When veteran miner Scott Leggett goes to work, he leaves behind his nine-year-old daughter who worries whether it will be the last time she will see her dad.
Anika and her family live in Moranbah, a town in central Queensland specifically created for the mining industry.
She watches the news, which leads to some difficult conversations with her parents.
"He might get badly injured, he might die," Anika said through tears.
It is the main reason her dad now speaks publicly about mine safety and pleads with people in charge to listen to workers.
"My nine-year-old daughter gets it," Mr Leggett said.
"If something's not good, you do something about it.
"It will probably cost me a job somewhere along the line, but I'm not going to die wondering."
Last year, he made a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into coal mine safety after five men were injured in a methane explosion at Grosvenor coal mine in 2020.
In the committee's report handed down in February, 11 recommendations were made, including more research into whether production targets impacted worker safety.
The report noted a gap between what mining companies said about safety and what workers claimed actually happened.
Queensland Resources Minister Scott Stewart said in a statement he would "carefully consider the recommendations relevant to government and work with the independent regulator Resources Safety and Health Queensland".
There are 66 coal mines operating in Queensland, mainly in the Mackay and central Queensland regions.
Coal companies employ 36,000 people. In the past two decades, there have been 55 fatalities in all mines.
Mine safety has been scrutinised in several different inquiries, the latest by the Transport and Resources Committee.
In his foreword to the report, chair Shane King said the committee "observed a theme that has permeated multiple government inquiries into safety in the mining sector".
"Companies speak loudly about their overriding commitment to safety, while individual workers find themselves having to 'speak up for safety', sometimes at significant personal cost to themselves," Mr King wrote.
Industry safety 'smoke and mirrors'
Mr Leggett doubts the latest inquiry will lead to any "real" change when productivity is pushed hard.
"There's a lot of little mantras that you see that the industry puts out, but it's smoke and mirrors," he said.
Mr Leggett alleged workers were punished for raising safety issues.
"I know people personally that have raised their safety concerns and the next week they'll get a text message or a phone call to say that they're no longer required," he said.
Different mines had different kinds of safety bonuses, Mr Leggett said.
"Some can be cash incentives, others are items, anything from an Engel fridge, fishing rods, swags, camping gear, vouchers for shops," he said.
"If somebody has a decision: 'Will I report the cut on my finger, because we may miss out on our bonus?' … they are going to make a financial decision."
Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) chief inspector Hermann Fasching said the agency did not have specific data on reprisal claims.
"We get complaints from time to time from industry and sometimes those contain elements of allegations of reprisal," Mr Fasching said.
"All of the complaints that we receive are investigated, and we take action where we find issues are not as they should be, and where people aren't in compliance with the legislation."
A Queensland Resources Council (QRC) spokesperson said it had previously requested evidence of reprisals from employees who reported safety concerns, but no evidence had been provided.
"The QRC continues to urge anyone with evidence to support these claims to contact the relevant company, union, RSHQ or the QRC ... people can also do this anonymously through the RSHQ inspector in their region."
In November, legislation passed state parliament to amend the Coal Mining Safety and Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022.
Mr Stewart said the changes required an employee of the coal mine operator to be appointed to certain statutory positions.
"These requirements ensure holders of safety-critical roles at coal mines can raise safety issues to help officials … without fear of reprisal," he said.
'Chronic unease' within workforce
Mr Leggett remains sceptical about the future of safety in the industry.
"All these supreme decision makers, they need to have some flesh in the game," he said.
"We lose life and limb … whether it's dust, vehicle accidents, crush injuries … they are a daily occurrence.
"The industry talks about chronic unease … I can feel it in the workforce, in my family and friends."
But it is the unease Mr Leggett sees in his daughter that he says should not be the norm.
"I feel bad as a parent because I probably shouldn't expose her to that emotion," he said.
"But the reality is that's what we do and, as a family, we can't not talk about it because that's our reality."
