Coal expansion to test the Greens

A planned expansion of the Galilee Basin coalmining province in Queensland provides a timely opportunity for political combatants for the May 21 election to get real about the future of global energy security. The issue should at least prompt Labor leader Anthony Albanese to come clean on how he would handle the Greens and Climate 200-sponsored candidates in the event of a hung parliament. Greens leader Adam Bandt has said his party’s first demand would be that all future coal, oil and gas projects be stopped. This is despite a surge in demand and price for coal globally in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Protests over the Adani coalmine, led by Greens founder Bob Brown, are credited with costing Labor seats in Queensland, and the election, in 2019. Three years on, Adani’s Carmichael mine is in production and moving to full capacity, and three new mega-mines are close to seeking approval. GVK Hancock, the joint venture between GVK and Gina Rhinehardt’s Hancock Prospecting, has applied to the Queensland government for mining lease applications for two mines in the Galilee Basin, which at full production would produce about 60 million tonnes of thermal coal annually for 30 years. The Clive Palmer-owned Waratah Coal has two mining tenements in the region. Federal government approval will be needed for the mines to proceed. Max Chandler-Mather, the Queensland Greens candidate for the Labor-held seat of Griffith, said the proposed mines needed to be on the election agenda. We agree. Voters deserve to know full details of the extreme positions being taken by the Greens and the threat they pose to good government. As Ben Packham reports on Monday, the Greens threaten a radical overhaul of Australia’s foreign policy and security. In the Greens’ worldview, China doesn’t pose a threat to Australia and the party has no problem with Solomon Islands’ decision to forge a security partnership with Beijing.

The Greens insist the future of ­Taiwan was not a direct concern for Australia or the US, and that the nation’s military spending should be slashed. The AUKUS agreement, which includes nuclear-powered submarines and hypersonic missile programs, should be scrapped, Pine Gap closed and the US ­Marines kicked out of Darwin. Now is the time for major parties to make it clear they will stand firm against the extreme agendas pushed by a party that says it is on track to hold the balance of power in the upper house after the election.