Labor minister’s Green dare as coal, gas timeline revealed
The Resources Minister has detailed just how long Australia will continue to export coal and gas as she dared Greens MPs to visit mining communities.
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Australia will continue to export coal and gas “for as long as we need”, Resources Minister Madeline King declared as she dared Greens MPs to visit coal communities.
Ms King reiterated Labor‘s previous position, that the future of coal exports will be determined by overseas buyers, before launching into a staunch defence of the industry and reassuring north Asian trading partners that Australia will remain a reliable source for their energy security.
It followed a question in parliament from Greens Griffith MP Max Chandler-Mather asking if the Albanese Government stood by previous comments that coal would continue to be exported beyond 2050.
Japan has expressed concern over Queensland’s coal royalties regime, while Korea expressed concern of talk Australia was considering gas reservation policy to be implemented as part of a plan to tackle soaring domestic gas prices.
Ms King said coal and gas exports remained important to Australia, as well as its regional neighbours.
“Countries across Asia depend on Australia for their energy security. We‘ll remain a reliable and trustworthy supplier of energy to our neighbours for so long as we need to be,” she said.
“The decision whether coal would be exported from this country and bought by others, will be made in board rooms right around the world and particularly north Asia. It won’t necessarily be made by us.
“This is an export industry that‘s been operating in this country since 1801. It supports tens of thousands of people in communities right up and down the east coast.”
She accused the Greens of “disregarding” these communities and using a disingenuous argument.
“(Mr Chandler-Mather) will do well along with his friends and colleagues to visit some of the communities up and down the east coast so they can see exactly the hard work that goes into the coal export industry,” she said.
Mr Chandler-Mather accused the Labor Minister of making “baseless accusations” about the Greens policy on coal and gas.
The Greens policy includes phasing out coal and gas by 2030, including for export, as well as setting up an national authority to help coal and gas sector dependent communities find new jobs and set up new industries in their region.
The authority would use a $2.8 billion “diversifying coal communities fund” to approve local-developed transition plans across the country over 10 years.
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