Labor’s gas stance ‘an insult to workers’

Anthony Albanese’s staunchest union supporter has lashed ­energy spokesman Mark Butler for a ‘gratuitous insult’ to blue-collared workers and ­regional towns.

Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Anthony Albanese’s staunchest union supporter has lashed ­energy spokesman Mark Butler for an anti-coal and gas speech ­labelled a “gratuitous insult” to blue-collared workers and ­regional communities.

CFMEU mining and energy national president Tony Maher, a longtime ally of the Opposition Leader, said Mr Butler “should know better” after calling coal and gas “fuels of the 20th century” that won’t underpin Australia’s future prosperity.

Mr Maher’s intervention will put pressure on Mr Albanese to distance Labor policy from Mr Butler’s proposals and accept more policy ideas of resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon.

“Mark Butler’s comments about coal and gas were a gratuitous insult to the workers and communities whose livelihoods depend on them. He should know better,” Mr Maher said.

“Disparaging remarks about industries that are so important to regional economies are not helpful to anyone.”

The Australian understands that Australian Workers Union national secretary Daniel Walton has been scathing of Mr Butler’s comments in conversations with Labor MPs and union officials.

In a speech to a climate change webinar on Wednesday, Mr Butler, a key Left faction ally of Mr Albanese, said coal and gas “come with a huge cost that to this day isn’t reflected in their price or in government policy”.

“We found ourselves with plentiful coal and gas in the 20th century, making us one of the most prosperous societies in human history on the back of these fossil fuels,” Mr Butler said.

“Now, 20 years into the 21st century, we know that coal and gas won’t underpin continued prosperity, whether for Australia or the rest of the world.

“The cost is the impact that these fuels have on our climate, and by extension on our health, our security, our safety and, of course, our continued prosperity.”

Nowhere did Mr Butler articulate Labor’s support of the coal and gas industries or say fossil fuels would be part of the nation’s energy mix for decades. Instead, he took aim at people who “cling to these fuels as if a future where their use winds down and eventually ends is also a world where our shared prosperity ends”.

Some Labor MPs were furious with the tone of the speech, one declaring “comments like this from Mark Butler is why it has ­become impossible for us to win in Queensland and Western Australia”.

Labor frontbencher Shayne Neumann said gas was “critical” to the economic future of Australia. “It is important for affordability of energy, it is important for manufacturing, it is important for households,” he said.

After coming under internal pressure over the contents of the speech, Mr Butler watered down his comments in an interview on Sky News when he said “gas is a critically important part of our economy and society here in ­Australia”.

“What I did say was not that it doesn’t play a role in our prosperity, it’s just that we’re not going to be able to base our prosperity entirely on fossil fuels in the way we did in the 20th century,” Mr Butler said.

Resources Minister Keith Pitt said a future Labor government would “result in the end of the coal, oil and gas industry in Australia”.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor accused Mr Butler of saying “one thing to one audience, and the ­opposite to another audience”.