Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. She represents workers in a lot of coalmines, as I do in my electorate and in my region. There is great cause for confidence in the coal industry because the coal industry is continuing to see very strong growth. In the figures referred to earlier by the Treasurer that have been released today by the Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics, actual and planned investment in the coal sector currently stands at $96 billion. This does not include over half a billion dollars currently committed for new exploration investment. That extraordinary investment pipeline will help keep not just coalmining but also a wider economy strong in coming years.

It is good news for all Australians, except one—the Leader of the Opposition. It is bad news for the Leader of the Opposition because it exposes the deceit of his predictions of doom and gloom for the coal industry under the carbon pricing arrangements. In fact, on a visit to Peabody Energy's Metropolitan mine last June, he claimed the carbon price meant 'death to the coal industry'. The day after he visited another Peabody mine in Queensland, predicting the destruction of the industry, the company rather inconveniently announced at a $4.7 billion takeover of Macarthur Coal. Peabody's latest quarterly report is quite instructive on this. It shows an increase in Australian revenues of 48 per cent and an increase in profits of 11 per cent. That is the doom and gloom, that is the nature of the deceit that has been engaged in day after day in relation to the coal industry by the Leader of the Opposition.

Like so many of the claims of the Leader of the Opposition on carbon pricing, as the facts come out in relation to his predictions of death for the coal industry, all will be revealed. The fact of the matter is: the coal industry is experiencing record growth and investment. That is why government has determined to spread the benefits of the boom through mechanisms like the minerals resource rent tax to people throughout the Australian community, not just to the Clive Palmers and Gina Rineharts of the world. We have introduced those measures through things like tax cuts for households, increases in family tax benefits, increases in the pension and other measures to assist households that were announced in the budget. Those are the facts. It is important for people to hear the facts and, as the facts come out, the Leader of the Opposition's fearmongering will be completely exposed for the deceit that it is.

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