{"id":1185443,"date":"2020-05-20T09:03:20","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1024410"},"modified":"2020-05-20T09:03:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T14:03:20","slug":"australian-state-passes-law-to-jail-mining-bosses-over-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1185443","title":{"rendered":"Australian state passes law to jail mining bosses over deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s state of Queensland <a href=\"http:\/\/statements.qld.gov.au\/Statement\/2020\/5\/20\/parliament-supports-jail-for-bosses-on-mine-deaths\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">has passed a law<\/a> that will see mining executives spend up to 20 years in jail, and companies hit with fines of up to A$13 million ($8.6m), if found criminally negligent over deaths at their operations.<\/p>\n<div class='ad-slot' id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {    googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');    googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function (event) {        if (event.isEmpty) {            var id = event.slot.getSlotElementId();            var x = document.getElementById(id);            if(x == null) return;            if (x.parentElement.classList.contains('ad-slot')) {                x.parentElement.style.display = 'none';            }\t\t\t\t        }    });});<\/script><\/div>\n<p>The legislation extended industrial<br \/>\nmanslaughter laws to the resources sector, as part of a package of safety and<br \/>\nother reforms for an industry that employees 50,000 people in the state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This offence sends the clear<br \/>\nmessage to employers and senior officers that the safety and health of their<br \/>\nworkers is paramount,&#8221; the state&#8217;s mines minister, Anthony Lynham, said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the past two years we&#8217;ve<br \/>\nhad eight workers die, and a gas explosion in an underground coal mine has put<br \/>\nfive&nbsp;miners in hospital,\u201d Lynham noted.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, an underground&nbsp;gas explosion&nbsp;at Anglo American\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/anglo-american-sells-stake-in-australian-coal-mine-for-141m\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Grosvenor coal mine<\/a>, left five workers injured. Four of them remain in critical condition.<\/p>\n<p>The previous maximum jail term for<br \/>\nmining safety breaches was three years for multiple deaths.<\/p>\n<p>The new laws,&nbsp;due to come into effect from July, include the creation of a new health and safety regulator. They also require people in critical safety roles in coal mines to be employees, not contract workers, to give them enough freedom to raise safety issues. Although originally opposed to the tough new laws, the Queensland Resources Council <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.qrc.org.au\/media-releases\/industrial-manslaughter-offence\/\" >has backed them<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The mining lobby group, which <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.qrc.org.au\/member-category\/full-members\/\" >members<\/a> include BHP, Anglo American, Glencore, Newmont, Adani and MMG, vowed to work with authorities to make the industry safer. <\/p>\n<p>Mine explosions have proved deadly<br \/>\nin the past with one in Queensland&#8217;s Moura, in 1994, killing 11 men underground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top executives face up to 20 years in prison and A$13 million ($8.6m), if found criminally negligent over workers&#8217; deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2648,624,2849,369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1185443"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1185471,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185443\/revisions\/1185471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1185443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1185443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1185443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}