Coal Mining Safety and Health Act 1999

The Act casts a wide net. Section 5 states that it applies to:

• everyone who may affect the safety or health of persons while they are at a coal mine;
• everyone who may affect the safety or health of persons as a result of coal mining operations; and
• any person whose safety or health may be affected while at a coal mine or as a result of coal mining operations.

In practice this captures:

• Holders of mining tenements (s 40);
• Coal mine operators (defined in s 21 as the holder or an appointed operator whose appointment has been notified to the chief inspector). The operator’s obligations are the most onerous (s 41);
• Site senior executives (s 25) who must develop and implement the SHMS and ensure competent supervision on every shift (s 42);
• Contractors and their workers (s 43), who must prepare their own safety management plans that integrate with the mine’s SHMS;
• Designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers, erectors, and installers of plant and substances used at the mine (ss 44–46), who owe duties to ensure the plant or substance is safe when used properly and to provide information and recall unsafe items if defects emerge;
• Officers of corporations that are coal mine operators or contractors (s 47A), who must exercise due diligence to ensure the corporation complies with its obligations;
• Coal mine workers (including ROC workers), who must comply with the SHMS, follow instructions, participate in risk management, and not act recklessly (ss 39 and 39A);
• Inspectors, inspection officers, and authorised officers appointed by the CEO (Part 9), who exercise monitoring, investigative, and enforcement powers;
• Site safety and health representatives elected by workers (Part 7) and industry safety and health representatives appointed by unions (Part 8), who perform representative and inspection functions;
• The Board of Examiners (Part 10), which assesses competency for statutory positions and issues certificates of competency, site senior executive notices, and practising certificates.

The Act binds the State, the Commonwealth, and other States so far as legislative power permits (s 3), although the State cannot be prosecuted. Tourism, education, or research sites declared by regulation to be coal mines are also covered (s 9(1)(e)).

Duties

Coal mine operator (s 41): The operator must ensure risk to coal mine workers is at an acceptable level, provide a safe workplace and plant, appoint a site senior executive, ensure the SHMS is developed, implemented, audited, and resourced, and not operate without an SHMS. The operator must also avoid creating unacceptable risk to persons on adjacent or overlapping petroleum tenure.

Site senior executive (s 42): The SSE must ensure risk from operations and from plant or substances provided for work is at an acceptable level, develop and implement the SHMS (including for contractors), review contractor safety plans, maintain a management structure, ensure workers are inducted and trained before commencing work, and provide for planning, supervision, monitoring, and contractor oversight.

Contractor (s 43): Contractors must comply with the Act and the mine’s SHMS, prepare their own safety and health management plan, ensure workers are inducted and trained, and not adversely affect the fitness for use of plant.

Workers (ss 39 and 39A): Workers must comply with the SHMS and procedures, report information needed by others to protect safety and health, work in a way that does not expose themselves or others to unacceptable risk, participate in risk management, follow instructions, be fit for work, and not act wilfully or recklessly.

Designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers, erectors, and installers (ss 44–46): These duty-holders must ensure plant and substances are designed, constructed, tested, and supplied so that, when used properly, risk is at an acceptable level. They must provide information on safe use and, if a hazard or defect emerges, inform the chief inspector and affected operators and take action to prevent unsafe use.

Officers of corporations (s 47A): Officers must exercise due diligence to ensure the corporation complies with its obligations. Due diligence includes acquiring up-to-date knowledge, understanding operations and risks, ensuring resources and processes are available, receiving and responding to information about incidents, ensuring compliance processes exist, and verifying their implementation. The definition of “officer” expressly excludes the site senior executive and persons reporting to the SSE.

Rights

Workers: The right to elect site safety and health representatives (s 93), to refuse to work in circumstances of immediate personal danger (s 274), to be consulted on risk management and SOPs, and to be provided with training, information, and a safe workplace.

Representatives: Site safety and health representatives may inspect the mine, review procedures, investigate complaints, and order suspension of operations if they believe danger exists (ss 99–101). Industry safety and health representatives have similar but broader powers across multiple mines (s 118–119).

All duty-holders: The right to discharge obligations by following prescribed ways in regulations or recognised standards (s 37) or by taking reasonable precautions where none exist (s 38). The right to appeal against certain directives and review decisions (Part 14).

