Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Listening to the three Labor speakers to this motion, the members for Shortland, Moreton and Herbert—seriously, it is like hearing three green pixies dancing at the bottom of the garden, praising the god of a 50 per cent renewable target, on behalf of the Queensland Labor government. That target is completely unrealistic. Renewables currently stand at around five per cent. They want them to reach 50 per cent. This is economic lunacy, it is morally reprehensible and in fact it is also environmentally irresponsible.

I cannot believe that the member for Herbert, who is dealing with an unemployment rate of 11.3 per cent and a youth unemployment rate which is almost twice that, can decide that she is not going to support initiatives to create jobs. What representative of this House would actually deny his or her own constituents an opportunity to create jobs? It is economic lunacy on the part of the Labor Party. Here we have an opportunity—through the creation not just of a new coal-fired power station but also, indeed, of the Adani mine—for the Galilee Basin and the broader area to create over 15,000 jobs, and what does the member for Herbert say? 'We don't want any jobs. Jobs aren't important to us.'

We also heard the member for Shortland saying that there is no longer a viable business case for coal—that renewables are taking over—'So let's just forget about coal. Australia, close the doors; it is all over. Let's go renewables.'

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