Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I of course rise to speak against this motion. In the course of the last 2½ years we have seen investment in our resources sector plummet. We have seen job losses. We have seen mines close. We have seen the most extreme pressure being placed on our resources sector. I might add that this is not as a consequence of decisions this government has made but as a consequence of the global marketplace in which we operate as a nation. I would make this point to all members: it behoves us all to stand behind our resources sector and not seek political advantage out of it. When I sit in this place and hear the member for Dawson speaking of eco-terrorists, extreme greens and ideological terrorism it really worries me because it is that kind of extreme language from those who oppose the resources sector that causes great concern; and now, increasingly, I hear it from those who would have us believe that they are doing it on behalf of the resources sector when they are actually doing it on behalf of their own petty politics.

Getting projects up these days is very difficult indeed. In order to do it, not only must we pass the most rigorous environmental tests but we must also do it with a broad base of community support. And we need to accept that our community has views about resource development. I am strongly pro resource development. I have made it very clear that I support the Adani project. I have made it very clear that I believe the Carmichael mine has a very strong role to play. More important than that, India needs coal, India needs energy, and if India wishes to buy Australian coal we have a lot of coal to sell. The Adani coalmine would generate around 60 million tonnes of coal per year. That 60 million tonnes of coal would sit comfortably within the roughly 400 million tonnes of coal that Australia produces each year.

Australia contributes to global greenhouse emissions through our coal production. Globally, coal production sits at about eight billion tonnes. Most coal is produced within national boundaries and consumed within national boundaries. China produces roughly half of the globe's coal production and consumes roughly half of the globe's coal production. America produces about 10 per cent. Australia produces about five per cent of global coal production and exports substantially less than five per cent. What that means is that our numbers, although relatively small, are significant. We need to accept their significance in the context of climate change and global CO2 production. We need a viable and sustainable policy framework that includes the environmental laws that protect our environment; they do not protect miners; they protect our environment, and that is what they are designed to do.

The member for Dawson said Labor had done nothing to argue in favour of coalmining. Since Adani was proposed, every time I have had the opportunity I have spoken in favour of coalmining. And I speak strongly in favour of Adani—with proper approvals, with proper consideration, having been through the proper local, state and Commonwealth agencies, and for those approvals to be made in a proper, sound and sustainable way. That is being pro resources. That is not about taking the low road of political argument and targeting environmentalists as extremists or targeting people who oppose coalmining. I may not agree with their views but they have every right to oppose coalmining and I have every right to speak in favour of coalmining.

Our country will continue to export coal for the better part of the next century. The globe will continue to see coal produce the lion's share of electricity production for the foreseeable future, probably the next 50 years. But we need to accept the importance of climate change and we need to be moving our globe to a more sustainable, cleaner form of energy production—and carbon capture and storage if necessary—and we are on that path.

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