Brady's 2019 review of 47 Queensland coal mine fatalities found that 26 involved Task-Specific training failure and 25 of 32 applicable cases involved inadequate or absent supervision. The companion Western Australian fatality review (2014) identified non-compliance with safe work procedures and short site duration as major contributing factors. These retrospective investigations identify the conditions present when workers die. JobCards — the industry's primary instrument for recording contractor task-specific training — make those same conditions visible in real time. The structural factors that determine whether a contract workers compliance state improves or decays during a mobilisation have not been systematically examined.

This study analyses 23,661 Jobcards across 11 Bowen Basin mine sites over 2024–2026, covering 628 contractors and 18,468 workers. Using a longitudinal paired measurement approach — the JobCard Decay Index — we track whether each worker's Task-Specific compliance status improved or deteriorated between site engagements.

Through multilevel regression analysis, four structural levers were identified and ranked by measurable impact. Supervisor group quality is the dominant factor, producing a 71 percentage point swing between the worst and best performing crews at the same mine — with 63% of variance attributable to individual supervisor behaviour rather than site or department structure. Vendor quality contributes 42 percentage points, driven by pre-mobilisation worker delivery rather than on-site management. Task duration below 30 days produces a 38 percentage point penalty. Worker platform engagement produces a 25 percentage point effect, with non-compliant workers who engage resolving their gaps at a 94.6% rate!

Strikingly, each lever maps directly to the causal factors identified in the Brady and WA fatality reviews — confirming prospectively what retrospective investigation has consistently found after the fact. This presents a novel opportunity: to measure in real time the leading indicators that heighten serious incident risk, and act before an investigation begins.

Workers in the worst structural position achieve a 44.1% positive compliance rate; those in the best achieve 89.9%. Because that 45.8 percentage point gap is structural, it is also addressable. This study presents data-driven recommendations across each lever — giving answers to structural predictors, leading indicators, and data-driven risk mitigation.

In 2015 the re-identification of coal workers’ pneumoconiosis in Queensland marked a turning point for the protection of mine and quarry workers’ health. This led to improved prevention and detection of occupational lung diseases as well as support for affected workers. Driven by the recommendations of the independent review undertaken by Monash University in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago, wide ranging reforms have taken place that have reshaped respiratory health surveillance to better detect disease in its early stages.

Over the decade since these reforms commenced, more than 750 current and former mining and quarrying workers have been diagnosed. Importantly, the majority of diagnoses have occurred while diseases are in their early stages, enabling earlier access to treatment, support and compensation.

During this period, the collective understanding of occupational lung disease among industry, medical practitioners, and the regulator has continued to mature. While conditions such as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis and silicosis continue to be diagnosed, there is an increasing recognition of the broad range of lung diseases that occupational exposures cause. There is also a growing awareness of the cumulative respiratory impacts of airborne contaminants, including vapours, gases and fumes, as well as dust.

Changes in reported disease patterns underscore the value of high-quality, evidence-based health surveillance programs that are designed to detect disease early among all workers. However, ongoing refinement of clinical pathways, and sustained education across the sector remain essential.

This presentation reflects on a decade of reforms to mine and quarry respiratory health surveillance in Queensland, examining how improved systems have delivered early detection, how disease profiles have evolved, and future enhancements to continue protecting the respiratory health of Queensland’s mine and quarry workers.

For more than a decade, the mining industry has championed a powerful message: “Speak up.”
Organisations have invested heavily in reporting systems, psychological safety initiatives, leadership programs, anonymous hotlines, and psychosocial risk frameworks designed to encourage workers to raise concerns without fear of blame or retaliation. The assumption has been clear: if people feel psychologically safe, they will speak.
But despite these efforts, many organisations continue to face the same problem - silence.

Critical risks go unreported. Concerns are raised too late. Workers disengage from reporting systems. Frontline employees withhold information leaders desperately need to hear.

The question is no longer simply whether workers feel safe enough to speak up. The more confronting question is whether leaders and organisations have demonstrated that speaking up actually leads to anything meaningful.

