Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This motion claims that Adani will boost employment in North Queensland—it will not. The jobs are a lie. They initially claimed 10,000 jobs but, in fact, under cross examination they have had to confess that it is much less than that; it is 1,646 jobs. What is more, those jobs are likely to kill the workers, given that we have got a resurgence of black lung in Queensland. Black lung is back in Queensland and coming to a coalmine worker near you.

On the flip side, we have 70,000 jobs on the reef, and we have lost half of the coral cover on the reef. We need to keep that coral to keep those jobs instead of the donations payback that has been delivered by both Labor and the Liberals to Adani and its coalmining mates. We should be investing in genuine job creation in the regions. The clean energy projects that are in the pipeline could deliver far more jobs than Adani ever will, and they will not kill the reef or its workers.