‘Breaking new ground’ The impacts of coal sector employment for Indigenous workers and their families and communities

The project was undertaken to meet an identified gap in knowledge about the experiences of Indigenous people in the coal mining industry and the impacts on the social and economic wellbeing of Indigenous workers and their families and communities. While the number of Indigenous people working in the Queensland coal mining industry increased five-fold between 2006 and 2021, little is known about the changes in the lives of the individuals who have built mining careers.

The research underlines the important role that Indigenous-specific programs can make in accelerating Indigenous inclusion.  By creating supported pathways for cohorts of Indigenous people to enter a company, the programs create a 'critical mass' of Indigenous employees who in turn steer their families and networks towards mining sector employment, including through direct employment pathways.

Despite the unique challenges of mining work, the project outcomes detail the following effects for the Indigenous workers:

• Report comparatively high levels of job satisfaction.  

• Important informal role in educating their fellow non-Indigenous workers about cultural issues and unconscious racism and discrimination.  

• Much lower levels of financial stress than other Indigenous people, and this is seen by participants as one of the most important benefits of working in mining.

• More likely than other Indigenous Australians to rate their health as good or very good, though reported mixed views about whether their health had improved or deteriorated since starting in mining.  They cited both positive and negative health impacts from their job.

• Much lower levels of psychological distress than other Indigenous people, and score higher on indicators of positive social wellbeing and life satisfaction.  Nevertheless, the fact that 22% of participants are above the threshold for psychological distress highlights the importance of employers tackling mental health risk factors such as discrimination, identity stress and culturally unsafe workplaces, and improving the support for struggling Indigenous workers.

• At an individual level, the research found that mining employment has a range of positive impacts on Indigenous workers' confidence, leadership skills and transferable vocational skills.  Increased empowerment and self-efficacy are important foundations for 'closing the gap' in life outcomes for Indigenous people in Australia.  This is especially evident in the stories of Indigenous women who have forged careers in mining.  

• Considerable flow-on benefits to the workers' children, improving educational, sporting and cultural participation opportunities, and the ability to travel.  

• Show strong attachment to their Indigenous culture which reinforces the importance of companies' initiatives to create 'culturally safe' workplaces, where Indigenous workers' identity and cultural practices are respected.  

• FIFO employment has enabled Indigenous coal workers to maintain strong connectedness with their communities.

• Increased social capital has benefited participants through access to additional employment and career advancement opportunities.  

For the mining industry, the report has drawn out some implications for industry practice in a range of areas, including recruitment, Indigenous training and employment programs, Indigenous career development, retention strategies, mentoring and support for Indigenous workers, cultural competency building, prevention of discrimination, financial literacy training and other human resource management policies and process.