George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, I have no trouble at all in defending the approval of the Carmichael coal mine in Central Queensland. The pity of it is that you, as a Queensland senator, are not as eager to do so to protect the jobs of people in Central Queensland. Senator Waters, if you visited Central Queensland—as I, for example, last week visited Rockhampton—you would know that the people whom you are supposed to represent in the Senate are desperate for this project to go ahead because, under various estimates, this project will create up to 10,000 while providing to India clean coal which will liberate more than 100 million people from energy poverty, which will provide clean coal to India for coal-fired power stations, which will provide electricity for more than 100 million of the poorest people of that country.

I know Senator Waters that you, in your middleclass conceit, would love to engage in the kind of moral posturing which is the trademark of the Greens, but I am afraid we on our side of the chamber are a little more interested in liberating more than 100 million of the poorest people in the world from energy poverty, while providing jobs to Australians and in particular jobs to people in Queensland, more particularly in Central Queensland. Would that you were so concerned about both of those things, but obviously, Senator Waters, you are not.