While coal job redundancies have spiked in Queensland over the past month, NSWMC CEO Stephen Galilee told the ABC that NSW had shed 3500 direct coal mining jobs over the past two years, which included 800 lost in the Illawarra region.

The CEO is reportedly asking for NSW government acknowledgement of the situation, especially in light of the tens of millions of federal and state funding that assisted Ford’s 1200-strong manufacturing workforce after the car maker called it quits in Australia.

"We're not asking for an assistance package per se for our industry," he reportedly said.

"What we are asking for is an acknowledgement from the state government from our political leaders that there is an issue, that people are hurting, that the industry is going through tough times," he said.

A state government spokesperson reportedly provided a list of projects that were underway to support the mining scene.

“The list includes the minerals industry action plan with a 10-year industry roadmap, improvements to transparency and accountability, red tape reduction and rapid response teams to help out-of-work miners find new jobs,” ABC reported.

NSW Greens parliamentarian Jeremy Buckingham reportedly said it was rich of the mining sector to ask for help when they took their boom-time profits overseas.

"They didn't want to pay the mining tax, they didn't want to pay the carbon tax and then when times are tough they expect us to come and save the day," he reportedly said.

Rio Tinto recently warned that 1300 Hunter Valley jobs were at risk if the state government did not environmentally approve the Mount Thorley Warkworth mine "expeditiously".