The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, which convened the Mackay meeting, said a halt to compulsory 100% FIFO workforces in Queensland coal mines was required.

Yesterday’s Mackay forum heard “disturbing” stories of families being forced to leave Mackay and surrounding areas in order to keep their jobs, while regional communities struggled with unemployment and plummeting populations.

CFMEU Mining and Energy Queensland president Steve Smyth said there was broad agreement among the forum of federal, state and local government officials and community representatives that compulsory 100% FIFO must end. He furthered that workers at existing 100% FIFO operations must be given job security and should be given choice and incentives to move locally, while new jobs at existing 100% FIFO operations should be open to local workers.

Smyth said action to save jobs and communities in regional Queensland from the fallout of compulsory 100% FIFO would only be achieved by united action from across the community.

“Today’s forum was extremely encouraging. There’s strong consensus across the political spectrum to tackle the scourge of compulsory FIFO,” he said.

“We are encouraged that the Queensland government is holding a review into compulsory 100% FIFO and we are urging all interested individuals and organisations to make submissions to that review.

“But we’ll need action at all levels of government to achieve a fair go for regional Queensland. The CFMEU looks forward to working collaboratively with everyone who took part in [the] forum to bring about change.”

The Mackay meeting included federal MPs Bob Katter (Kennedy) and Michelle Landry (Capricornia), state MPs Jim Pearce (Mirani), Julieanne Gilbert (Mackay) and Chris Whiting (Murrumba), as well as Isaac Shire Mayor Anne Baker, Queensland Council of Unions president John Battams and local business operators and representatives from Mackay and Whitsunday councils.

Pearce, a former coal mine worker and community advocate, is heading a state inquiry into Queensland’s mining industry promised by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk during the recent election campaign.

Queensland’s ALP averted a potentially mammoth compensation battle with BHP Billiton during the election campaign by back-flipping over a vow to outlaw future 100% FIFO projects which would have overturned a policy initiated during the Bligh government.

South Brisbane Labor MP Jackie Trad, who took Anna Bligh’s seat in 2012 when the former premier retired, told Brisbane Radio 4BC on February 4 that a Palaszczuk ALP government would not review existing “100% FIFO” mining approvals.