Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What occurred overnight was that a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, France, Japan and Canada, signed on to a declaration that not only emphasised the self-evident fact that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time but also emphasised the need for governments around the world to undertake measures to ensure a just transition for mining workforces, and the creation of decent work and quality jobs for people who are affected by the energy mix.

The reason I took Senator O'Sullivan's interjection about mining workers in Queensland is that the failure of this government last night to sign on to this declaration just demonstrates again that they have no concern whatsoever for mining workers, whether in Queensland or in other parts of the country. Labor has attempted a number of times to either move amendments or take other action to stop labour-hire exploitation, to stop casualisation in the mining industry in Queensland, only to see the LNP, particularly National Party representatives, take the side of mining companies rather than mining workers. The government's refusal to sign on to this declaration last night shows that this government not only is ignoring the fact that our energy mix is changing but also wants to leave Central Queensland mining workers, who will be affected by changes to our energy mix, completely in the lurch. They don't want to take any steps towards assisting these workers to transition to new work. They want to leave them to the vagaries of the market, to be thrown on the scrap heap. Senator Canavan is one of the worst offenders in claiming to support mining workers but always backing up Glencore, BHP and every other mining company.