First of all, I want to correct the record a little bit about my movements. Apparently, Senator Watt is very interested in where I travel to. I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic, because last year I took my wife to 17 coalmines in four days. We had a great time travelling around Central Queensland. So the idea that I don’t go to these facilities or talk to these workers—I actually travel there regularly and travel with my family, because we live in Central Queensland. We love the place. We love the people in the place and the wealth they produce for the nation, and we never get enough gratitude.
I didn’t hear one word of thanks from Senator Watt in his long screed against me, about how evil I am and how terrible we all are on this side, not one word to the people of Central Queensland, not one word of gratitude. The whole budget of the Labor Party is basically being bankrolled, at the moment, by the hard work of the men and women in the coal industry and other resource industries, but especially coal, over the last year. It’s our nation’s biggest export. There’s been not a single word. We never hear it from the Labor Party. They never say thanks to the people who work in this industry.
I want to put on the record, at the start of my contribution, ‘Thank you.’ I thank those workers for what they do for our nation. They spend long periods of the year away from their families, often, because they’re in remote locations, living in a donga, without anyone to sleep next to at night. But their work helps us be the prosperous and rich nation that we are. So I just want to put on the record that I thank them.
I wish the Labor Party could be bipartisan about this, but they simply can’t seem to recognise the achievements of the coal industry. You never hear them say anything about what an achievement it’s been to open up a new coal basin for the first time in 50 years in the Galilee, the Adani project. We fought tooth and nail against a bunch of radical greenies, funded by globalists to try and stop that, and the Labor Party never says a single word about it, never welcomes it. You never hear them mention it.
Why not? Are they not proud of the coal industry? Are they not proud of the 2,000 Central and North Queenslanders that work at the Adani Carmichael mine? Do they care about their futures at all? You never hear them talk about them. It’s all about us. They want to talk about the coalition and how terrible we are. I just want to put on record how important the coal industry is in this country and how proud I am to support and fight for it.
I was going to go to some other places, but I thought it was also important—after that particularly partisan screed from Minister Watt; he really should be above that, now that he’s a minister—to put on the record the actual positions of businesses in the coal sector, especially after the sellout that the Labor Party’s engaged in this week for workers’ interests to the Greens. They have absolutely sold out the interests of those who work in coal and gas and other mining sectors, which I’m sure I’ll get a chance to come to tonight. As a result of that sellout deal, here are a few quotes—some actual quotes—from companies in the coal industry today. This deal only happened in the last couple of days. We still don’t have a lot of basic details about it. I asked a question about the impact on the Olive Downs mine in question time the other day. There were no answers, and there are still no answers about whether or not the 500 people who work at that mine today still have a job. Where is the certainty for them?
Here are a few quotes today reported in the Australian. The first is from Paul Flynn from Whitehaven Coal, a great Australian company. It has done remarkable things, especially around Narrabri in northern New South Wales. It’s a fantastic coalmine; it’s another one I’ve been to, Murray. It’s one of the best in the country, actually. It’s special. Go and check that out. Paul Flynn says:
Nearly 70 per cent of Japan’s thermal coal imports come from Australia so it exposes them to a material new risk in terms of security of energy supply.
This is his view about the Labor Party’s deal with the Greens. He continues:
In the midst of a global shortage of energy, and considering alternative technologies aren’t ready to pick up the slack from the 80 per cent of primary energy derived from fossil fuels today, it’s mind-boggling the government has entertained these concessions.
That’s what the coal industry thinks, Minister Watt. The minister didn’t mention or address Paul Flynn’s concerns in his contribution. The article also quotes Bowen Coking Coal chief Nick Jorss, who is another great Australian. These people are just fantastic Australians. They work hard and they take risks. They’re just great people. They’re larrikins. The Australian article said:
Nick Jorss said Labor was entering “extremely dangerous and uncharted territory” with a “carbon tax by stealth” that would limit Australia’s high-quality, low-emissions coal exports.
