[Australia] ‘Coal miners stick together and we bleed black’ (Queensland Times – March 23, 2017)

https://www.qt.com.au/

WE BLEED black. That is what Bundamba MP and Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis Select Committee chair Jo-Ann Miller said about coalminers and their families in a forthright speech to parliament today.

Ms Miller moved that the the House take note of report No. 1 of the Committee, titled Inquiry into the re-identification of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in Queensland-interim report. Ms Miller started off by telling the parliament that coalminers are a tough breed.

“As a coalminer’s daughter and granddaughter, I know this well,” she said. “We stick together and, as we say, we do not bleed red; we bleed black. “Unfortunately, that is so true of black lung disease.

“This inquiry has seen some of the toughest and bravest of coalminers reduced to tears and we as the Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis Select Committee, our staff and our Hansard reporters have cried with them.”

Ms Miller placed on record a post from Andrew Vickers, the national secretary of the CFMEU Mining and Energy Division, from the Miners at the Coal Face Facebook page. She said the post had been “fully endorsed by Steve Smyth of the Queensland division of the mining and energy part of the CFMEU.”

For the rest of this article, click here: https://www.qt.com.au/news/miller-on-why-coalminers-and-families-bleed-black/3158471/