Independent MP Rob Oakeshott aims to disprove the claim by large Australian mining companies that there are not enough local miners to fill in vacancies. He issued a challenge for the mining firms to send a plane to New South Wales and Mr Oakeshott promised to fill the jet with workers from his electorate.

The crossbencher insisted he has 100 to 150 people ready to fly and work. Mr Oakeshott made the challenge to protest the decision by the Gillard government which allowed the world's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, to bring in 1,700 skilled foreign workers for Hancock Prospecting's Roy Hill project through enterprise migration agreements.

He and another NSW independent MP, Tony Windsor, accused the resources sector of not doing enough to actively recruit workers from the east coast, particularly the regional area which has high unemployment rates. He said the planeload of available local workers would debunk the myth that residents of eastern Australian refuse to go to the west for employment opportunities.

The MP cited the four job expos that his region held in the past few years which had no representative from Western Australia's mining industry to recruit local workers. He also called for an improvement in recruitment efforts based on complaints of job applicants that it is too tough to be hired despite their skills and qualification.

A recent mining jobs expo in the Gold Coast attracted 10,000 applicants, but only six got secured employment, Mr Oakeshott said.

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