Anthony Albanese won’t reveal his stance on Adani

It copped a belting over Adani at the polls, but Labor’s new leader won’t commit to a position on the mine.

New Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP

Anthony Albanese has refused to give a position on the Adani coal mine, but says he intends to go to Queensland tomorrow in an effort to build relationships with people who didn’t vote Labor on May 18.

Mr Albanese claimed he would be “no Tony Abbott” in his first outing as Opposition Leader today and said he would reach out to Scott Morrison for deals on climate change and constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.

But the new Labor leader would not reveal his position on the Adani mine, despite the damage the issue did to the party in north and central Queensland electorates.

“We will go through in terms of our processes, all of those issues, but the truth is that the Adani coal mine has been approved at the federal level by the [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act]. It’s been approved not just once, it’s been approved twice. It is going through Queensland government approvals,” he said.

“And then there is the other issue with regard to Adani and indeed to the whole issue of the Galilee Coal Basin is the issue of the economics of it. The basic cost benefit ratios.”

Mr Albanese said one thing he didn’t support was the government subsidising a railway line for the mine.

“We need to listen to the science, not make political decisions,” he said.

Mr Albanese said he supports a strong economy and job creation as a “core value”, but wouldn’t put politics ahead of science.

“And that’s something that the environment movement fought for very strongly,” he said. “When in the past when there has been political intervention into issues that were the subject of the approval of the EPBC act, such as wind farms in Victoria, and the issue of the parrot, the fact that there was political intervention meant that, that decision was overturned legally. So my view is to respect the processes and I intend to do just that.”

Mr Albanese said he plans to go to Queensland on Tuesday in a bid to build relationships between Labor and people who are open to voting for the party in the future.

Labor’s expected deputy Richard Marles said the Opposition’s position on Adani was a “difficult question” that Labor need to work through as a party. When asked if it would go ahead or not, Mr Marles said he didn’t know.

He told 3AW on Monday morning that “coal clearly is going to play a significant part of the future energy mix in Australia and it’s clearly going to be a significant part of our economy”.

Elected unopposed to the Labor leadership today, Mr Albanese warned the Prime Minister he would hold him to account but signalled a softer approach on energy and other issues compared to Bill Shorten.

Albanese locked in as leader

Anthony Albanese was earlier officially elected leader of the Labor Party and now faces the challenge of rebuilding a shell-shocked Opposition post-election.

Mr Albanese was unopposed when nominations for the Labor leadership closed this morning at 10am.

Potential challengers Tanya Plibersek, Chris Bowen and Jim Chalmers all decided not to run.

The new Opposition Leader said he could lead Labor back to government, and has already signalled changes to unpopular policies such as scrapping franking credits.

“Honoured to be elected 21st Leader of @AustralianLabor. Thank you to members of caucus, rank and file members and affiliates for your support,” Mr Albanese tweeted this morning.

“Together we can return our great Party to government in three years time.”

Mr Albanese will address the media at noon today, and will meet with his caucus on Thursday.

Labor frontbencher Richard Marles is set to be unopposed in the ballot to be named Mr Albanese’s deputy after opposition justice spokesman Clare O’Neil pulled out of that race.

The Australian revealed today that Mr Albanese’s predecessor Bill Shorten is set to remain on the frontbench.

Penny Wong will remain Labor’s senate leader and SA senator Don Farrell is expected to stay as deputy senate leader, despite speculation he could be removed for a female senator like NSW’s Kristina Keneally.

Honoured to be elected 21st Leader of @AustralianLabor. Thank you to members of caucus, rank and file members and affiliates for your support.

Together we can return our great Party to government in three years time.

I’ll be holding a media conference at noon.

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) May 27, 2019