A bill, which would have made it illegal for a mining company to pull the rug on thousands of Hunter workers by suddenly closing a coal mine, has stalled because of "political games", a Hunter politician says.
A coalition of Hunter groups has written to the state government, calling for it to urgently pass the Future Jobs and Investment Bill, which would force mining companies to give three years' notice before closing a mine and to prepare a transition plan for workers facing redundancy.
The calls come in response to Yancoal telling its Ashton coal mine workforce there would be immediate redundancies as the mine closed over 18 months.
Also, a looming Independent Planning Commission (IPC) decision on the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) continuation projects could potentially lead to more job losses at the end of this year.
The Future Jobs and Investment Bill was introduced to Parliament in November 2025, and passed the lower house with support from the Coalition and the crossbench.
Despite the initial support from all sides of the political spectrum, it has stalled in the upper house, languishing in legislative no-man's-land since March.
This week is the last sitting week of Parliament before a decision on the future of HVO is made in early September.
If passed this week and swiftly implemented, the bill would require the HVO mine's operator Glencore to prepare a plan outlining how the workforce would be supported to transition to new employment in the lead-up to and following the mine's closure.
The plan would need to be approved by the government.
Hunter Renewal coordinator Steve Phillips said it was deeply disappointing that this critical piece of legislation to support workers, introduced to Parliament in November 2025, had been stalled in the upper house since March, despite being apparently supported by the Coalition and crossbench.
"Delays in passing this bill have already had real and disastrous consequences on the ground in the Hunter," he said.
"When the Ashton coal mine announced its early closure in July, workers were left without the support this new legislation would provide. If the NSW government fails to get this bill urgently passed next week, workers at HVO may be left in the same position, but on a much bigger scale."
Hunter Jobs Alliance coordinator Justin Page said the HVO situation demonstrated why transition planning should not begin when a mine announced its closure.
"By then, workers and communities are already on the back foot. Workforce planning, retraining and regional investment must be embedded in legislation years before jobs are at risk," he said.
"That's why Hunter Jobs Alliance has consistently called for stronger legal obligations on both governments and coal companies to plan for transition, not simply react to closures. Passing the Future Jobs and Investment Bill . . . is an important step towards putting those obligations in place.
Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper demanded "those standing in the way of its progress to stop playing games", specifically calling on the Coalition to step up and pass the bill.
"Stop clouding the future of workers who want to know what their next step is, so they can plan where they will send their kids to school and how they will pay their mortgages," Mr Piper said.
"Stop gambling with the future of small regional businesses, which need to plan for the cascading impacts of mine closures."
Singleton mayor Sue Moore echoed the calls, and said the Ashton closure confirmed that the transition was already happening, and Hunter communities "need action from the NSW government today".
"We have been advocating for over three years now for the Future Jobs and Investment Authority to be established, and to urgently start coordinating and investing," Cr Moore said.
Shadow resource minister and Upper Hunter MP David Layzell acknowledged the bill had been "caught up in the mess" of the upper house, where the Coalition, the Greens and the crossbench had pledged to shoot down Labor legislation in protest against transparency concerns.
Mr Layzell said the bill was a rebadging of the Coalition's Royalties for Rejuvenation Fund, but one he supported regardless as "one of the most important things for the Hunter".
"The fund is designed to support long-term issues - a 10 to 50-year timeframe - not help within the next few months," he said.
"If the bill was passed today, the agency would probably take 18 months to establish given the amount of bureaucracy, so any suggestion that this could have helped the Ashton miners is pure politics."
