A report on mine safety in Queensland has shown that contract workers are still at greater risk of on-site death than full-time employees, despite injury levels dropping overall.

The Queensland Mines and Quarry Safety Report for 2012-2013 was released late last week, and says that around 90 per cent of mining industry fatalities in the last decade have involved a contract worker.

Advances in safety techniques and protocols may be keeping more workers safe from harm, with statistics saying the number of injuries and time taken to recover has dropped in the past financial year.

But still, the disproportionate number of contract worker fatalities continues to burden the industry, and will take broad cooperation to fix, Mine Safety Commissioner Stewart Bell says.

“We've been pushing that message out to the mining industry that contractors are mine workers - just like everyone else there,” he said.

“They have to be treated in exactly the same way, provided with the same safety resources, provided with the same training or at least an assurance they have been trained to a reasonable standard, before they're engaged to work at the mine.”

Mr Bell has congratulated the industry on moving toward improvements, but says measures such as increased supervision are still needed.

“I'm quite comfortable in saying Queensland has one of the best mine safety records in the world but we can't become complacent,” he said.

“We can't become apathetic because every time we're hurting somebody - that's somebody who's not coming home to his family in the same condition he left for work... [or] he's not going home at all.”