Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll use the adjournment time allotted to address a few concerns that I've had for a long time. They're challenged in this chamber almost every day, particularly by the members of the Australian Greens. I want to put on the record something which you'd be very familiar with, Mr Acting Deputy President Brockman, and that is the contribution of the mining sector to the Australian economy and the contribution of the mining sector in particular to monetary amounts and the contribution to employment in this country.

We do know, from our good friends at the Parliamentary Library, that iron ore and concentrates exports were worth $102.7 billion in 2019-20 and accounted for 26.9 per cent of the total value of Australia's merchandise exports. We know, once again from the information from our good friends at the Parliamentary Library, that coal exports were worth $54.6 billion in 2019-20 and accounted for 14.3 per cent of the total value of merchandise exports. And we know that natural gas exports were worth $47.5 billion and accounted for 12.4 per cent of the total value of merchandise exports. Those things cumulatively add up to a significant chunk of the nation's exports and earnings.

We know from the Parliamentary Library—because you ask the question and they diligently provide the answer—that there are significant numbers of people employed in each one of those sectors, and those discrete numbers add up to really high employment figures right around the country. As the mining sector has changed and become fly-in fly-out or drive-in drive-out, people don't actually live around the Surat Basin or the Pilbara or the other gas exploration areas, so we know that each and every electorate in this country comprises people who, either through mining and energy or through technological services to the mining industry, earn their bread and butter, feed their families, educate their children and pay their mortgages through that connection with the very vital mining sector. This is not rocket science.

When I hear people say, 'dirty coal' or, 'Let's get rid of coal,' or, 'Gas is too expensive,' or, 'Gas is burning the planet,' I don't really understand what the people who advocate those positions are saying to the people in the sector. In the absence of any grand plan, I think they're threatening their employment opportunities and threatening their livelihoods, and they will take the appropriate action: they won't vote for you. It's fine to be a member of the Greens political party, because I'm certain that their motto should be—to channel Whitlam's 1967 speech—'Certainly, the impotent are pure.' You can be ideologically pure but you'll never have to make a decision. You'll never have to have the honest approach to government where you have to make difficult decisions. You can be in opposition forever, and I compliment the Greens on their strident advocacy for never being in government because they should never be allowed anywhere near the wheels of government. Certainly, their ideology will continue to make them impotent.

We've got to get to an Australia where it's not adversarial—save the planet, ditch the worker. If the market is what I believe it is, a successful capitalist market will make prudent decisions based on investment, on technology and on what's coming down the pipeline. The argument's fairly clear, with ageing power infrastructure. Why would you invest in an ageing power plant powered by coal if you can get away with a switch-on switch-off gas opportunity? If it's dearer, someone's got to pay for that. We know with renewable technology that when the wind stops blowing and the sun stops shining you've got to crank something up quickly. Coal is probably a bit too slow for that. The batteries are not there yet. Gas is. Gas is turn on, turn off—and it's significantly more expensive than coal. I accept the market will make decisions like that.

But we can't tell people engaged in industries which are vital to Australia's economic prosperity that we don't care about them, that we don't value their contribution. If we do tell people that, then we're never going to get elected. The Labor Party is never going to get elected. We need to have a strategy for the people in the Hunter Valley, the Surat Basin and the Pilbara. People don't live in just those areas; they live all over Australia. If we're going to be a party which is closer to the Greens than I would like, I want it on the record here tonight that I don't support that. I support climate change. I'm not a denier, but I'm not about throwing out a livelihood in which people have worked hard, from which they've fed families, in which they've earned good money and through which they've contributed well to the economy, because of some Kyoto protocol or whatever. This has got to be pragmatically and carefully worked through. I can be labelled a heretic on my side—I'm not really fussed about that—but I'm not going to endure in this place notices of motion calling on climate emergencies which threaten the livelihoods of 650,000 Australians involved in mining and mining services in this country. I'm not going to stand by and let that go through to the keeper. I'm going to oppose it.

I think you can do a number of things very well in this country. You can manage your attitude towards climate change and you can manage your income and your attitude towards mining and mining services, because we've done it for a century or more. No-one wants to destroy the environment, but we do have to have economic prosperity. I think I even agreed with Senator Roberts that if you haven't got an economic system that delivers prosperity you're not in a position to make any decision. You're usually begging. We are prosperous. We are smart. The Chief Scientist is on the ball. He recommends a way forward. Other people are saying, 'No, no, it's all got to be one way.' It hasn't all got to be one way. Government is really difficult. To those who want to be ideologically pure: don't go into government. There are tough decisions in this space that can and should be made, and I for one want it on the record here that, whilst I'm not a climate change denier, I'm certainly not walking away from the mining industry. I think it's delivered very well for this country. It's underpinned the prosperity of regions, states and the entire country. Every time I see one of these notices of motion encouraging us to throw people under a bus, I get pretty angry about it.

I wanted to take that few minutes tonight to say that. I also wanted to put on the record that I try and actually drill down. I know I come from the state with the highest level of renewable energy—solar, wind and the like; solar on the roof. But I also know this: I just built a new house, and with $6,000 I can put a respectable amount of kilowatts on my roof and diminish my bill. But the pensioner on my street can't do that. They're paying a higher infrastructure charge. The government is spending a billion dollars a year subsidising solar, which is wonderful. But what about the people who can't afford those panels? What about the people who are paying higher infrastructure charges because they have no option? I've got an app on my phone. It tells me my house costs $3.50 a day to run. My house is brand new, it's insulated and it's well built. It's the latest green you-beaut design and it costs $3 or $4 a day. There are pensioners in my street who are paying much more than that because their houses are not well built. They're not built for the climate, they're not insulated and yet we go out and subsidise wealthy people like me to put solar on their roof.

I drill down into this and I get quite angry at times. We are all wedded to saving the planet, but there seem to be some pretty obvious gaps in all of this. What are we going to do for the workers in sections of the economy that people threaten? Threatening people will guarantee one reaction: they won't vote for you. If you're not clear on your strategy going forward, I suggest you don't advocate it. And if you have a strategy going forward, it's got to include a transition plan. I've not heard about a transition plan. You just say, 'Coal is going to disappear.' That's a lot of crap; the coal industry had $47 billion last year in exports. A million tonnes of coal go out of Port Waratah on trains and there are people repairing those trains. In conclusion, I want to put this on the record because I am pragmatic about this space.