George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My constituency question is to the Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia. Minister, the coal industry is absolutely critical to jobs and economic growth in my electorate of Dawson, and the opening up of the Galilee Basin is crucial to more jobs and more growth locally. Can you please update the House on the importance of coal to the Australian economy and to jobs more generally and also coal's prospects for the future?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dawson for his question and acknowledge his strong advocacy for the resources and energy sector, not just for his constituents but for Australia at large, and in particular his support for the development of the Carmichael mine, which has the potential to create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars worth of export income. Even the Labor Party has described it as a project of great importance to both Queensland and Australia. The member for Dawson understands that it is not just the jobs in the mines that are created by the coal industry; it is also the other services and jobs that are created. For example, when I visited Mackay we went down to G&S Engineering, which services mining equipment. It is a very high-tech, innovative business that employs apprentices, among many others. In the seat of Dawson you also have the Abbot Point terminal, which provides hundreds of jobs relating to mining development in the Bowen Basin.

The member for Dawson knows as well as anyone else in this place the importance of the coal industry to both Australia and the world. Australia gets more than 60 per cent of its electricity from coal, and globally the world gets more than 40 per cent of its electricity from coal. The International Energy Agency says that by 2040 that number will still be very significant at 30 per cent and that the demand for coal in a number of countries continues to rise. For Australia, coal is our second largest export. In 2013-14 it earned around $38 billion worth of export income, and we are the world's second largest exporter of coal. It creates 40,000 jobs directly and more than 100,000 jobs indirectly in Australia. Australia's coal is predominantly low in sulphur and low in ash and can be used for these high-efficiency, low-emission power plants that we are seeing all around Asia which can reduce the carbon footprint by up to 40 per cent, and there are other new technology like carbon capture and storage which will be important to the future of clean coal.

The member for Dawson understands how important energy and resources are to his electorate. He recently visited India to promote Australia's coal industry and to speak to Adani and hand over thousands of postcards from his electorate which said, 'Mr Adani, we are ready to get working!' The member for Dawson is not only always working hard for his constituents; he wants to create the opportunities in the resources and energy sector for them to get working hard too.