Queenslanders deserve ‘honesty’ on coal: Chris Bowen

Federal Labor heavyweight Chris Bowen says Queensland workers deserve an “honest conversation” about the future of their jobs as the “cord is cut” on high-emissions emitting industries.

Queenslanders in coal country need “honest” conversations about the future of their resource jobs not convoys of proselytising Greens or Coalition MPs “caught in a vortex of denial”, Federal Labor heavyweight Chris Bowen has claimed.

Mr Bowen, Labor’s climate change and energy spokesman, will venture into Queensland for the second time in as many months as the party intensifies its effort to woo back voters who abandoned the party in 2019.

In a speech about the “future of work”, to be delivered in Brisbane on Thursday, Mr Bowen will argue Queensland workers deserve an “honest conversation” about the future of their jobs as the “cord is cut” on high-emissions emitting industries.

Labor’s position is that economic growth does not need to be sacrificed for climate change policy.

“Now, to be clear, this transition cannot and should not take place overnight,” Mr Bowen said.

“But those communities deserve an honest conversation about the future.

“They also deserve governments planning and investing in a plan for economic growth in their communities based on renewable energy generation and manufacturing. “

Referencing Labor’s 2019 election campaign from hell, Mr Bowen said Queenslander’s don’t need convoys of Greens “swanning in during an election campaign” moralising about they should be doing amid the climate emergency.

He also took aim at Queensland Coalition parliamentarians Keith Pith and Matt Canavan, who are part of the National party room that has been agitating the Prime Minister to support “modern coal-fired power stations”.

This despite Scott Morrison, in an address earlier this year, stating it was his intention for Australia to get to net zero emissions “as soon as possible” and preferably by 2050”.

The federal government has also positioned itself for economic recovery led by gas.

Both Labor and the Coalition are supporters of the burgeoning hydrogen industry in Queensland, though Mr Bowen said the government’s policy was a “pale imitation” of Labor’s