Labor MPs battling over coal hard facts

Joel Fitzgibbon has taken aim at Labor’s new energy spokesman, Chris Bowen, for suggesting the coal sector was under strain.

Anthony Albanese visits the Cross River Rail construction site in Woolloongabba, Brisbane. Picture: Dan Peled

Joel Fitzgibbon has taken aim at Labor’s new energy spokesman, Chris Bowen, for suggesting the coal sector was under strain, saying Australian coal would help Asia lower its emissions and there would be strong demand for the resource “for decades to come”.

The Hunter MP, who resigned as the party’s resources spokesman after a dispute over Labor’s climate policy, said he disagreed with his NSW Right colleague’s comments at the launch of a collection of Labor essays, The Write Stuff, on Thursday night.

Joel Fitzgibbon, Chris Bowen and Anthony Albanese. Picture: Kym Smith

“We owe coalminers and coalmining communities more than our respect. We owe them honesty,” Mr Bowen said. “Regardless of Australia’s domestic climate change policies, coalmining and coalmining communities are going to come under pressure.

“And so Australia faces a choice. We can allow the decline of our jobs and our industries to be dictated by boardrooms in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul … or we can pull our heads out of the sand, face up to global realities, and create new jobs — all while making energy cheaper and more reliable.”

Writing in The Australian in response to Mr Bowen’s speech, Mr Fitzgibbon declared he “couldn’t agree more” that coal workers deserved honesty from political leaders.

“But let’s be completely honest. Sure, the long-term outlook for coal is uncertain — in the true meaning of the word — but that’s true of many of the commodities we export,” Mr Fitzgibbon writes.

“In the absence of the still mythical ‘green steel’ revolution, the growing nations of Asia are going to be hungry for our high-quality metallurgical coal for many decades to come.”

Mr Fitzgibbon wrote that predicting the outlook for thermal coal was “challenging” but Australia was able to compete in the sector on “quality and price”.

“One tool available to governments striving to reduce their country’s carbon emissions is to buy more Australian coal, which is cleaner and more efficient than the product of our competitors.

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon. Picture: Gary Ramage

“Conversely, exporting less Australian coal will add to emissions. And despite our high wage costs in Australia (a good thing), our embrace of technology has allowed us to remain price competitive on global markets.”

Mr Fitzgibbon’s comments are reminiscent of the Hunter MP’s criticisms of former climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler, who was moved from the portfolio last month.

Anthony Albanese has toured Queensland this week but declined to visit a coalmine, instead focusing on blue-collar jobs in the manufacturing sector.

The Labor leader was at the Cross River Rail construction site in Brisbane on Thursday to talk about his plans to reform the industrial relations system and crack down on casualisation.

“We have clear messages for the people of Queensland and for all workers, which is that our priority is jobs. Not just any job, but good jobs … jobs that provide security,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Fitzgibbon wrote that coalminers supported action on climate change, “but what concerns them is those who would unnecessarily accelerate change at the expense of their jobs”.