AGY-7659 | Commonwealth Coal Commissioner [I]

Full description

On 8 August 1941 National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules (Act No.189, 1941) (Cth) proclaimed that there 'shall be a Commonwealth Coal Commissioner who shall be a corporation sole with perpetual succession and a common seal.' (1)

The role of the Commissioner was 'to secure that, for all purposes arising out of the war in which His Majesty is engaged, an adequate provision of coal is made and maintained not only in States and places supplied by local production but also in other States and places in Australia, and to that end to set up an authority to govern and direct the production, treatment, handling, supply, distribution, marketing and consumption of coal and to co-operate with the Shipping Control Board'. (2)

The powers of the Coal Commissioner were significant and in addition to being able to 'control the production, treatment, handling, supply, distribution, storage, marketing and use of coal' for Australia's war effort, (3) the Commissioner could open new mines and re-open abandoned or closed ones, fix the price of coal, set rates for the cost of transporting coal by rail, prepare statistics on the output of coal across Australia, as well as the profits, costs and workers' earnings at particular mine sites. (4) The Commissioner could also order mines to be closed permanently or temporarily, (5) and was given special powers to set coal quotas that had to be produced at particular mine sites. (6)

On 6 February 1942 the Coal Commissioner was replaced by a Commonwealth Coal Commission upon the declaration of the National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rule No.51 of 1942. (7)

Endnotes
1. National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules (Act No.189, 1941) (Cth), s.3.
2. National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules (Act No.189, 1941) (Cth), s.7.
3. National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules (Act No.189, 1941) (Cth), s.17.
4. National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules (Act No.189, 1941) (Cth), s.17.
5. National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules (Act No.189, 1941) (Cth), s.17.
6. National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules (Act No.189, 1941) (Cth), s.18.
7. National Security (Coal Control) Regulations, Statutory Rule (Act No.51 of 1942) (Cth), s.9.