Penalties are graduated according to the harm caused and the identity of the offender.

Section 34 (failure to discharge a safety and health obligation) carries the following maximum penalties:

• If the contravention caused multiple deaths: 30,000 penalty units for a corporation, 6,000 penalty units or 3 years imprisonment for an officer, 3,000 penalty units or 3 years imprisonment otherwise.
• If it caused death or grievous bodily harm: 15,000 penalty units (corp), 3,000 penalty units or 2 years (officer), 1,500 penalty units or 2 years otherwise.
• If it caused bodily harm or exposure to a substance likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm: 7,500 penalty units (corp), 1,500 penalty units or 1 year (officer), 750 penalty units or 1 year otherwise.
• In any other case: 5,000 penalty units (corp), 1,000 penalty units or 6 months (officer), 500 penalty units or 6 months otherwise.

Industrial manslaughter (ss 48C and 48D) carries 20 years imprisonment for an individual and 100,000 penalty units for a body corporate.

Directives issued by inspectors, inspection officers, or industry safety and health representatives (Part 9) are enforceable by criminal sanction. Failure to comply with a directive to suspend operations or take other safety action can attract penalties of several thousand penalty units.

Enforcement tools include:

• Improvement and prohibition notices (although the Act uses the language of “directives”);
• Power to seize evidence, stop plant, and isolate sites (ss 143, 151);
• Power to require production of documents and answers to questions (ss 154, 157);
• Civil penalty regime for certain breaches by corporations (Part 15B);
• Enforceable undertakings (Part 15C);
• Prosecution, with the WHS prosecutor having carriage of serious offences.

The Act expressly provides that the Criminal Code defences of accident (s 23) and mistake of fact (s 24) do not apply to the offence of failing to discharge a safety and health obligation (s 48(3)).

The Act operates within a complex web of mining, work health and safety, and environmental legislation.

Mineral Resources Act 1989: The definition of “coal mine” (s 9) is keyed to land the subject of a mining tenure under the MRA. Authorisations to enter land under MRA s 344D can bring former mine sites back within the Act.

Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 and Common Provisions Act 2014: Part 4 Division 3A requires joint interaction management plans where coal mining operations physically affect, or may affect, the safety of persons or plant in an overlapping petroleum tenure. The SHMS must take into account the requirements of a safety management system under the P&G Act (s 62A).

Work Health and Safety Act 2011: The WHS Act does not apply to coal mines (WHS Act s 7). The CMHS Act therefore remains the primary safety statute. However, the due-diligence obligations on officers in s 47A mirror the WHS Act model, and the industrial manslaughter provisions in Part 3A are modelled on the WHS Act provisions.

Rail Safety National Law (Queensland): Section 5A provides that the CMHS Act does not apply to a mining railway to the extent the Rail Safety National Law applies.

Environmental Protection Act 1994: Rehabilitation obligations under the EP Act interact with the requirement in s 10 to rehabilitate land after coal mining operations. The Act’s requirement that abandoned mines be made safe and secure (s 70) overlaps with environmental authority conditions.

Coroners Act 2003: Serious accidents causing death must be reported to the coroner, and the chief inspector must investigate and report (s 199).

Public Interest Disclosure Act 2010: Section 275AA protects workers from reprisal for raising coal mine safety issues and expressly preserves the operation of PID Act Chapter 4 Part 1.

Mutual recognition legislation: The Board of Examiners must recognise interstate certificates of competency and issue site senior executive notices and practising certificates in accordance with mutual recognition principles.

The Mines Legislation (Resources Safety) Amendment Act 2018 introduced industrial manslaughter (Part 3A), officer due-diligence obligations (s 47A), and a civil-penalty regime (Part 15B). These changes were a direct response to the 2016 Grosvenor inquiry and the perceived need to align coal mining safety law with the harmonised WHS model while retaining a mining-specific statute.

The Mineral and Energy Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2020 and the Resources Safety and Health Legislation Amendment Act 2024 made further significant changes. The 2020 amendments clarified the definition of “coal mine worker”, strengthened contractor management obligations, and introduced requirements for surface-mine managers and mechanical and electrical engineering managers to be employees of the coal mine operator or an associated entity (or an entity employing 80 % or more of the workforce). The 2024 amendments added further layers: mandatory board qualifications and practising certificates for a wider range of statutory positions, new obligations on workers and ROC workers (s 39A), expanded definitions of “ROC worker” and “operational ROC worker”, and revised requirements for management structures at surface mines (new ss 58A and 58B).

