Mayor, MPs tell Labor to stand up for coal jobs

The Labor Mayor of Townsville has lashed out at the ALP’s “anti-worker” and “disruptive” environmental wing.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said was too focused on “elitists” in capital cities. Picture: Alix Sweeney

The Labor Mayor of Townsville has lashed out at the ALP’s “anti-worker” and “disruptive” environmental wing, declaring it is pushing regional people “into the hands” of Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter.

Jenny Hill, who received a primary vote of 59.5 per cent in the last local election, said federal Labor did not have an answer to problems in north and central Queensland and was too focused on “elitists” in capital cities.

Ms Hill’s intervention came as Labor MPs Meryl Swanson and Terri Butler warned at a conference held by a Labor think tank on the weekend against ­talking down coal jobs in favour of lower-paid jobs in the renewables sector.

Former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill also said it was a mistake for Kevin Rudd to call climate change the “greatest moral challenge of our time” as he called for the party to commission a study on the impact of a warming planet on the economy.

Ahead of Anthony Albanese’s road trip through central Queensland this week, Ms Hill said the party’s environmental movement, Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN), was “a dirty word in north Queensland” and urged federal MPs to be unequivocal in their support of coalmining.

“This term, over the last four years, we have been adamant: we support Adani. The reason for that is when you have a youth ­unemployment rate of 21 per cent at one point, and 13 per cent unemployment, particularly after the closure of Queensland Nickel, you have a community that is crying out for support,” Ms Hill told the Chifley Research Centre forum.

“We stuck to our guns: we support mining. You can’t have one of these (holding up a mobile phone) without coal, nickel, lithium. Someone has got to mine it, someone has got to refine it and I would rather it be done in Australia than overseas. And that has been our mantra.

“LEAN has become a dirty word in north Queensland. It is viewed as being disruptive, anti-worker and is pushing more and more people into the arms of the Katter party and One Nation.”

LEAN — a group of Labor members­ that campaigns on environmental issues — has urged the party to keep its 45 per cent emissions ­reduction target and 50 per cent renewables target, which the group had successfully lobbied for at Labor’s national conference. LEAN national co-convener Felicity Wade said Ms Hill’s criticisms were “wrong” and the group had members in north and central Queensland.

“LEAN cares deeply about ensuring good unionised jobs but Queenslanders also love the environment,” Ms Wade said.

“The challenge Labor must address is delivering good jobs as well as a safe environment. It’s actually not a choice.”

Mr Albanese’s tour through regional Queensland will begin in the party’s birthplace, Barcaldine, on Tuesday.

He is expected to visit an aluminium smelter and a coalmine on the road trip, which will include visits to the towns of Gladstone, Rockhampton, Emerald, Maryborough and Gympie.

Queensland senator Anthony Chisholm said Townsville was the “epicentre” of Labor’s problem in regional Queensland, which is part of the federal seat of Herbert.

“Conversely, Jenny (Hill) has had a remarkable run as Mayor,” Senator Chisholm said. “So there is something that can work up there.”

Labor lost the Townsville-based seat of Herbert at the May 18 election with a primary vote of 24 per cent.

Mr Weatherill, the co-author of the damning ALP review, said the party had done itself a disservice after describing climate change as “the greatest moral challenge of our generation”.

“The problem with that moralising language is that it prevents you from undertaking the really hard work of actually asking about the costs and benefits of action, and how this works in the real world. That is the hard policy work that needs to happen,” Mr Weatherill said.