The Labor party seems desperate to kill off the coal industry, or at least announce coal’s death to the world repeatedly.
Back at the 2019 election, Labor promised that it would build a hydrogen industry that could replace Australia’s coal exports. Five years later and there is still not a single, commercial use of hydrogen to generate electricity, and replace coal, anywhere in the world.
After the last election, Labor promised that they would invest in “critical minerals” for coal miners to go work in. Instead, over 1000 jobs in Australia’s nickel industry have been lost thanks to cheaper nickel made from coal fired power in Indonesia. The rest of Australia’s nickel industry is now at threat, and lithium is struggling too.
So it was last week that Labor flew its Prime Minister and Ministers, in two separate private jets, to the Hunter region to announce its third plan in five years to kill off the coal industry. Perhaps they are hoping that it will be third time lucky.
This time Labor announced that it would give $1 billion of taxpayer’s money to a start-up company wanting to make solar panels in Australia. It is not clear how Australia will beat China at mass manufacturing after failing to do that in cars, whitegoods or clothing over many decades but it is not like Labor is spending their own money so they feel it is worth a crack.
Australia’s coal industry must feel like Mark Twain who once quipped that “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”.
When Labor has made all of these announcements they have done so by threatening that coal miners are all on the cusp of about to go out of work. It all seems very strange to anyone that actually works in the coal industry which is, and has been for years, going gangbusters.
Last year coal retook its mantle as the nation’s largest export, beating out iron ore. For two year’s running now, Australia’s coal exports have set new records. It is not just Australia. The world used more coal last year than any year in history.
How come Labor keep reading eulogies for an industry that employs thousands of Australians, helps fund public services and is experiencing record demand? The problem for Labor is that they have hitched their political star to the death of the Australian coal industry.
If the Australian coal industry defies Labor’s dire predictions and thrives – as it has been doing – then Labor will be exposed for having wasted billions of taxpayer’s dollars on preparing for a doomsday that hasn’t come to fruition. Unfortunately, Labor now has a vested interest in seeing Australians lose their jobs.
This shows the dead-end nature of Labor’s approach. There is no need for us to cheer on the death of one Australian industry to grow another Australian industry. We do not need to kill the coal industry to grow a hydrogen industry, to mine critical minerals or to make solar panels.
The better approach would be to grow all Australian industries. We have enough land, resources and people to do all of these things. It makes much more sense to back a range of industries rather than to put all our eggs in one basket, as the nickel industry’s current issues demonstrate.
With growing demand for the high quality coal that Australia exports, the only people that can kill the Australian coal industry is the people in the Australian Government. The Labor party seems hell bent on doing that through higher taxes, red tape and a lack of support.
The hardworking men and women in our coal industry deserve better from their Government.
