Queensland’s mining industry is to mount an aggressive publicity campaign pointing out its virtues after acknowledging that its opponents use social media far more effectively in putting across their case.
Greenpeace and other environment groups have escalated campaigns to stop coal exports.
This has prompted Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche to admit at an industry lunch in Brisbane that research showed that while 80 per cent of Queenslanders supported the mining industry, much of this support was grudging.
He also admitted it was largely based on the large economic impact of the industry.
“What we don’t have is the reach of social media networks, where word of mouth is enough to spur complete strangers into action,” he said.
“Our industries struggle to find advocates.
“Those we do have are characterised by opponents as paid mouthpieces fronting for billionaires and multinationals.”
He cited the example of one German woman with a Facebook account who had put up a photo of a deep, naturally occurring channel running through part of the Great Barrier Reef and portrayed it as being a channel that had been man-made so that coal ships could travel through the reef.
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At last count, more than 84,000 people had shared that piece of fiction with their friends.
“That means it has probably reached the computers and smart phones of several million people around the world,” he said.
He said that the QRC would be rolling out a campaign from the start of next year to showcase the contribution of the mining industry to not just the economy but also the broader community, through a series of third-party endorsements.
Media reports says one of those, shown at the lunch, pictured members of the Brisbane Broncos football team who were sponsored by a gas company, travelling to outback Queensland to read to schoolchildren and kick a football with them.
Queensland’s conservative Liberal National Party (LNP) premier Campbell Newman told the lunch that his government was setting up a process under which there would be a 30-year plan for the development of the mining industry.
“You’ve got a great story to tell, we urge you to get out there and tell that story,” he said.
