An old bit of honesty from the Federal Government on the tens of thousands of jobs that were to be provided by the Adani mine. Note the revised figures are still supposed to be wonderful:
Senator Bridget McKenzie: “They [Adani] will be employing 1,500 through the construction phase and around about 100 ongoing”
This can be seen as a classic example of ignoring one’s promise and putting a happy face on.
However, these figures still seem significantly greater than the figures given in court for the full mine, where there are actually penalties for lying.
Since this interview jobs figures have been revised again – telling the likely truth is unpolitic. I guess we will not know until it’s all over, and we have just permanently lost water.
A further comment this time from the Australia Institute:
coal mining contributes 2.2% to the GDP of Australia, $39.8 billion of almost $1.85 trillion. [how much of that stays in Australia, or goes to Australian workers, taxes and royalties is another matter]
coal mining employs around 57,900 workers, making up only 0.4% of the almost 13 million-strong Australian workforce
There are still other figures.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics considers that their the relatively recently introduced Labour Account is now the best source of information on employment by industry. It is “specifically designed to produce industry estimates that present the most coherent picture of the Australian labour market.” However it could still be classed as experimental, and primarily includes people who directly work in the industry and not in its supply chains.
These figures shows that in the 2017-18 financial year, there were around 38,100 people employed in coal mining.
Coal mining is not that important or that big an employer
