Shorten dithers as union puts jobs ahead of finches

Bill Shorten and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk are perched like finches on a fence in relation to the proposed Adani coalmine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. On one hand, the Opposition Leader, who won the Labor leadership over Anthony Albanese in 2013 with CFMEU support, faces an internal rebellion, with the militant union threatening to campaign against politicians who refuse to back the mine and the coal industry. On the other hand, Mr Shorten is desperate to keep faith with Labor MPs in greenbelt inner-city seats, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne, where Labor has done well in keeping the Greens at bay. Among that constituency, the mine is anathema. After keeping his head down as much as possible, Mr Shorten needs to take a stand. So does Ms Palaszczuk, who bestowed Voldemort-like status on the project at the Queensland Press Club yesterday, refusing to even say the name “Adani’’, let alone state whether she supports the mine. Not so Treasurer Jackie Trad, whose inner-urban electorate, where green causes are an article of faith, adjoins Brisbane’s CBD. Ms Trad has attacked Adani’s resorting to more aggressive legal tactics, which is ironic given the years in which the company has battled green-led lawfare. The row deepened yesterday when Shorten’s mentor, Bill Ludwig, backed the CFMEU and blamed “a few lefties’’ in the Palaszczuk government for politicising the mine.

Within Labor, the growing rift over Adani — and by implication five other mines mooted for the Galilee Basin which would follow it — goes to the raison d’etre of a party founded by shearers in the regional Queensland town of Barcaldine in 1891. Nothing less than the jobs and livelihoods of regional workers — part of Labor’s traditional base — are at stake. In an economically depressed region beset by high unemployment, the six proposed Galilee Basin coalmines would collectively provide about 24,000 jobs — including 13,000 in the construction phase and more than 11,000 ongoing positions — and produce up to 165 million tonnes a year. Geologists regard the basin as an untapped coal province that could produce more than 27 billion tonnes of coal over decades.

While Mr Shorten has been sceptical about the mine, he acknowledged last year that “the actual decision about Adani is not going to affect Australian emissions. The (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has made it clear that the way you take global action isn’t through particular projects.’’ Given that reasoning, it would be logical for the alternative prime minister to make his decision not on the basis of internal politics but in terms of the national interest. Job creation in the regions, export income, the indebtedness of the state of Queensland, which needs royalties, Australia’s reputation as a reliable place to invest, and an increasingly important trading relationship with India are of paramount importance. As Mr Ludwig said, “thousands and thousands of Indians’’ are “still with bloody oil lamps’’ and want coal.

This week’s fracturing of British Labour under rabid leftist Jeremy Corbyn shows the consequences of party leaders forcing long-serving members into extremist policies far removed from their values. However hostile inner-city Labor supporters feel about coal, workers across Australia’s regions are more pragmatic, out of necessity. In opposition Labor has tried to paper over its internal divisions. But the row over the black-throated finch and the CFMEU’s stance have blown them open. In government, such acute internal conflicts would be contrary to Australia’s interests.