no choice but to leave the region in search of more work.