THE Hunter Valley and the Queensland coal fields would suffer the biggest job losses in Australia under the proposed emissions trading scheme, a Minerals Council of Australia study has found.
The study says the Hunter coal industry would lose 2150 jobs by 2020 and 6150 by 2030.
A "conservative" multiplier of one downstream job for every mine worker means the Hunter's total job losses would be at least 4300 by 2020 and 12,000 by 2030.
Treasury modelling cited in the study showed the coal industry would be the hardest hit of 30 "key sectors" after emissions trading was introduced.
The Treasury study said Victorian brown coal output would fall 41 per cent by 2020.
Production of thermal coal the Hunter's main product would fall by 27 per cent while output of the main Queensland product, coking coal, would fall by 11 per cent.
Climate Change Parliamentary Secretary Greg Combet said it was difficult to evaluate the report without knowing the underlying assumptions but the Government would continue to listen to the industry.
"The coal industry is vitally important for Australia and that is why we have put aside $750 million in assistance to help it," Mr Combet said.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union mineworkers division president Tony Maher criticised the study as exaggerating the impact on coalmining but the minerals council stands by its methodology.
Mr Maher said coal companies wanted to be reclassified as "emissions intensive" industries in order to gain access to billions of dollars worth of compensation in the form of free carbon credits.
He said they were using this study and a similar report to "frighten the crap out of workers".
Minerals council spokesman Ben Mitchell said the study looked at existing mines and future projects and found "real job losses".
The 57-page report is available at www.minerals.org.au
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