Queensland Resources Council Chief Executive Michael Roche said today concerns over the economic impact of the floods on Queensland’s biggest export industries ran ‘a distant second’ to the immediate priorities of employee safety and the welfare of their communities. 

Speaking on a statewide ABC Radio broadcast, Mr Roche said Queensland’s minerals and energy companies were rallying behind flood-bound and threatened communities in central and southern Queensland with cash and in-kind contributions totalling millions of dollars. 

‘Many coal mines in the Bowen Basin are either operating with skeleton staff or focusing entirely on supporting their communities from what appears to be a major flood threat, especially in the central highlands,’ Mr Roche said.

‘Mine employees who literally can’t get to work are volunteering for sandbagging work in Emerald and Capella, while at Blackwater, a mine’s workforce has been placed on standby to assist the local community if required. 

‘Coal seam gas company employees have been working alongside the SES and residents in the Chinchilla and Dalby regions and in between tending to their own families and homes, remain on standby to render whatever assistance they can.’ 

Mr Roche said it was likely that lost coal and gas production would run to hundreds of millions of dollars but it was a situation that would be rectified over time. 

‘One of our member companies is currently sheltering 328 people evacuated from their homes at Theodore,’ he said. 

‘This is a community contribution that will never be accurately measured in dollars but will be remembered for many years to come,’ he said. 

Mr Roche added that almost $2 million donated so far to the Premier’s Flood Relief Appeal and for local relief by QRC member companies would hopefully encourage many more corporate and private donors to show their support for struggling communities in regional Queensland.

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