Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to bring to the House's attention that the boom period for our coal industry is about to burst.

Mr Champion interjecting—

Yes, it is. Haven't you been reading the papers? Haven't you been taking notice? Commodity prices have been falling for some months now, and they could fall even further. The break-even price for our thermal coal is $80 per tonne—and that is what it is now. There are some predictions that this could even drop to $50 a tonne. Let us hope that this is not correct. Coking coal, at $180 a tonne, is a little bit stronger, but it is also down from $230 a tonne. Some Central Queensland mines have closed already and some have undergone shift rearrangements—contractors have been stood down and permanent jobs are under threat. The MRRT, the carbon tax, high fuel prices and the high Australian dollar are not helping our fiscal budgets, and any windfall this government thinks it is going to make out of the mining tax is going to be sadly missed. A lot of new mines and proposed developments of new mines are now on hold.