Kelly Vea Vea

Kelly Vea Vea has spent most of her life in Central Queensland coal communities. Her family has been in the Australian mining industry for four generations and her heritage spans back to the coalfields of Wales and Scotland. Kelly has lived in Moranbah for the last 15 years raising her family with her husband Blair who works in a local underground coal mine.

Kelly has served on the Isaac Regional Council since 2012 and was appointed Deputy Mayor in 2018. The Isaac Regional Council is the largest resource council in Queensland, home to 26 operating coal mines that generate over half of Queensland’s saleable coal, and one third of Australia’s metallurgical coal exports.

As a community activist and then on council Kelly, helped to successfully lobby the Queensland Government to legislate Social Impact Assessments for new mine developments. Mining companies now have legally binding conditions associated with their social impacts, along with environmental and planning approvals. Kelly and her council colleagues continue to work with state government on the framework to ensure local communities, workers and businesses benefit from the mining industry and projects they host, and that there is a shared understanding of the social licence to operate in their communities.