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

(The Labor Party is suffering from some kind of identity dissociative disorder. There was a time when they knew who they were and even what they stood for. Now they tell us stuff like 'we are us' and they stand for whatever the Greens want them to stand for—when the unions aren't looking. Fence-sitting and wavering between competing ideologies is a dangerous policy when the country desperately needs jobs and business desperately needs certainty. In North Queensland, the Carmichael coal project is poised to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs—in the coalmine, in the expanded port and in the rail line connecting the two.

The proponents, Adani, are stuck in no-man's land because there are multiple Labor parties in government in Queensland. The Labor party led by Annastacia Palaszczuk sometimes says that they will support the jobs that Adani will create. She even offered a deal on royalties to encourage the project. But the Labor party led by Jackie Trad says they will never support Adani, there will be no royalties deal, and, further, they will block Adani from getting a concessional loan to build the rail line. Then Curtis Pitt of the Palaszczuk Labor party comes out and says they will not block the loan. Adani must think they are stuck in a Jim Carrey movie, not knowing if they are dealing with 'me, myself or Irene'. To make matters worse, we have the Opposition in this place all over the shop on the issue. Labor should start supporting labourers and jobs for labourers, and support the Adani mine. Support Central Queensland and support North Queensland.