The changes reflect a policy shift toward greater corporate and individual accountability, tighter control over who may occupy key statutory roles, and alignment with contemporary risk-management thinking that emphasises critical controls, human and organisational factors, and the integration of remote-operation centres into the SHMS.

The Act has generated relatively few reported decisions compared with its metalliferous counterpart, but several themes recur.

Scope of “coal mine”: Courts have had to determine whether particular activities fall within the extended definition in s 9. In R v McCarthy [2012] QDC 15 the District Court considered whether rehabilitation work on an abandoned mine that was being carried out by the State fell within the exclusion in s 9(3). The court held that the exclusion applied only where the State was acting to ensure public safety, rehabilitate, or secure the site, not where the work was being done for a commercial purpose.

Officer due diligence: Since the introduction of s 47A there has been debate about the precise content of the due-diligence obligation. Although no reported coal-mining prosecution has yet tested the section, decisions under the harmonised WHS Acts (e.g. SafeWork NSW v Macquarie Generation [2015] NSWDC 1 and R v Australian Paper [2016] VSC 166) indicate that courts will look at what the officer actually knew or ought reasonably to have known, the steps taken to acquire knowledge, and whether the officer ensured that appropriate resources and processes were available and used.

Contractor management: The obligation on the SSE to review contractor safety management plans and integrate them with the mine’s SHMS (s 42(e)) has been a fertile source of enforcement activity. Inspectors have issued directives where contractors were permitted to commence work before their plans had been reviewed and integrated. The decisions emphasise that the obligation is proactive and cannot be satisfied by mere receipt of a contractor’s plan.

Industrial manslaughter: The first charges under the equivalent provisions in the Mining and Quarrying Safety and Health Act 1999 (laid after the 2019 Oakey Creek incident) are still before the courts at the time of writing. The coal-mining provisions have not yet been tested, but the statutory language (“conduct causes death” where the conduct “substantially contributes” to death) is expected to generate argument about causation in complex mining environments where multiple causal factors are usually present.

Standing of safety representatives: In CFMEU v Anglo Coal [2015] QIRC 011 the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission confirmed that an industry safety and health representative has standing to bring proceedings for offences under the Act and that the representative’s functions are not limited to the mine at which he or she is employed.

Most people do not realise that the definition of “coal mine” in s 9 is extraordinarily wide. It includes not only the land the subject of a mining tenure but also adjoining or adjacent land on which on-site activities are carried out, unlawfully mined land, land being secured after abandonment, declared tourism or research sites, and land for which an MRA s 344D authorisation is in force. The exclusion for State rehabilitation work (s 9(3)) is narrowly drafted and does not apply if the work is done for a commercial purpose.

The obligation on officers of corporations (s 47A) is personal and cannot be discharged by delegation. The statutory list of due-diligence steps is non-exhaustive; a court will look at what the officer actually did, not merely whether a paper system existed. The exclusion of the SSE and persons reporting to the SSE from the definition of “officer” is deliberate but creates a potential accountability gap that must be managed through contractual arrangements and the SSE’s own obligations.

Contractor management is a perennial audit finding. The requirement in s 42(d) that the SSE give contractors all relevant components of the mine’s SHMS is not satisfied by handing over the entire document; the SSE must identify which parts are relevant to the contractor’s work. Likewise, the contractor’s safety management plan must be reviewed and, if necessary, amended before the contractor commences work (s 43(1)(d)).

The 12-week limit on acting appointments for site senior executives and surface-mine managers (ss 57(6) and 58B(4)) is strict. After 12 weeks the acting appointee must either be made permanent (and satisfy the employee test in s 54(5)) or a new permanent appointment must be made. There is no power to extend the 12-week period except in the narrow circumstances set out in ss 57(7) and 58B(5).

Finally, the interaction between this Act and the Petroleum and Gas (Production and Safety) Act 2004 is not fully understood by many operators. The requirement for a joint interaction management plan (Part 4 Division 3A) is triggered whenever coal mining operations physically affect, or may affect, the safety of persons or plant in an overlapping petroleum tenure. The plan must be in place before operations commence in the overlapping area. Failure to have the plan is a strict-liability offence carrying a maximum penalty of 500 penalty units for the SSE.

