Labor MP tells miner constituents that coal has no future

Labor MP Pat Conroy tells coal workers in his Hunter Valley electorate that there is no long-term future in coal-fired power.

Pat Conroy in Question Time in the House of Representatives Chamber, Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

Labor MP Pat Conroy tells coal workers in his Hunter Valley electorate that there is no long-term future in coal-fired power generation in Australia.

Mr Conroy, who represents the coalmining electorate of Shortland, yesterday backed Bill Shorten for saying Coalition MPs who support construction of new coal-fired power stations were “knuckle draggers”.

He said coal workers in his electorate did not have a problem with Labor’s 50 per cent renewable energy target because a lot of them “have solar panels on their roofs”.

“Renewable energy is as popular in my region as it is anywhere else in the country,” Mr Conroy told The Australian.

“I’m saying to people that when our existing coal-fired power stations reach the end of their useful life, and some of them already have, then they will be replaced, absent a subsidy by government, with renewable energy backed up by gas or pumped hydro storage.

“That is what I tell miners, that is what I tell people in the industry because it is the truth.

“The weakest and most spineless thing you can do is lie to constituents and say that we can keep going on the way we are going and mislead people, which is what Tony Abbott and Matt Canavan and all that crew are saying.”

Coal-fired power stations in the Hunter Valley include AGL’s Liddell and Bayswater stations and Origin Energy’s Eraring, all scheduled to close by the mid-2030s.

Labor’s other Hunter Valley MP, agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon, also lashed Coalition MPs who pushed for the construction of new coal-fired power stations. Mr Conroy and Mr Fitzgibbon said most coal mined in the Hunter was exported so the industry would remain “strong” if the power stations closed.