Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As bad as that is for the Labor Party, you'll notice yet again for the second time in a debate on coal and Adani in two days, where are the Queensland Labor senators in this debate? On our side, Senator O'Sullivan and I are putting the case because we are Queensland senators. We understand jobs. We understand what it means for the Queensland economy. We understand what it means for Queensland workers. We understand what it means for the bottom line of the budget of the Queensland state Labor government, and so do the Labor senators here. They understand how important Adani is, and that's why you won't see them within cooee of this debate. I can appreciate that, and I thank them for at least not showing the hypocrisy, as members of the Labor Party in Queensland at state level have by agreeing with Adani, issuing permits and approvals—not just for Adani but for other coalmines as well. I appreciate not having the hypocrisy of joining federal Labor down here who are suddenly opposed to Adani and coalmining.

You don't need to remind too many people about Mr Shorten going to the Batman by-election in the south of the country, right down in the bottom of the country in Victoria, telling everyone before Batman he was opposed to Adani. Then, of course, a few days later he was up in Queensland, in Townsville, telling everyone how good all the jobs were that Adani was creating. That's the sort of hypocrisy you get from the Labor Party, which supports the old adage that I've mentioned previously.

As bad as the federal Labor Party is—I think people understand the hypocrisy of the Labor Party—the Greens are yet another question altogether. Not only do the Greens political party tell untruths, not only do they deceive, but they deliberately go out and tell lies about anything related to the environment. What you've seen today in this debate is another classic example of that. 'Forget about the facts. Work on the basis that if you repeat it often enough schoolchildren and those who live in the leafy suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney will eventually agree with you, because if you say it often enough they think it's true.'

Everything the Greens political party speaker said earlier is simply an untruth. The coalition government does understand the climate's changing, and, as I often say, once upon a time, Australia was covered in ice. Once upon a time in a later eon, the centre of Australia was a rainforest. Have a look at it today. Clearly the climate has been changing since the planet was created.

We on this side are accused by the Greens political party—deliberately misleading the Australian public and anyone who might be silly enough to listen to the Greens political party—that we don't believe the scientists. Well, I keep inviting Senator Waters to explain this to me but no-one in the Greens political party ever will because there isn't an answer. I keep saying to the Greens political party, 'I follow the scientists'. In fact, I follow the Chief Scientist. In an estimates committee on 1 June 2017, I put to him: 'If we reduce the world's carbon emissions by 1.3 per cent'—which is Australia's emissions as a percentage of the world carbon emissions—'what impact would that have on the changing climate of the world?' Dr Finkel answered, 'Virtually nothing'. So Senator Waters will tell you we don't trust scientists and we don't listen to scientists. Have a look at what the Chief Scientist said. Nothing we emit from Australia is going to make any iota of difference to the changing climate of the world.

Senator Waters said if we allow coalmines to happen, the other half of the barrier reef will be dead. She knows that's not right; she is not that stupid. The Greens keep propagating these lies to children, kindergarten children, people who teach them. I have a great concern about our educators who peddle this misinformation. And Senator Waters keeps trying to convince people on a broadcast day—as though, if she says it often enough, it will suddenly get through—but it's simply untrue. It's a deliberate misinformation. We believe what the Chief Scientist says.

As I continually point out, Australia is one of the few countries in the world that's actually met its emission reduction targets. We did far better than we were required under the Kyoto protocol and we're well on track to meet the commitments we've made in the Paris agreement. So we're doing our bit; other countries aren't. And yet the Greens political party, in a most un-Australian approach, keep blaming Australia for killing the barrier reef, when nothing we do in Australia will make one iota of difference to that. Read what Dr Finkel said.

But the lies continue. She said the other half of the barrier reef would be dead. Well, it's not the other half. The barrier reef is doing very well because of fine management by the Commonwealth and Queensland governments, by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, by the Australian Institute of Marine Science and, dare I say, with some slight hesitation, by the James Cook University scientists—some of them understand; some of them get a bit tied up with the Greens political party, I think. The majority of opinion is that the reef is doing well. It will continue to do well. It will continue to attract tourists from all over the world and continue to provide jobs for Australian workers. Yet the Greens political party, as they always do, want to denigrate Australia, knock Australia down, kick Australia in the guts. Senator Waters, the Greens political party and federal Labor—not Queensland Labor—want to throw the jobs of those workers who make their living out of tourism on the barrier reef or who manage the coalmines, manage the railway systems in the mines to the wolves.

I noticed Senator Singh repeats the rhetoric that's now coming through, and I can see it here—the CFMEU have got on to them. The CFMEU said to Mr Shorten, 'Hey, hang on, these are our jobs that you're opposing.' So now we have this rhetoric from the Labor Party of a transition plan to transition workers out of the coalmining and railway industries. I'm not sure what they're transitioning into. Perhaps we expect them to become tourist guides, which I think would be interesting for some of the coalminers I know. Perhaps we're going to get them to be cyberexperts but that's not their job. They're very qualified, very professional miners and they should be allowed to continue their jobs.

What we're concerned about in the Morrison government are the consumers. That's why we want a mix of electricity energy: some from renewables, some hydro, some pumped hydro and a lot of coal, because coal is the cheapest. It's readily available, and Australian coal is clean by world standards.

We're interested in the jobs of the union members that the Labor Party should be looking after. I'm pleased to say that in Queensland they are; federally, Mr Shorten doesn't give a damn about them. And we're also trying to address the poverty in India, which we often hear the Greens, in their hypocrisy, talking about—the poor people around the world and how Australia should be doing more. Here is an Indian company wanting to send coal to India to—heaven forbid! Do what?—give those poor Indians some of the electricity that Senator Waters enjoys every day of her life. But don't give it to the poor people in India! 'Let's stop the export of that coal because we really care about the poor people in India. They should stay in poverty without electricity.' That's the Greens' hypocrisy. That's the absolute disdain I have for those in the Greens political party who set out deliberately to mislead the Australian people.