Ms JODIE HARRISON (Charlestown—Minister for Women, Minister for Seniors, and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault)— On Sunday 10 September, the 26th Northern Mining and NSW Energy District Memorial Service was marked at the Jim Comerford Memorial Wall in Cessnock.

This year's ceremony took on a particular importance, as it fell so soon after the hundredth anniversary of the Hetton Coal Company Ltd Bellbird Mine Disaster, which resulted in the deaths of twenty-one miners.

A coronial inquest and Royal Commission were conducted, which were the catalysts for a Bill to establish mines rescue stations being tabled in the NSW Parliament on 13 November 1924. The Mines Rescue Act was assented to in September 1925 and became operational on 31 December that year.

Bellbird remains the worst disaster in the history of the northern NSW coalfields, and the names of those lost are among the 1,793 inscribed on the Memorial Wall. It was a beautiful ceremony, starting with opening remarks by Shane Thompson, the District Secretary of the MEU, featuring music by the Mineworkers' Pipe Band and Tara Naysmith, and a keynote address by Federal Member for Hunter, Dan Repacholi MP. A timely reminder that all workers deserve to expect to come home safely from work.

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