That’s what the coal industry has said today, Minister Watt. In your next partisan screed—instead of focusing so much on me and how terrible I am—maybe you should respond to Mr Jorss, who is an investor and has built amazing businesses in the coal industry. Respond to him and say why he is wrong. Mr Jorss goes on to say:
Global coal demand is at the highest level in history—
he’s right about that—
and it’s fanciful to think that reducing our high-quality exports in the face of record demand will do anything other than drive up energy and steel prices, create a net increase in global emissions and destroy Australian jobs, both in regions and in cities.
Mr Jorss doesn’t sound too supportive of the government’s measures. Apparently, Minister Watt wants to mislead the Senate because he does not recognise the comments there of Mr Jorss. I’ll move on. New Hope Group, another business that has been totally screwed over by Labor government’s for many years, finally got their project approval after 12 years. The Australian article says:
New Hope Group chief executive Rob Bishop said the amendments were built on “a political objective on a base demonisation of fossil fuels” and that they would see Australia abandon its role as a reliable energy exporter for the region.
That is more criticism from the coal industry that Minister Watt has failed to address in any of his contributions. The article continues:
President of Peabody’s Australian operations, Jamie Frankcombe, said the company was concerned the legislation would “make the mining industry less competitive at a time when it’s integral to providing the minerals and energy required for the energy transition”.
Where’s the support here? There’s no support. Mr Frankcombe goes on to say:
The very real danger in setting aspirational emission reduction targets and imposing rigid rules to achieve them is that it will reduce our cost competitiveness, lead to potential job losses and hurt regional communities.
Those are the communities, Minister Watt, that you fly in and fly out of. You don’t actually live there. The article further states:
A spokesman for Glencore said the reforms needed to achieve emissions reductions without “destroying the jobs and investments that are critical to the national economy”.
It goes on and on. There are more comments from the gas industry too, which I’ll perhaps get to later this evening.
Before I get to some more detailed questions, I want to put into context what we’re doing. I touched on this in my second reading debate contribution, but I want to make a comparison. We’re putting all these costs and risks on the coal industry and other industries, whose concerns have been outlined in the article I’ve quoted. In terms of the benefit that we are going to get from this bill, according to the government’s own target set out in their position paper on the safeguard mechanism, this will reduce carbon emissions by 205 million tonnes. That’s the reduction they’ll achieve. That sound like a lot, but a couple of weeks ago on 13 March this year, the Biden administration approved the Willow project in Alaska, which will produce 180,000 barrels of oil a day. That one project is going to produce a total of 263 million tonnes of emissions. So we’ve spent all this time here this week—and we’re going to be here until God knows what hour again tonight—lauding ourselves and saying how fantastic we are because the tides are not rising anymore, the temperature is falling and we can already feel it get colder. Apparently we’re shifting the world here in this little room. And, after all this effort and with all of the uncertainty we’ll impose on the major industries that bankroll our nation, all we’re going to do is reduce our emissions by 205 million times. Meanwhile, one decision of the so-called climate-conscious Democratic elected Biden administration, 263 million tonnes from that one decision in Alaska, completely blows out of the water everything we’ve done and more. ConocoPhillips, who are the proponents of the Willow project, used to invest in Australia, too. They largely don’t anymore; they sold out of Darwin, unfortunately, so we’ve lost them. ConocoPhillips released to the stock exchange in New York that they welcomed the decision from Houston.
You know what? In their whole media release announcing the Willow project there was not a single mention of carbon emissions. No mention of offsetting them or going to net zero—not a single mention. Do you know what they did mention, though, which again Minister Watt failed to mention his contribution at all? This is what ConocoPhillips said: ‘The Willow project fits within the Biden administration’s priority of environmental and social justice, facilitating the energy transition and enhancing our energy security all while creating good union jobs.’
Good union jobs—that’s what the coal industry provides. I back those unions and I stand with the CFMMEU supporting the industry. These guys don’t ever mention it. Where is the mention of the union jobs here that you’re going to destroy through these policies? Because if you don’t, if we have the reaction we’ve seen from the coal industry and we don’t get the investment, we’re not going to get those good union jobs. They’ll go to Alaska and the Middle East and China and Russia, and they won’t be here in this country anymore. So I don’t care how much you criticise me. I will keep fighting for those good union jobs, because you are not.
