The delegation toured Moura, Blackwater, Emerald, Dysart and Moranbah where the issues expressed by locals were strikingly similar – the towns are more populated than ever before, but the supporting infrastructure and amenities have not yet caught up.

The directors-general from Communities, Mines and Energy, Education, Local Government, Housing, State Development and Main Roads, and the deputy director-general of Natural Resources and Water, spent two days listening and observing in the towns.

A former coal miner himself, Pearce was first employed in the coal mining industry in New South Wales and later in Queensland where he worked in the Harrow Creek underground mine.

Pearce said the coal industry was what had given him a start in life, what had supported his family and ultimately, what had led him to politics.

“I moved to Queensland with the promise of 20 years work at Harrow Creek underground mine, south of Moranbah on the Peak Downs lease,” he said.

“When the mine was shut down after two years, I led a nine-day stay down strike, which didn’t reopen the mine but put us on the map.

“People came forward and said ‘We need people like you to run for parliament’, and I didn’t know what they were talking about because I wasn’t interested in politics … but in 1989 I gave it a go.”

Pearce said the idea to have government officials visit the booming coal towns came about when he saw a lot of the issues were being raised at the grassroots level but didn’t seem to reach the ministerial level.

“I thought, well the only way we can fix this is to get the decision makers, the people who advise the ministers, to actually come out and have a look for themselves.

“The premier made a commitment during the election campaign for a delegation to visit the mining towns on the 10th and 11th of October and he delivered.”

Pearce said the feedback was consistent across all five towns, with the main issues being a severe shortage of housing and affordable accommodation as well as a lack of infrastructure and support services.

“Housing has always been an issue; the whole environment has changed out in the coal fields because of the significant, rapid growth of the coal industry.

“The number of employees in the last five years has gone from around the 7000 mark to 18,000 at the moment and continuing to grow.

“To be able to build houses of course you’ve got to have land, and if you’re going to expand on your town you also need a reliable supply of water, and some communities have already reached the maximum as far as population and the water available to them.”

The social problems seemed to be pretty standard across the coal towns, with 12-hour shifts being a common factor preventing miners from having a stable home life.

“It is also extremely hard for people not working in the coal industry to stay in town because the inflated price of rent, fuel and groceries impacts on the lower income earners.”

The delegation also heard how the service clubs in the communities had collapsed, as had volunteer organisations.

Getting allied health workers into the communities was nearly impossible, Pearce said, simply because of the cost of accommodation and the cost of living.

“Just about every town we went to, somebody said ‘this town is dying’ and yet it has more people living in it than ever before.”

Looking forward, Pearce said the directors-general would work together to work out a whole of government approach to solving some of the issues.

“There’s a strong realisation that all of these issues are very difficult to deal with; they’re not easy, because if they were we would have fixed them before now,” he said.

The directors-general will now write their own papers, combine their thoughts and prepare a submission to go to cabinet, which will probably take two to three weeks.

“My personal belief is that this will have a great outcome because we now have eight government departments thinking about the issues out here and how to change it,” Pearce said.