{"id":623213,"date":"2026-04-22T09:17:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/623213\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:17:40","slug":"collie-job-cuts-spark-calls-for-was-struggling-coal-miners-to-merge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/623213\/","title":{"rendered":"Collie job cuts spark calls for WA’s struggling coal miners to merge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Calls are growing to merge Western Australia’s two remaining coal miners in a bid to limit the ongoing damage from job losses and cutbacks.<\/p>\n

Premier Coal yesterday announced<\/a> the loss of between 70 and 100 jobs at its mine site near Collie, 170 kilometres south of Perth, citing slowing demand for coal-fired power.<\/p>\n

WA’s two remaining coal-fired power stations, the privately owned Bluewaters and state-owned Muja, sit on opposite sides of the mining town, with Premier and Griffin Coal their chief suppliers.<\/p>\n

But the growth of home solar and battery storage, and the WA government’s 2030 deadline<\/a> to retire the state’s coal-fired power infrastructure, has significantly reduced demand for coal, and the miners, both foreign-owned, are reliant on state support to continue operations.<\/p>\n

Too much or not enough?<\/p>\n

The government now faces a situation where it is subsidising Griffin to keep mining coal, while Premier lays off staff because it has too much to viably sell.<\/p>\n

\"Pit<\/p>\n

Premier Coal operates one of WA’s two remaining coal mines. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

The latest job losses have led to renewed questions around whether both coal miners should be merged into a single operation.<\/p>\n

Collie MP Jodie Hanns said she would push that case with Premier Roger Cook, despite the difficulties involved in merging two private companies.<\/p>\n

“Yesterday’s announcement was a commercial decision by a private company, and it is very disappointing from the government’s perspective,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The best outcome for the Collie workers and the community is a combined mine asset, so I’ll be pushing that with the government, and it’s certainly something the coal taskforce will be looking at.”\"Premier<\/p>\n

Roger Cook says a merger of the two miners would be a complex process. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

Mr Cook said discussions with both companies were ongoing, with the government focused on supporting impacted workers.<\/p>\n

“I know everyone, both in the industry and community, believes a single operator at the Collie basin is in the best interests of sustaining coal mining while we move through the clean energy transition,” Mr Cook said.<\/p>\n

“Conversations continue, and we know they’re continuing constructively.<\/p>\n

“But it’s complex work. There’s a lot of commercial interests and community interests and industry interests.”<\/p>\n

Union wants just transition<\/p>\n

Meetings with workers impacted by Premier’s cutbacks are expected to continue for a number of weeks.<\/p>\n

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state secretary Steve McCartney said unions had been pushing for the miners to be merged for years.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The AMWU wants more training and redeployment options for mine workers impacted by the cuts. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

An initial proposal to dissolve both Griffin and Premier and form a new entity was rejected by the government as impractical, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the government’s recent extension of Griffin Coal’s $300 million bailout could also have additional consequences for the transition.<\/p>\n

WA gives embattled Griffin Coal another lifeline, citing energy security<\/a><\/p>\n

Since 2022, the WA government has already tipped $300 million into propping up the insolvent Indian-owned miner, which is more than $1 billion in debt.<\/p>\n

“The difficulty is that Griffin has got a five-year guarantee,” Mr McCartney said.<\/p>\n

“So there’s a good chance they probably want to hang in there for a while.”<\/p>\n

Coal mines ‘mismanaged’<\/p>\n

Shadow Energy Minister Steve Thomas said any merger would be a difficult proposition, and the situation reflected two decades of mismanagement of the state’s coalfields.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got one coal company putting jobs off because they’ve got too much coal and no market,” Dr Thomas said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Steve Thomas says further job cuts are likely at both Premier and Griffin. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

“And you’ve got the state government paying probably $30 million a year to the other coal company to keep producing coal.<\/p>\n

“The inconsistencies are hilarious here.”<\/p>\n

With the government winding down the state’s coal assets, he said Premier’s cuts were likely to be the first of many.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the government needed to ensure the transition programs for workers and the wider community were as fair and efficient as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Calls are growing to merge Western Australia’s two remaining coal miners in a bid to limit the ongoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,301933,272530,301934,301932,75,121686,101159,5292,301191,128,84218,167111],"class_list":{"0":"post-623213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-coal-merger","11":"tag-coal-mining-wa","12":"tag-collie-job-losses","13":"tag-collie-mine-jobs","14":"tag-environment","15":"tag-griffin-coal","16":"tag-mining-jobs","17":"tag-mining-news","18":"tag-premier-coal","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-synergy","21":"tag-wa-mining"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}