Latest news with #coalminers
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
ATO reveals highest paying tradie jobs paying up to $135,000 a year
Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data has revealed the highest paying tradie jobs in Australia. The list is based on the 2022-23 tax return data of millions of people, with the top job raking in more than $135,000 a year on average. Coal miners topped the list, earning an average income of $135,026 per year. There are 41,924 coal miners in the country, with wages higher for male coal miners at $139,698, who make up the vast majority of workers. Builder construction project managers came in second place, with an average income of $132,992 per year. There are 74,184 people in the job, and again male incomes were higher at $135,767 per annum. RELATED ATO reveals 10 highest paying jobs in Australia: '$472,475 a year' Centrelink alert for 240,000 Aussie families as some see popular payment stopped Mortgage warning over popular Gen Z property trend Rounding out the top three were drilling plant operators with an average income of $132,272, based on 11,087 people working in the job. Looking at some of the most popular trades, electricians broadly earned $111,035 per year on average, the ATO data revealed, with 81,452 people in the job. Apprentice electricians earned $52,385 on average. Plumbers made $86,722 on average, while apprentice plumbers made $44,193. Carpenters and joiners made $78,501 and bricklayers $69,816 when qualified, while apprentices made $40,589. Concreters made $77,564 on average, while roof tilers made $63,024 and plasterers made $68,207. Here are the top 10 highest-paid tradie jobs based on the ATO data from the 2022-23 financial year and their average incomes across both male and female employees. Coal miner $135,026 Builder construction project manager $132,992 Drilling plant operator $132,272 Electrical lines worker $131,152 Mining blasting worker $126,320 Lift mechanic $122,174 Crane operator construction worker $121,782 Construction rigger construction worker $118,665 Maintenance fitter $116,734 Electrician (general) $110,740 The ATO also revealed the top 10 most lucrative professions overall, with medical professionals largely dominating the list. Surgeons took out the top spot, earning an average of $472,475 a year. Anaesthetists were in second place, earning $447,193, followed by financial dealers at $355,233. The average Australian income for the year was $74,240, while the median was $55,868.
The Guardian
24-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Queensland state budget 2025: five key takeaways
Here are five key takeaways from the Queensland budget. Few will have watched the state's budget as closely as the Queensland's public sector unions. The nurses union is locked in negotiations with the government over its offer of just 8% higher wages over three years. The nurses say the offer is a breach of an election promise for the country's highest wages. Enterprise bargaining is soon to begin for police, firefighters and school teachers. The budget forecasts a substantial decline in growth in 'employee expenses' – which include both wages and headcount. Beyond next year they will be 'contained to a more sustainable average annual rate of 3.5%'. The treasurer, David Janetzki, said the number reflected an increase in headcount and 'a factoring in of wage increases'. 'And that's the number. That's the number,' he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The Liberal National party government has been urged to review the state's coal royalty rates, which sought to give the state a bigger share of super profits when prices were at record highs. Those royalty hikes gave the state a $10bn windfall in the first year. But the scheme was designed so that the higher rates only kick in when prices were extraordinarily high. Now those prices have dropped. And the reality is that coalminers – who say they prop up the state economy – are no longer really propping up the state's economy. 'The former government absolutely creamed the coal royalties,' Janetzki said. 'In 22/23 and 23/24 [the Labor government] took more in those two years than what will take in four out of coal royalties.' There's always a post that comes back to bite you. Two years ago, Janetzki and David Crisafulli railed against the state's growing debt. 'We've got debt numbers that have gone from $72bn when the Palaszczuk government was elected, more than doubling in less than a decade to $147bn,' Janetzki said in a post on Crisafulli's TikTok feed. 'What this means is there's going to be worse services for Queenslanders in the long run.' The budget predicts Queensland's state debt will top $205bn before the end of the decade. Janetzki says that borrowing figure will be lower than projected under Labor. That line won't cut it with fiscal conservatives, who will note there appears to be no prospect of reining in that debt any time soon. The budget also predicts deficits for the foreseeable future, though Janetzki says there is a 'path to surplus'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The centrepiece announcement of budget day was a new shared equity scheme for first home buyers. The program involves the state taking an equity stake in homes worth up to $1m, and allowing buyers to get into the market with a deposit of as little as 2%. The criteria is far more generous than the similar federal scheme – it would be open to individuals earning less than $150,000 a year, or couples earning less than $225,000 a year combined. At his budget press conference, Janetzki faced some difficult questions about the viability – and unintended consequences – of such a scheme, amid concerns that it could lead buyers into mortgage stress. 'This program has the highest income thresholds of any related scheme in the country,' Janetzki said. 