This presentation argues that psychological safety in mining has reached a critical turning point. The industry’s focus on encouraging “voice” must now evolve into something more operationally demanding: the capability to visibly and consistently listen.
Because workers are always assessing whether it is worth speaking.

They observe which concerns trigger action and which disappear into process. They notice when leaders become defensive, overexplain, delay decisions, avoid difficult conversations, or unintentionally punish challenge through inaction. They watch how quickly organisations move on from incidents once the immediate operational risk has passed. Over time, workers draw conclusions - not from what leaders say, but from what organisational systems and leadership behaviour demonstrate.

This session explores how organisations may be unintentionally suppressing voice despite promoting psychological safety. It challenges common assumptions that reporting numbers alone are evidence of a healthy culture.

Drawing on organisational culture reviews, psychosocial investigations, and frontline workforce interviews across high-risk industries, this presentation examines the subtle leadership and systemic behaviours that influence whether workers continue speaking up - or quietly stop trying.

The presentation introduces a broader and more mature framing of psychological safety for the mining sector: moving beyond “Speak Up” toward “Listen Up.”

Psychological safety and mental wellbeing are increasingly recognised as critical components of occupational health and safety within the Queensland resources industry.
However, many initiatives remain focused on awareness rather than building practical capability.
In high-risk environments shaped by remote operations, shift work, fatigue, and prolonged separation from family, sustained psychosocial strain can significantly influence cognitive clarity, emotional regulation, communication, and decision-making.
Rosters such as fly-in fly-out and drive-in drive-out create off-site pressures that do not remain off site; they directly affect on-field performance, engagement, and risk perception.
While mental health awareness initiatives are important, awareness alone does not build competency in managing internal pressure or mitigating cognitive bias during high-consequence tasks.
This session reframes mental fitness as a proactive health and safety capability rather than a wellbeing add-on.
It explores how psychological strain, cognitive distortions, and emotional reactivity function as human factors that can increase unnecessary risk exposure in high-consequence environments.
Participants will examine the relationship between psychosocial stressors and operational performance, and how strengthening individual regulation contributes to clearer thinking, more effective communication, and safer behavioural choices.
The session will also explore how building individual mental capability supports broader psychological safety within teams, enabling open reporting, early identification of concerns, and stronger consultation practices.
Aligned with the theme Our Greatest Resource, Our People, this presentation focuses on strengthening the human system that underpins all safety systems.
By addressing root causes rather than symptoms, leaders and frontline personnel will gain practical strategies to enhance personal resilience, improve team stability, and support safer, more sustainable performance outcomes.

Fatigue remains one of the mining industry’s most persistent and costly human factor risks, contributing to reduced cognitive performance, slower reaction times, impaired decision-making, and serious safety incidents. While industry has developed sophisticated systems to manage equipment reliability and procedural compliance, far less attention has been given to the physiological condition of the worker operating within those systems.

This presentation explores the concept of the “industrial athlete” and the opportunity to apply principles of sports science, recovery and human performance to fatigue management in mining.

A six-week pilot study was conducted within a live operational mining environment to examine whether targeted hydration and recovery interventions could support sleep quality and workforce recovery in shift workers operating across rotating rosters.

Participants completed a baseline phase followed by an intervention phase incorporating structured hydration during shift work and a nutritional sleep support protocol prior to rest. Sleep metrics including REM sleep, deep sleep and total sleep duration were monitored using wearable technology, alongside daily self-report surveys measuring fatigue, sleep quality, time to fall asleep, night-time waking and morning refreshment.

Directional improvements were observed across several recovery measures, including REM sleep, deep sleep and subjective recovery scores. Participant feedback also identified perceived improvements in fatigue, sleep onset, recovery and cognitive readiness, with strong workforce acceptance of the intervention approach.

The findings suggest recovery quality is measurable, operationally relevant and worthy of further investigation within a broader human factors framework.

The presentation will discuss the study methodology, key findings, operational lessons and the emerging opportunity for mining organisations to move beyond fatigue compliance toward evidence-informed recovery strategies designed to improve workforce readiness, safety and performance.