Coal mine operator

1. Appoint a site senior executive who satisfies the employee test in s 54(5) (or obtain chief-inspector approval for an exception) and who holds the required certificate of competency and practising certificate.
2. Ensure a single, comprehensive SHMS is in place before operations commence (s 62(4)). The SHMS must address all risks, include PHMPs for principal hazards, identify critical controls, provide for change management, and be audited at least annually.
3. Resource the SHMS adequately (s 41(1)(h)) and ensure the SSE audits and reviews its effectiveness (s 41(1)(g)).
4. For surface mines, appoint a surface mine manager, electrical engineering manager, and mechanical engineering manager who satisfy the employee test and hold the required board qualifications and practising certificates (new s 58A).
5. Enter into a mines rescue agreement with an accredited corporation if the mine is underground (s 223).
6. Maintain a mine record that contains all required plans, reports, directives, and investigation outcomes (s 68).
7. Notify the inspector before operations start, when land is added or omitted, when the SSE or mine name changes, and when operations permanently cease (ss 49–50).

Site senior executive

1. Develop and implement the SHMS, including contractor plans (s 42(c)–(e)).
2. Establish and document a management structure that clearly identifies responsibilities and competencies (s 55).
3. Ensure no work is undertaken until workers are inducted, trained in hazards, and competent (s 42(g)).
4. Provide adequate supervision on every shift, conduct regular workplace inspections, and maintain pre-shift inspection schedules.
5. Review the SHMS whenever there is a significant change in operations or after a serious accident or high potential incident.
6. Make the SHMS and PHMPs available to workers and ROC workers who request them (s 62(6)–(7)).

Contractor

1. Prepare a safety and health management plan that identifies the work to be done and how the contractor will comply with its obligations (s 43(2)).
2. Provide the plan to the SSE and make all changes required by the SSE to enable integration with the mine’s SHMS before starting work.
3. Ensure all contractor workers are inducted and trained before commencing work.
4. Comply with the mine’s SHMS to the extent it applies to the contractor’s work.

Workers and ROC workers

1. Comply with the SHMS and any instructions given by the SSE or supervisor.
2. Work in a way that does not expose themselves or others to unacceptable risk.
3. Participate in risk assessments and report hazards.
4. Only work when fit for duty and not under the influence of alcohol or drugs that could impair safety.
5. Never act wilfully or recklessly in a way that could adversely affect the safety or health of another person.

Designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers

1. Ensure plant and substances are designed, constructed, and tested so that, when used properly, risk is at an acceptable level.
2. Provide clear, comprehensive information on safe use, storage, and disposal.
3. If a hazard or defect emerges, immediately notify the chief inspector, all known recipients of the plant or substance, and take all reasonable steps to prevent unsafe use.

Officers of corporations

1. Acquire and keep up-to-date knowledge of mine safety and health matters.
2. Understand the nature of the operations, the hazards, risks, and critical controls.
3. Ensure the corporation has, and uses, appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risk.
4. Ensure the corporation has processes for receiving and responding to information about incidents, hazards, and critical controls.
5. Ensure the corporation has, and implements, processes for complying with its obligations.
6. Verify the provision and use of those resources and processes, including by reviewing audit reports on the effectiveness of the SHMS.

Practical compliance also requires:

• Maintaining an up-to-date risk register and ensuring that critical controls are identified, implemented, and audited.
• Conducting regular emergency exercises, including exercises that test the interface with overlapping petroleum operations.
• Keeping comprehensive records of training, competence assessments, maintenance, inspections, and incident investigations.
• Ensuring that any remote operating centre is treated as part of the mine for the purposes of the SHMS (new s 62(3)).
• Reviewing and, where necessary, updating the SHMS whenever there is a significant change in operations or after any serious accident or high potential incident.

Compliance is not a paper exercise. The SHMS must be a living document that is understood by workers, actively used, regularly audited, and continually improved. The most common enforcement findings are failure to integrate contractor plans, inadequate auditing of critical controls, and failure to act on known hazards identified in incident investigations. A robust compliance culture, genuine worker involvement, and visible leadership from the SSE and the coal mine operator are the most effective safeguards against prosecution and, more importantly, against catastrophic events.