ALP’s pragmatic move on coal

Job security and private-sector investment have rarely mattered more, which is why Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick has done his state and the nation an important service in paving the way for a potential expansion of the state’s coal industry. In cementing rail and port monopolies for at least another decade, shielding the industry from cost rises, Mr Dick has sent a clear message to resource companies — Queensland is open for further investment and development.

Coal, worth $52bn a year to the state, is its largest export industry. And with Queensland’s debt heading towards $100bn, the commodity is vital to the budget bottom line.

After years of the Palaszczuk government playing up the potential of renewable energy, Mr Dick’s move marks a welcome return to pragmatism and common sense in Labor ranks over coal. Last year, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk finally was spurred into giving the Adani coalmine in the Galilee Basin the green light by Labor’s abysmal showing in regional areas in Queensland in the federal election. But the years of stonewalling and prevaricating, green lawfare and red tape damaged the state’s sovereign risk.

There is nothing like a looming election to focus politicians’ minds. And on October 31, state Labor will be defending marginal seats in central and northern Queensland, where Mr Dick’s decision on the lines and ports will be welcome. Even before COVID-19, lack of jobs was a major problem in those regions, especially for young people.

Less than a month after replacing Left faction leader Jackie Trad as treasurer, Mr Dick, from Labor’s Right, is going about his work efficiently and without fanfare, quietly gazetting his decision on the coal infrastructure this week. The 2670km central Queensland coal rail network links more than 50 mines to five major export ports, including four near Mackay and the Whitsundays. That region, where the tourism sector is a vital employer, has been hit hard by COVID-19. Businesses and workers there and throughout the state also are struggling under Ms Palaszczuk’s mulish refusal to reopen Queensland’s borders during the winter tourist season. Persevering with that shortsighted decision, when Queensland has just three active cases of COVID-19, is sapping confidence and costing jobs.

As Mr Dick told Craig Johnstone on Thursday, the move to extend the coal infrastructure monopolies will have no material effect on the volume of coal exported. That will depend primarily on demand and price. In December, the International Energy Agency noted that a sharp fall in demand for coal for electricity in Europe and the US was being offset by rising demand in Asian markets, including India. Demand for coal would remain stable across the next five years, the IEA forecast. As Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane says, the decision on the rail lines and ports will deliver clarity for the state’s coal customers about potential transport cost rises driving up prices. And before green groups rush to the barricades to launch more climate-change litigation, the move “would not limit any of the human rights potentially relating to climate change”, Mr Dick noted in the gazette. But the vote of confidence will give the industry much-needed certainty, encouraging more coalmining investment, and jobs, in the Bowen Basin and around coal ports.