FEDERAL Resources and Water Minister Keith Pitt says research by the McKell Institute on labour-hire in the coal industry is "union propaganda posing as a report", and mine workers "should not be fooled by it".
Labor candidate for Hunter Dan Repacholi said the report - done for the Mining and Energy Union as reported in yesterday's Newcastle Herald - showed labour-hire stripping $250 million a year out of the region by paying labour-hire workers 30 per cent less than direct employees for the same work, regardless of what Mr Pitt said.
But Mr Pitt said "the facts simply don't support the union claims". He said the real threat to coal was "a Labor/Greens government, which would be a disaster".
Mine worker Stuart Bonds - an Independent candidate for Hunter - said Mr Pitt was wrong and the report right.
"You can see why the Coalition struggles in seats like Hunter when it denies outright that casual labour-hire is even an issue," Mr Bonds said.
Mr Pitt said ABS figures for all mining (not only coal) showed record employment of almost 300,000 nationwide.
Of those, 96 per cent were full time, 88 per cent were "permanents" and average weekly mining earnings were up by 25 per cent in 10 years.
"This report was commissioned by a union and prepared by a left wing think tank to spread propaganda trying to downplay the significant contribution of the mining industry and its workers to the region," Mr Pitt said.
"The real threat to Hunter coalmining is a Labor/Greens government."
Mr Pitt said Labor frontbenchers were contradicting each other as to whether their emissions safeguard mechanism applied to coal, while Richard Marles and Mark Butler had both welcomed coal's demise.
Mr Repacholi said the Coalition and One Nation were looking after "their own job security, not mine workers", when the government legislated last year to preserve casual mining.
"I wont be lectured to by an out-of-touch minister who wants to cut the wages and conditions of my mates in the pits," Mr Repacholi said.
"Keith Pitt has never done a day's work in a mine and wouldn't know the first thing about the coal industry
"This bloke voted in parliament, along with One Nation, against 'same job, same pay laws'.
"If Scott Morrison and Keith Pitt had their way all miners would be contractors getting paid less with no entitlements."
Mr Bonds, who stood as the One Nation candidate in Hunter in 2019, was dumped by the party last year after speaking out publicly against Senators Malcolm Roberts and Pauline Hanson voting with the government on the casuals bill, despite Senator Roberts spending almost two years campaigning against labour hire in the industry.
Mr Bonds said that unfortunately for Mr Repacholi and Labor, history showed that one of the earliest labour hire firms in the industry was United Mining Support Services (UMSS), which was started by the union.
"In 2005, UMMS was sold to another labour hire firm, Total Employment Services Australia, known as TESA," Mr Bonds said.
"In 2006, TESA was sold to Skilled Group and in 2015 Skilled was sold to a Japanese company, Programmed Maintenance Services, which boasts of having 50,000 people on its books, so there's a direct line there."
Mr Bonds said everyone knew the "casual" labour-hire model was a rort and it was best the industry fixed it rather than risk a Labor government legislating against it.
He criticised Mr Pitt for using "all mining" ABS figures when the issue was in coal.
"I've said to the Nationals, imagine I've got a new labour-hire business, called Polihire," Mr Bonds said.
"They work for me doing the same job as before but I cut their wages 30 per cent and strip their entitlements.
"They wouldn't cop it but they expect mine workers to."
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