Pollies hold up urgent mine meeting

Date: 20 March 2009

The AWU is angry that the West Australian Mining Industry Advisory Committee will not meet till, at the earliest, in May to look at the crisis in the local industry.

" We've called for an urgent meeting of the Mining Industry Advisory Committee (MIAC) to study the AWU's recommendation to shut down BHP while an independent safety audit is completed," Stephen Price, AWU West Australian Secretary said.

" This committee needs to meet and come up with real recommendations about how we resolve the safety crisis in the industry, following the death of another worker at a Pilbara mine.

Key mine committee has not met for 9 months

" The Mining Industry Advisory Committee (MIAC) - which is a tri-partite body on which the AWU is represented - is meant to meet six times a year.

" But MIAC last met formally in June 2008. A scheduled formal meeting in October didn't go ahead because of the State election.

" Members' terms of appointment on MIAC expired at the end of 2008.

It will take nearly 3 months to organise next meeting

" It is only now they are asking for nominations to reconvene MIAC. Quite obviously the responsible Ministers have dropped the ball on this very important statutory advisory body.

" We're now told the earliest MIAC can meet is maybe in May. That is really not good enough when people's lives are at stake," Stephen Price said.

Ministers it seems squabbling over representation

Five people have died in the last eight months in the West Australian mining industry.

" Bureaucratic red tape is delaying the meeting because we now have two Ministers - Troy Buswell and Norman Moore -  responsible for the committee and it seems they can't agree about response times, can't agree about representation.

" Petty internal Liberal Party politics should be set aside to save lives . We must act now," Stephen Price said.

Read earlier AWU reports

• WA Govt must help fearful mine workers win real safety standards

• West's workplace health standards should not be compromised by election result

For further information

Contact:	Stephen Price
Union:	AWU Western Australia
Contact Mobile:	0417 006 101
WWW:	http://www.awu.net.au/

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