Labor ‘needs to seize the day’ on energy use

Anthony Albanese will back the future of coal exports and outline Labor’s vision for a clean energy ‘jobs revolution’.

Opposition resources spokeswoman Madeleine King. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese will back the future of coal exports and outline Labor’s vision for a clean energy “jobs revolution”, as he attempts to pivot the party and win seats in the mining states of Queensland and Western Australia.

The Opposition Leader will tell a special summit on Tuesday ­involving 50 representatives from the minerals, clean energy, manufacturing and agriculture sectors that Australia must be at the “front of the pack, not well behind the pace” on renewables and use its technological and resources advantages to “seize the day”.

Following opposition resources spokeswoman Madeleine King’s pledge that Labor would provide long-term support for the coalmining industry, Mr Albanese will continue the party’s push to the centre and say the market will decide the future of the sector.

“Australia will continue to ­export resources, including coal, based upon global demand. Labor respects existing resource export industries for the jobs they provide to Australians,” he will say in his virtual address to the summit.

“Decisions about the long-term future of those industries will be made in the boardrooms of Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul and New Delhi. But renewables represent the future. We ignore this fact at our national peril.”

Ms King had earlier told The Australian that Labor would not stand in the way of new mines and that Australia would likely continue exporting coal beyond 2050.

The Clean Technology Jobs summit, co-hosted by the Smart Energy Council in Parliament House, will focus on how Australia can create jobs by taking action on the global “climate emergency”.

Ahead of Joe Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate this week, Mr Albanese will discuss the potential for clean energy to create “hundreds of thousands of secure, well-paid jobs”.

“I’m talking about a revolution in jobs growth right across the Australian economy based on one inescapable fact: renewable energy is not only clean, but cheap. And getting cheaper,” he will say.

“And unlike our traditional ­energy system, it can also be more easily decentralised and distributed, opening up more potential in places that have historically been hamstrung by lack of access to the cheapest energy.

“Low-cost renewable electricity looms as the key to unlocking jobs growth for decades to come. Falling power bills will unshackle businesses, allowing them to expand and create jobs.”

Labor has adopted a policy of net zero emissions by 2050 and pledged to support the take-up of electric vehicles through tax ­reform, but is yet to outline its emissions targets.

Opposition climate change spokesman Chris Bowen said the regions that have helped to power, build and feed Australia and the world, can and should continue to do so in a decarbonising world”.

“But these jobs won’t just happen by accident. The jobs summit will be looking at a whole range of areas, regional development, electrification, new export opportunities, heavy industry and distributed generation,” Mr Bowen said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt ­accused Labor of joining the ­Coalition in defence of coal and gas and avoiding 2030 targets. “President Biden is putting the acid on Australia and the world’s leaders to act on climate, yet all Labor is doing is cheering for Scott Morrison from the sidelines,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister ­Michael McCormack challenged Mr Albanese on Monday to spruik coal in inner-city electorates. The Nationals leader said if Labor was “committed to coal” it should “say so where it’s, perhaps, not convenient to do so. If they say it in Balmain, Newtown or Marrickville in front of all those city people then I’ll believe Labor. I’ll believe they’re committed to coal. I know, you know, and everybody else knows that Labor are not.”