Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coal industry and the coal-fired power station industry have been continuously attacked by implication on the LNP side of the House and by direct attack from the ALP. I just remind the ALP that the CFMEU are the biggest financial backers for the ALP in Queensland. They're a coalmining union. I belonged to it for a fair portion of my life and have been a very strong supporter of it all of my life. They are reaching the end of their restraint in this area, and so they should be. The party that's supposed to be the champion for them is out there advocating the abolition of coal.

I am one of the few people in this parliament who actually know a little bit about this industry, because I was the Minister for Mines and Energy in the Queensland government in 1990, and I can say with great pride that, when the much-maligned Bjelke-Petersen government fell in 1990, we had the cheapest electricity charges in the world. I don't know whether they call us socialists or whatever the hell they call us, but all I know is that we had a reserved resource policy. We took the coal for free, so Queensland got their electricity from free coal. The free market geniuses—most of them are on the other side, but some are on this side too—free-marketed the industry, and the price shot straight through the roof. (Time expired)