Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator O'Sullivan for his question. It's certainly not the market for coal at the moment. That is not standing in the way of the development of new coalmining ventures in this country, because the market for coal has started very strongly this year. We had the noted international expert on coal economics, Mr Bill Shorten, out there on the weekend, saying that the world coal market doesn't appear to have great economics for opening up a mine, when in fact the coal market this year has hit new highs, with the thermal price at the moment being $107, up more than double since last year. The coking coal prices are $220 a tonne, more than doubled in the past two years. This is good news for Australia, and any aspiring Prime Minister, you would think, would have a little bit of an understanding of the economics of our second-biggest export industry, but it's clear Mr Shorten knows nothing about coalmining or working in the coalmining sector.

He also came out last week and said that he's increasingly sceptical about the Adani Carmichael coalmine in North Queensland. I don't dispute that Mr Shorten is genuinely increasingly sceptical. He is increasingly sceptical of his chances of winning the by-election of Batman. Because he's increasingly sceptical about that, he wants to trade off jobs in North Queensland to help him win a few votes in Melbourne.

The Carmichael mine is 2,000 kilometres away, in North Queensland. It's an area where jobs growth fell by 10,000. Employment growth fell by 10,000 in that region last year, and Mr Shorten wants to make their pain even greater by putting into question this project, which on its own could deliver 10,000 jobs and thousands of others. He is trading off the interests of his own Queensland representatives to try and win a by-election in Melbourne. It is behaviour unfit for someone who wants to lead this nation and should be condemned.