Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I rise proudly to speak on this motion because, yet again, we have seen myths being peddled by the member for Dawson. Let's look at some facts. Fact 1: global coal consumption peaked in 2013. Fact 2: Chinese coal consumption has fallen by nearly four per cent. Fact 3: imports of coal to India have fallen considerably. Fact 4: global seaborne thermal coal volume, which is the main Australian thermal coal market because we ship our coal via the seaborne trade routes, peaked in 2013 and has fallen every year. The global thermal coal trade market has declined every year since 2013. The market for thermal coal globally is declining. That is not contested by any serious economic commentator in this area.

So we've got a declining coal market, and the proposal from the member for Dawson and the rest of the coalition is a billion-dollar subsidy to open up new supply that threatens existing coalmines in my region. I have 18,000 coalminers in the Hunter region. If you subsidise competition into a declining market, by definition, you are imposing competition that will drive down coal prices and threaten the livelihood of those 18,000 coalminers.

I'm proud to stand up to support those coalminers. My neighbour's a coalminer. My kids go to child care with coalminers' kids. My local footy team is packed to the rafters with coalminers watching play and is sponsored by a coal company. I'm proud that we've been mining coal in the Hunter region since 1799. Ironically, the first coal dug up was exported to India. I'm proud of all those facts, and I'll stand up for coalminers in this place and say: I don't support a billion-dollar subsidy that threatens their jobs, because this is all this is about.

I won't be lectured to about support for coalminers by these people. I don't see them at the Northern Districts miners memorial that occurs every year in Cessnock, which commemorates the 1,800 workers who have died in coalmines in the Hunter region—miners as young as 11 and as old as 76 who have died in those coalmines. I've never seen a single coalition representative at that memorial, even though the electorate of the member for New England has many Hunter coalmines in it. So this is rank hypocrisy by the coalition.

That doesn't amaze me. The coalition profess a love of Queensland, but this is the party of the Brisbane line. This is the party that supported not defending anywhere north of Brisbane during World War II. This is the party that's proud of the corrupt Jo Bjelke-Petersen regime that destroyed Queensland for 20 years. So this is all weasel words from a government that has nothing of substance to say on this region. Oh, come on!

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