Maverick Queensland MP Jo-Ann Miller has slammed her Labor colleagues over their response to the re-emergence of black lung disease, saying "the hearse is waiting in the driveway" for coal workers while the government stalls.
Ms Miller tabled the latest report from the black lung parliamentary committee investigating pneumoconiosis, and criticised the government for only supporting 14 of the 68 recommendations in the previous report.
The Ipswich-based Bundamba MP has been a staunch critic of the government's response to the disease, revealing earlier this year her elderly father had the illness.
Ms Miller told parliament on Thursday workers had been let down by the government's response to the report, which she insisted would be a central issue at the looming state election.
"This is an insult to our coal miners and workers across the coal chain," she told parliament on Thursday.
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It's response, Ms Miller said, amounted to establishing a project office and an executive to consult with stakeholders on regulation options.
"This suggests that the government has in fact failed to accept the committee's proposed regulatory model and discounted the extensive stakeholder consultation, evidence gathering and analysis already undertaken by the select committee," she added.
But Mines Minister Anthony Lynham told parliament the government had already started to implement the recommendations, and would have "the majority" actioned by the end of the year.
"Work is completed or well advanced already in 23 of these recommendations," he said.
In 2015, an Ipswich man became the first Australian to be diagnosed with black lung disease in 30 years, and dozens more have followed since.
