Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I don't know: Hallelujah! It's an epiphany! The Labor Party have decided that they now support the resources industry. It's great. I could understand why the west Australians had a great result, and they were right behind the resources industry. There's a big problem though. Over in Western Australia, they're run by the right wing of the Labor Party, and the problem is over here they're run by the left wing of the Labor Party. The Grayndler Greens are not going to stand behind the coal industry—they can hardly even say the word—and I don't think we're going to get the member for Adelaide Ports standing up for the coalmining industry.

I tell you what: I'll lay down a challenge. I believe in a new coal-fired power station absolutely, 100 per cent. I'll look at the camera: I believe in a new coal-fired power station—a high efficiency, low-emission, coal-fired power station. My name is Barnaby Joyce. This is George Christensen. We'd like to welcome you here today.

You've got to be emphatic. You can't have this: 'We're leaving it in the Federation Chamber, but not at the doors, with somebody who can just do it quietly and not at dinner parties, not with certain guests around. We'll just believe in it quietly.' That's not going to work. If you're going to stand behind your coalminers and you're going to stand behind your miners, you've got to stand behind the product that they dig out of the ground to utilise in every corner of the world, which is the capacity to turn water into steam to turn a turbine to create electricity.

The Chinese are in the initial stages or building or planning in excess of 220 new coal-fired power stations. They say the Japanese are transitioning out of them—what a load of rubbish! They're transitioning out from inefficient coal-fired power stations to efficient coal-fired power stations on their way somewhere down the track, who knows when, probably after you're dead, to possibly something else. The Germans—they say, 'You've got to be like the Germans.' We had the German delegation in the other day. Guess when they say they're going to stop using coal-fired power, member for Dawson? 2038.

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