Shut down coal and gas, say Queensland Greens

The Queensland Greens will demand a ban on new coal mines and gas projects and an earlier shutdown of coal-fired power if the minor party holds the balance of power in a hung parliament after October’s state election.

Greens MPs Amy MacMahon and Michael Berkman. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The Queensland Greens will ­demand a ban on new coalmines and gas projects and an earlier shutdown of coal-fired power if the minor party holds the balance of power in a hung parliament after October’s state election.

Greens MP Amy MacMahon, who ousted former Labor deputy premier Jackie Trad from her seat of South Brisbane at the 2020 poll, said she would also push for an immediate rent freeze for two years, a price cap on 30 essential grocery items, the dismantling of the Coles and Woolworths supermarket ­duopoly and a public property developer to spend $60bn on building 100,000 social homes in six years.

“This is a really incredible ­opportunity for the Greens,” Dr MacMahon said. “We know things are getting tougher for everyday people because Labor and the LNP have let these big corporations and wealthy investors rip us off and pocket massive profits.

“The Greens will be running to win 10 seats, and the most recent statewide polling released last week is pointing to a huge breakthrough for the Greens at this election. We’ve already mobilised hundreds of volunteers right across Brisbane and we’ve already knocked on 17,000 doors (since April).”

Dr MacMahon, a former university lecturer and researcher who has a doctorate of philosophy in sociology, is one of seven crossbenchers in the single-house 93-seat Queensland parliament.

Along with fellow Greens MP Michael Berkman, an environmental lawyer who won the newly formed seat of Maiwar in Brisbane’s inner-western suburbs in 2017, there are three Katter’s Australian Party MPs, a One Nation MP and Independent Noosa MP Sandy Bolton. The LNP needs a net gain of 12 seats to win majority government from Labor, which has held power since Annastacia Palaszczuk won minority government in 2015.

After internal analysis of the Brisbane City Council election ­result in March – when the Greens had a second councillor elected and strong votes at some inner-Brisbane voting booths – and a ­recent YouGov poll, Greens strategists are optimistic the party can pick up four Labor seats in October: McConnel (held by State Development Minister Grace Grace on 11.1 per cent), Cooper (Jonty Bush, 10.1 per cent), Greenslopes (Joe Kelly, 13.2 per cent) and Miller (former transport minister Mark Bailey, 13.8 per cent). All are two-party preferred margins versus the LNP.

The party will also target the LNP’s Clayfield and Moggill, and Labor’s Stafford and Bulimba, though they’re longer shots.

The Greens rely heavily on a mass-doorknocking campaign using trained volunteers to have face-to-face conversations with prospective voters, including those rusted on to the major parties. It’s the same grassroots strategy that led to three Brisbane-based federal Greens MPs and a second Queensland senator elected at the 2022 poll; the party’s best election result in the state.

But a Labor strategist said the contest in the Greens’ four target seats would be “a really tight genuine three-way contest and it’s going to be a matter of strong local campaigns”.

“On October 27, either Steven Miles or David Crisafulli is going to be premier,” the strategist said. “Does voting Greens in those (Labor) seats mean it’s more likely that David Crisafulli is the premier, and is that what you want, as a progressive voter?”

Asked whether he would form a minority government with the Greens in the event of a hung parliament, Mr Miles said that, since he was appointed Premier in ­December: “I have said I will be campaigning to win a majority. I have been in a minority government and I’ve been in a majority government and I know how effective a majority government can be, so that’s what I’m working towards.”

Dr MacMahon said that, ­although the Queensland Labor government had committed to phasing out coal-fired power by 2035 and replacing it with renewables, it was not soon enough.

She said the state government could not keep approving new coal and gas projects and the expansion of existing mines, if it was serious about cutting emissions.

“If we’re not stopping the ­extraction of coal and gas and we’re not stopping opening up new coal and gas mines, we’re going to continue to see Queensland contributing to climate change more broadly,” she said.

The Greens would also push for hiked royalties on all mineral mining, not just a super-profits tax on coal as Treasurer Cameron Dick introduced in the 2022 budget, sparking an industry revolt.

If the party gained the balance of power, Dr MacMahon said it would also push for the establishment of a fair prices authority to choose 30 essential grocery items on which to put a price cap, as well as the breaking up of Coles and Woolworths, to assuage cost-of-living pressures. She said the state government had the power to set price caps and had done so in the wake of World War II.

The Greens on Tuesday announced a publicly owned property developer policy, under which $6bn would be spent over six years to buy unused land from private property developers to build 100,000 homes to sell cheaply and to rent affordably.

Dr MacMahon said the policy was costed and harked back to after World War II, when governments in Australia built more than one-quarter of all new dwellings.

But Mr Miles said Queensland ­already had a publicly owned property developer, Economic Development Queensland, and the government had “brought back a publicly owned builder the LNP cut: QBuild”.

“The Greens should stop protesting homes being built and also get out of the way of more federal investment in housing here in Queensland,” Mr Miles said.

The Greens also want a rent freeze for two years, and a rental increase cap of 1 per cent annually after that. Dr MacMahon said the government had already set a precedent, capping rent increases in manufactured homes, and limiting rent increases to once a year for other tenants.