Federal election 2016: Shorten quells ALP’s diesel fuel tax flare-ups

Bill Shorten has been forced to quash internal divisions over the diesel fuel tax rebate.

Bill Shorten has been forced to quash internal divisions over the diesel fuel tax rebate, after Labor frontbencher Lisa Singh joined the swelling ranks of opposition backbenchers and candidates urging a tougher line on the $118 billion ­resources industry.

More than a dozen Labor MPs and candidates have expressed hostility towards coalmining in ­recent months, with seven signing environmental group 350.org’s pledge to exclude mining companies from the diesel fuel rebate.

Although green activists regard the rebate as a “subsidy”, senior ALP figures agree with industry that the fuel tax is a road-user charge that should not apply to off-road activities such as mining and farming.

The Opposition Leader yesterday said observers should “not exaggerate or overcook” divisions within his party, insisting “coalmining will still go on” under a Labor government.

However, he warned, the global climate was reaching a “tipping point” after which extreme ­weather would become “very harmful” to the economy and more renew­ables were needed.

“I’m not going to have some sort of giant witch hunt that every individual has to agree with me,” he said in Brisbane, guaranteeing no change to the diesel fuel rebate.

“If we’re going to talk about five MPs signing a petition, why don’t we talk about the 61 Liberal MPs and candidates who don’t support and want to slash penalty rates?”

The discord follows political turbulence over asylum-seeker policy and came as leading bank Citi warned that the earnings and dividends of two of the country’s most widely held stocks, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, would tumble more than 10 per cent if the mining industry lost the rebate.

Mr Shorten declined to support Adani’s Carmichael mine, touted as creating up to 10,000 jobs in Queensland, saying it was not his role to “support a particular business enterprise”.

“We won’t be expending any commonwealth resources on the Adani mine,” he said.

Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg said: “In a test of his leadership, Mr Shorten has folded to his green-leaning candidates.

“Yet again he has failed to stand up for the more than 40,000 jobs created by Australia’s coal industry. Worse, he has failed to stand up for new jobs in Queensland through the Carmichael project.”

Senator Singh declined to ­answer whether her position as Labor’s parliamentary secretary for the environment remained tenable.

Another signatory, Richmond MP Justine Elliot, resigned as a parliamentary secretary in 2013 so she could more freely criticise the coal-seam gas industry in northern NSW.

Other signatories are Labor’s candidates for Page and Ryan, Janelle Saffin and Stephen Hegedus, and retiring MPs Kelvin Thompson, Anna Burke and Melissa Parke.

Labor candidates to express hostility towards expanded coalmining include Braddon’s Justine Keay, Eden-Monaro’s Mike Kelly, Higgins’s Carl Katter, Mallee’s Lydia Senior, North Sydney’s Peter Hayes, Wide Bay’s Lucy Stanton and Indi’s Eric Kerr.

Mr Shorten’s parliamentary secretary, Terri Butler, does not support the Adani mine.