Shorten's betrayal of traditional Labor values

After months of shifting positions over the Adani coal project Bill Shorten is still talking out both sides of his mouth.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in question time yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith

Bill Shorten still can’t give a straight answer on his position on the development of the $16 billion Adani coal project in north Queensland.

After months of shifting positions, a personally guided tour of the Great Barrier Reef and the Carmichael basin, where it is claimed 10,000 jobs will be created in an area devastated by unemployment, and contradictory public statements about coal, the environment and jobs, the Opposition Leader is still playing with words and talking out both sides of his mouth.

But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Shorten’s tortured tale and twisted logic is that while declaring he would never create a sovereign risk to investment and Australia’s reputation if elected, he is clearly giving conservationists the impression that is precisely what he will do.

In other words, Shorten is prepared to twist and distort existing law and existing government guarantees and approvals to do exactly that — use trickery and sophistry to rip up a contract no matter what the cost in investment and jobs.

For months the Opposition Leader has been adopting all the irrational arguments used by a cabal of foreign-funded activists determined to conflate populist issues to destroy Australia’s coal industry while he parades traditional Labor values to help “ordinary Australian workers”.

But now we know, courtesy of the Australian Conservation Foundation and green millionaire Geoff Cousins, that he’s not only been playing to different public audiences he’s been encouraging the view that once in power he will twist the law to revoke Adani’s licence on environmental grounds.

Yet Adani has passed all the prolonged tests on environmental grounds and for a Labor government to seek to go through a loophole and destroy the project retrospectively would be a national betrayal.

It would also be a betrayal of those traditional Labor values so often espoused by Shorten as a defender of workers’ rights.

Anthony Albanese has never hidden his dislike or scepticism about the Adani project but as a senior Labor frontbencher has consistently endorsed the proper processes of both state and federal governments. Albanese has specifically said the environmental approvals cannot be retrospectively revisited and argues the economics of the mine will determine its future.

From a leader of the left it’s not embracing the new coal project but nor is it seeking to manipulate a law and destroy thousands of jobs and Australia’s investment reputation for sake of satisfying well-funded Greens’ campaigns.