This inquiry report was released on 11 February 1999.
Black coal industry
Inquiry report
Volume 1 - The Australian Black Coal Industry (PDF 2.0 MB)Contents
Volume 1
- Preliminaries
- Cover, Copyright, Letter, Table of Contents, Abbreviations, Terms of Reference, Key Messages from the Report, Overview
- 1 Introduction
- 1.1 The Australian black coal industry
- 1.2 Contemporary issues in the black coal industry
- 1.3 The inquiry's terms of reference and the Commission's approach
- 1.4 Conduct of the inquiry
- 2 The Changing Market for Black Coal
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Supply and demand outlook for the black coal industry
- 2.3 Factors increasing competition in the black coal market
- 2.4 The dynamic nature of the international black coal market
- 2.5 Price discrimination and collective price negotiation
- 2.6 Barriers to international trade in coal
- 3 Industry Performance
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 Industry-wide performance
- 3.3 Productivity of Australian coal mines
- 3.4 The Commission's benchmarking study
- 4 Work Arrangements: The Context
- 4.1 Introduction
- 4.2 Labour market features
- 4.3 Industrial relations systems
- 4.4 Development of work arrangements in black coal mining
- 5 Work Arrangements in Australian Black Coal Mines
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 Size and composition of the workforce
- 5.3 Hours of work and roster arrangements
- 5.4 Remuneration and on-costs
- 5.5 Functions, tasks and skills
- 5.6 General procedures
- 5.7 Conclusion
- 6 Work Arrangements: Enabling Change
- 6.1 Introduction
- 6.2 Managers and workplace change
- 6.3 Unions and workplace change
- 6.4 Employees and workplace change
- 6.5 Adjusting to change
- 7 Coal Rail Transport
- 7.1 Introduction
- 7.2 Efficiency and prices of coal rail freight services
- 7.3 Structure of rail authorities
- 7.4 Removing implicit royalties and monopoly rent
- 7.5 Introducing competition into rail freight
- 7.6 Price setting for rail access
- 8 The Coal Waterfront
- 8.1 Introduction
- 8.2 Australian coal ports
- 8.3 Coal waterfront cost comparisons
- 8.4 Pricing issues
- 8.5 Other issues
- 9 Government Regulation and Safety
- 9.1 Introduction
- 9.2 The Australian black coal industry's safety record
- 9.3 The regulation of safety in the coal industry
- 9.4 How coal mining OHS legislation compares with other OHS legislation
- 9.5 Problems with the current approach
- 9.6 Alternative regulatory approaches
- 9.7 The Joint Coal Board
- 9.8 Local governments
- 10 Royalty Arrangements
- 10.1 Current royalty arrangements in NSW and Queensland
- 10.2 Criteria for assessing royalty systems
- 10.3 Alternative royalty collection methods
- 10.4 Evaluation of alternative royalty systems
- 10.5 Royalties collected through rail freights
- 10.6 Participants' views on royalty arrangements
- 11 Modelling the Effects of Improved Performance
- 11.1 Introduction
- 11.2 Scenario 1 (the base case): steady productivity growth
- 11.3 Scenario 2: no further productivity growth
- 11.4 Scenario 3: accelerated productivity improvements
- 11.5 Scenario 4: accelerated productivity improvements leading to lower coal prices
- 11.6 Scenario 5: accelerated productivity improvements in coal coupled with best practice productivity in rail transport of coal and accelerated removal of excess rail charges
- 11.7 State and Territory results
- 11.8 Summary
- References
