Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has been caught out peddling empty words to the Queensland communities that depend on resources jobs.
For the third time in less than a month, the Labor Party has called for the end of coal-fired power in Australia – this time in a report from a Greens-chaired Senate committee: ‘Resilience of Electricity Infrastructure in a Warming World’.
It’s not surprising that the extreme Greens want to destroy resources jobs, but for Labor to do the same is a betrayal of Central and North Queensland workers.
What’s more, Labor has absolutely no plan to ensure Australia has affordable and reliable baseload power.
In the last sittings of Parliament, the Labor Party sided with the Greens in the Senate saying the coal industry has no future in Australia.
And then a week later, Labor backed a report calling for the retirement of all coal-fired power stations.
In this latest report, Labor has again called for the closure of coal-fired power stations. Labor says it wants ‘a framework to provide for the orderly exit of aging generators’ but it has no plan to replace them. And that means higher power prices, fewer options for baseload power, and jobs lost in the coal mining industry.
Just last week, the Labor Leader was in Central Queensland on a so-called listening tour. I doubt any of the people he met put their hands up to say they wanted Labor to destroy their jobs.
The Labor Party tries to put conditions and qualifications on its words. But it’s pretty straight-forward – either you support the role of coal-fired power in our energy mix, or you chase after the Greens. Bill Shorten can’t have it both ways.
The Government has an all-of-the-above energy policy – including coal, gas and renewables, because we know it’s an energy mix that will keep energy affordable and reliable.
We’re also open to attracting investments for new advanced coal-fired power stations to make the most of our coal resources.
Unlike the Labor Party, we want to keep people in resources jobs and keep the lights on across Australia.
