Muswellbrook Shire Council has appealed to the Federal Government for urgent reforms to protect mining communities, following the collapse of Dartbrook Mine which has left local businesses and workers carrying the costs of multi-billion-dollar corporations.
In a letter to Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Council highlighted that local contractors are owed more than $5 million for work already completed at the site. Many of those affected are small, family-owned businesses with decades of service to the shire, now facing the prospect of bankruptcy.
The mine’s closure has also devastated its workforce, with two-thirds of employees dismissed in July without their entitlements being paid. Those workers must now rely on the Commonwealth’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) scheme, shifting the burden onto Australian taxpayers.
The Dartbrook operation is currently in voluntary administration, with financiers Vitol Asia Pty Ltd — a subsidiary of the Swiss-based, Dutch Vitol Group, valued at around half a trillion dollars — appointing FTI Consulting as receivers and managers.
Muswellbrook Shire Council Mayor Jeff Drayton said the crisis exposed serious flaws in corporate safeguards while inflicting real pain on the local community.
“The Fair Entitlement Guarantee exists to protect workers, not to subsidise multi-billion-dollar companies,” Mayor Drayton said.
“We’re calling on the Federal Government to close all loopholes that let corporate giants off the hook while communities like ours carry the cost.“Dartbrook may be an underground mine, but this is an open cut for our community. Decisions are being made in boardrooms that are felt throughout Muswellbrook and the Hunter. It doesn’t pass the pub test that corporations worth billions can walk away from Muswellbrook businesses and workers while taxpayers foot the bill.”
Council has also engaged directly with Dartbrook’s administrators, receivers and managers, and is lobbying the Federal Government and other stakeholders to intervene.