'We have a generation despairing as their home ownership dream fades from view. Simply accumulating a deposit has put home ownership beyond the great majority who cannot turn to their parents for a contribution.' Slashing investment in green power was one of the LNP's first moves after taking government, and the budget shows little change in coming years. The gigantic Pioneer-Burdekin scheme – once billed as the world's biggest hydroelectric project – is officially dead. Meanwhile, Labor's other big battery project, Borumba, has been delayed and reportedly shrunk. The budget includes $3bn over four years for the $18bn project. The LNP has finally revealed its long-awaited alternative to Labor's hydro power plan, backing two smaller pumped hydro projects. It will invest $79m into acquiring the Mount Rawdon and Big T pumped hydro projects. The state will also fund a gas project near Chinchilla, investigate funding another at Swanbank, and consider funding the Lockyer Energy Project, a hydro scheme. And it will spend $1.6bn keeping the state's coal fleet operating over five years. More than $100m will be invested at the Meandu and Kogan Creek mines in 2025/26.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Weatherford student takes top honor with website in National History Day competition
A Weatherford student earned first place earlier this month in a National History Day competition held at the University of Maryland. Cassidy McCarthy, daughter of Amber Hutchison of Weatherford, was one of some 3,000 students from across the country to attend the competition June 5-9. McCarthy, 12, took the top spot for Junior Division Website with her exhaustive online history of the struggle of coal miners in the early 20th century West Virginia Mine Wars. Her entry, 'The West Virginia Mine Wars: Justice in the Coal Field,' is reached at: The entry was tailored to the theme of the event, 'Rights and Responsibilities in History.' McCarthy reached the national competition from among more than a half million middle school and high school students vying in local, regional and state brackets. 'The theme of rights and responsibilities has never been more relevant, and these students tackled it with passion and depth,' National History Day Executive Director Cathy Gorn said in a news release. 'Their work continues to inspire all of us who believe in the power of historical thinking.' McCarthy, who will enter eighth grade at the virtual iUniversity Prep through Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, is set to study college freshman math and science in the fall. She aspires to a career in medicine. 'She wants to be a dermatologist,' Hutchison said. McCarthy also plays club volleyball for Peak.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Miners locked out of work over pay dispute
About 160 coal miners have been locked out of work for more than one week without pay over a bargaining dispute with their employer. The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) allege US-owned Peabody Energy retaliated after union members at the Helensburg coal mine near Wollongong in NSW stopped work for one hour in response to a 'lack of progress in negotiations.' The union was advised its members would be locked out without pay for eight days from Wednesday less than two hours after a meeting with the Fair Work Commission over the dispute. Miners asked for three pay increases of 5 per cent over a three-year period and an extra $1.50 added to their hourly rate, after miners were allegedly told they would be looked after when they received a low increase under their last agreement. MEU South West District vice president Mark Jenkins said Peabody's lockout was a harsh response aimed at coercing MEU members into giving up their bargaining position. Mr Jenkins said workers had experienced several years of low wage growth compared to high inflation and cost of living pressures, but had continually set production records at the mine for their employer. 'Now, they deserve to see some of the benefit that they were promised in the last agreement,' he said. 'Peabody's move to lock out MEU members for over a week is nothing but an attempt to punish and intimidate workers for exercising their industrial rights.' Peabody Energy have been contacted for comment, but they told the ABC the company implemented employer response action from Wednesday until next Thursday. 'Peabody remains committed to the bargaining process and will continue to negotiate in good faith toward a new enterprise agreement,' a spokesman told the ABC. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Health
- New York Times
In Appalachia, a Father Got Black Lung. Then His Son Did, Too.
Denver Brock and his son Aundra used to spend early mornings hunting rabbits in the wooded highlands of Harlan County, Ky. But they don't get out there much these days. They both get too breathless trying to follow the baying hounds. Instead, they tend a large garden alongside Denver Brock's home. Even that can prove difficult, requiring them to work slowly and take frequent breaks. 'You get so dizzy,' Denver Brock said, 'you can't hardly stand up.' The Brocks followed a long family tradition when they became Appalachian coal miners. For it, they both now have coal workers' pneumoconiosis, a debilitating disease characterized by masses and scarred tissue in the chest, and better known by its colloquial name: black lung. Mr. Brock, 73, wasn't all that surprised when he was diagnosed in his mid-60s. In coal mining communities, black lung has long been considered an 'old man's disease,' one to be almost expected after enough years underground. But his son was diagnosed much younger, at just 41. Like his father, he has progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of the disease. And today, at 48, he's even sicker. When he followed his father into mining, he thought he was entering a safer industry than the one prior generations had worked in. By the 1990s, safety standards and miner protections had nearly consigned the disease to history. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
