The Queensland government allowed its mine safety commissioner to keep acting in her role after she accepted a lucrative job offer from a coal giant that has multiple convictions over workplace deaths and injuries.
Key points:
- The state opposition claims the appointment, while Kate du Preez was carrying out her duties, was a conflict of interest
- Anglo American has been subjected to convictions, fines, and lawsuits over its safety record
- Ms du Preez is not the first senior mining regulator Anglo has headhunted
Kate du Preez carried out her official duties for six weeks after giving notice she was jumping ship for an executive job with Anglo American, in what the state opposition claims is a “definite conflict of interest”.
On Friday she left to take up a corporate affairs role that will involve meeting government officials on behalf of the mining giant.
The revelation has prompted calls for restrictions on how soon former senior Queensland government representatives can lobby the government they worked for on behalf of a new corporate employer.
Shadow Mines Minister Pat Weir said the Palaszczuk government should have asked the commissioner to stand down immediately after she was headhunted by Anglo.
“There was a definite conflict of interest and the minister [Scott Stewart] needs to explain how she was able to stay in that job,” Mr Weir told ABC Investigations.
“I don’t know how you could say it is not a conflict of interest … because Anglo has issues.”
The mining giant, which previously employed Ms du Preez in Africa earlier in her career, has been in the regulators’ crosshairs over safety failures in Queensland throughout her seven-year stint as commissioner.
Anglo has been convicted twice over worker deaths, charged over another, slapped with record fines and multimillion-dollar lawsuits, and excoriated by a judge-led inquiry into a 2020 underground explosion that injured five miners.
In a statement, the commissioner’s office said Ms du Preez “has sought Crown Law advice in relation to her new appointment”.
“The Commissioner for Resources Safety and Health Kate du Preez has accepted a role with Anglo American and will cease her duties as commissioner on 24 November 2023,” it said.
“As soon as practicable, the commissioner informed the minister and all members of the Coal Mining Safety and Health Advisory Committee and Mining Safety and Health Advisory Committee and other relevant stakeholders.”
Ms du Preez chaired a meeting of the coal mining safety committee in Brisbane on Wednesday.
The next day, before her official departure, Anglo American’s website already listed her as its executive for sustainability and corporate affairs.
Ms du Preez would not say when she began talks with Anglo about taking the job.
As commissioner, Ms du Preez was responsible for monitoring, reviewing and reporting to the resources minister on the performance of the mine safety regulator, Resources Safety and Health Queensland.
She had the power to prosecute or take action against mining companies until 2020, when government reforms handed that role to the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor.
The commissioner’s office said she was no longer “responsible for administering the suite of resources safety and health legislation, nor has any involvement in prosecutions or the regulation of safety and health in the resources industry”.
“Kate du Preez’s new role [with Anglo] is not related to safety and health,” it said.
However, government records show her predecessor at Anglo met with senior government officials in the wake of the inquiry into safety failures causing an underground explosion at its Grosvenor mine.
Anglo’s then corporate affairs executive, Victoria Somlyay, and its local chief executive met with the head of the mine safety regulator and Resources Minister Scott Stewart in June 2021.
The meeting is listed in Mr Stewart’s official ministerial diary on the same day that the Australian Financial Review revealed Anglo’s global chief had been paid a $500,000 safety bonus after the Grosvenor explosion.
Ms du Preez is not the first Queensland government official to be headhunted by the mining giant, which hired the state’s chief mines inspector to run its technical coal mining team in 2019.
Under Queensland law, former senior government representatives are banned from carrying out “related lobbying activity” for a “third party client” within two years of leaving the public sector.
However, the ban does not apply to lobbying on behalf of a corporate employer.
Transparency International Australia chief executive Clancy Moore said the ban should be extended to “in-house lobbyists”.
“People that move from government roles have inside information, contacts, influence and networks that they can then take into roles for companies or peak bodies and use to their advantage,” Mr Moore said.
“The revolving door of politicians and government officials into lobbying roles severely undermines the public’s trust in democracy. Too often the government makes decisions that favour private interests against the public interest.”
Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission echoed those concerns in a report in January.
“The movement between government and lobbying or other influencing roles within a short period of time can lead to a perception that former government … representatives are leveraging their associations or knowledge gained through their previous employment for … the commercial interests of their employer,” it said.
Mr Stewart said Ms du Preez gave him notice of her exit on October 13.
“During my time as resources minister she has provided frank and fearless advice to me in relation to safety in the resources sector and … this has not changed,” he said.
“I am advised Ms du Preez’s position at Anglo American is not related to health and safety or operations.”
Mr Stewart said the Queensland Integrity Act laid out the obligations of lobbyists and any person with concerns should report it to the relevant authorities.
Anglo American’s Australia chief executive Dan van der Westhuizen said the company was “focused on having the best people to deliver our goals for sustainability, innovation, environment and wellbeing within our communities”.
“Kate du Preez has been a champion for safety within the resources industry in Queensland and she brings an incredible skill set from a long career in the mining industry,” he said.
Shortly after Ms du Preez became mine safety commissioner in 2016, Anglo was convicted and fined over the death of Paul McGuire at its Grasstree mine three years earlier.
In 2017, Anglo became the first mining company in Queensland to have a conviction recorded over the death of another employee, Ian Downes, at the same mine.
The state government that year also threatened to shut down Anglo’s Moranbah North and Grosvenor mines for unacceptable failures in coal dust monitoring.
Two miners sued the company after allegedly contracting “black lung” through exposure to coal dust.
The company was excoriated by a judge-led inquiry into a 2020 underground explosion that led to five workers at the Grosvenor Coal Mine suffering extensive burns. Anglo avoided prosecution after the Work Health and Safety Prosecutor determined there was no “reasonable prospect of securing a conviction” against the operator.
In May, Anglo was found guilty of causing bodily harm to three miners injured in a vehicle collision at Moranbah North but acquitted over the death of miner Bradley Hardwick in the same incident in 2019.
This month an Anglo contractor was charged over the death of Gavin Feltwell, who died of head injuries while moving equipment, at the same mine last year.
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