In regional Queensland, mining meets climate change head on

In regional Queensland, Scott Morrison pushed coalmining and Bill Shorten spruiked Labor’s climate change credentials.

Scott Morrison and Nationals MP Michelle Landry on the floor at a polyethylene manufacturing facility in Rockhampton. Picture: AAP

Campaigning in regional Queensland yesterday, Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten delivered starkly different messages; the ­Coalition pushing coalmining and Labor spruiking its climate change ­credentials.

Visiting the electorates of ­Capricornia and Flynn — held on margins of 0.6 per cent and 1 per cent respectively — the Prime Minister said he was proud Queensland had a thriving resources sector.

“One in three jobs here in central Queensland is dependent on the resources sector. That is an incredibly important part of the local way of life here in central Queensland,” Mr Morrison said.

“I come here and people say: ‘Others think we should be ashamed of the way we make a living here in central Queensland’.

“Well I think they should be ashamed of themselves.”

Capricornia MP Michelle Landry, a vocal supporter of the Adani coalmine, is pushing for a coal-fired power station to be built in her electorate. She said a $2 billion coal-fired power station in Collinsville proposed by Shine Energy — on which the government is doing a $10 million feasibility study — may need to be indemnified from changes to emissions reduction targets.

“We do need to protect Shine Energy as much as we can. It is something we have been working on for a long time with them and it would be a huge boost to Collinsville to have the project,” she said.

In March, Shine Energy chief executive Ashley Dodd said it was imperative “we secure a guarantee from federal government to protect us from future legislative changes around carbon ­prices”.

Mr Morrison said giving the power station legal protections against future increases in emissions targets would be considered as part of the study. “The study, which we are supporting and funding, is designed to answer (those) very questions,” he said.

The government launched the feasibility study in March as Mr Morrison came under pressure from Barnaby Joyce and Queensland Nationals MPs to subsidise a new coal-fired power station in central Queensland.

The Opposition Leader spent yesterday in Cairns in the LNP-held seat of Leichhardt, and promoted his climate change agenda at an aquarium.

“This government runs a dishonest pretence that somehow they have a climate change policy, when we all know they don’t,” he said.

FEDERAL

2016

3

Capricornia Flynn Herbert

“If they (did), Malcolm Turnbull would still be prime minister.

“The Liberal Party will only get serious on climate change when they lose an election.”

Labor strategists are increasingly confident of taking the seat — which Warren Enstch holds on 3.95 per cent — as the local economy relies more on tourism from the Great Barrier Reef, but some worry that Herbert, Flynn and Capricornia may be out of reach because of the state government’s handling of the Adani project.