Mining industry jobs in Queensland

Senator CANAVAN (Queensland—Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) (14:52):
I thank Senator Macdonald for his question. He is right to outline that there was exciting news last week for Queensland—very exciting news—that jobs will be created in Queensland, thanks to the announcement that Adani has secured finance for its Carmichael mine. Immediately, that will mean 1,500 new jobs in North Queensland. I know Senator Macdonald knows how important that is for the state of Queensland and how important that is for regions like North Queensland and Townsville, the city he lives in, but it is important for the rest of the country to understand this. In the rest of the country, jobs growth is very strong. As Senator Birmingham was just outlining to the Senate, there has been record jobs growth around the country. That is not the case, though, in Queensland. In Queensland, at the moment, the unemployment rate is at 6.3 per cent—the highest in the country. In other regions of Queensland, like Townsville, where Senator Macdonald is from, the unemployment rate is 8.9 per cent—it has averaged that over the last 12 months. In Fitzroy, which covers Rockhampton—where I live—and Gladstone, the rate has been 6.8 per cent over the last 12 months. These areas need jobs; they need these opportunities. It is most important because of the personal impact that that has on people’s lives.

I think the CEO of Adani, Lucas Dow, summed it up well:

On a personal level, my old man was an interstate truck driver. It has always struck me how hard he worked to give us a go and how well remunerated I have been as a result of the opportunities he and the mining industry have afforded me. That was all on the back of the Bowen Basin coal industry being opened up. I started work in the coal industry at the Goonyella mine. I am a parochial Queenslander and I really want to see this get up. This is personal, there is a personal drive there.

It is personal for Senator Macdonald and me as well, because we want to see our communities prosper. We want to see people like Mr Dow go from being the son of a truck driver to being the head of a major company in this country. It’s that which the coal industry and the resources industry offers average Australians.

The PRESIDENT: 
Senator Macdonald, on a supplementary question.

Senator CANAVAN (Queensland—Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) (14:55):
Jobs are one of the most important benefits from this project, but perhaps the other important benefit is the views of the traditional owners of the land on which the mine will be built. Many of us in this place start our speeches by recognising the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and we should actually live out those statements by respecting the fact that the Wangan and Jagalingou people there do support the development of the Adani Carmichael mine. Two years ago, they met in Maryborough and voted 294 to one in favour of the mine. So if traditional ownership, if native title are going to mean something, it should mean that we respect the views of those people. And once again, Patrick Malone, a Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owner, sums it up best when he says Green activists are happy to maintain the status quo of the Wangan and Jagalingou people of low socioeconomic outcomes while they enjoy jobs, education, housing, et cetera, and, I guess, the electricity generated by coal-fired power stations. And I couldn’t have said it better myself.

The PRESIDENT: 
Senator Macdonald, on a final supplementary question.

Senator CANAVAN (Queensland—Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) (14:56):
There’s a lot of support from locals for this development because of the opportunities it provides to north and central Queensland. There are some opposed and, to put these comments in context, I need to outline that earlier this year, a couple of months ago, the member in the other place, Mr Mark Butler, the Labor shadow minister for energy, said on Facebook, ‘I do not support opening up new mines in the Galilee Basin’. Under that post that Mr Butler posted, someone called Mr Stephen Smyth, who is the district president of the CFMEU, who Senator Macdonald and I know well, said, ‘Very disappointing to see another ALP politician condemn those blue collar workers in coal. Never forget, ALP, the road to Canberra is through central Queensland. You are out of touch.’ Those Labor members who continue to oppose jobs in North and Central Queensland are out of touch because the people of North and Central Queensland want jobs, they want economic opportunity, they want a future for their children and that’s what we stand for.