Garrett told miners on the afternoon shift at the Cessnock mine about the ALP's clean coal initiative, which commits to spending $500 million for clean coal development, matched by a further $1 billion from industry.

“You have our support, we want to see a coal industry which is viable, where there is significant investment in clean coal technologies so that we can reduce the amount of emissions that are going into the atmosphere, but continue to provide energy and continue to have employment and job opportunities for Australian workers,” Garrett told miners and media at the site.

“I'm confident that Australian science, Australian workers, Australian management and Australian business working together on clean coal can get on top of this issue, reduce emissions and continue to have a coal industry into the future.”

One Austar miner told ABC Online he was sceptical of some points made by Garrett, but impressed by others.

“Yeah look, the only reaction I've got, I just hope that everything that they say they're gonna do … because our future in the coal mining industry's riding on it,” he said.

“Like I said, I'm just hoping that my job's gonna be safe in 10 years.”