Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

If we want to talk about what's causing uncertainty for energy workers, let's start with the coalition pretending for a decade that they could hide from the energy transition and that they could ignore the international science, the calls from within their own party and the calls from people on the street that an energy transition was coming. Instead, we had a decade of deceit and inaction, and the people paying for it are those energy workers. Like their fossil fuel donors, they have abandoned those communities. Instead, we have an ad hoc regime where, in some places, corporations are abruptly pulling out altogether, leaving a trail of devastation behind them.

The people of my hometown of Gladstone know all too well what happens when we let massive corporations drive decision-making. My community still bears the scars of multiple boom-and-bust cycles. That's the reality of burying your head in the sand to the reality of transition. It means not showing up for the community and leaving them to the whims of fossil fuel corporations. In Clermont, we saw the coalition just a few years ago fighting tooth and nail for Adani to set up shop under the promise of jobs for that community. But the reality is that those corporations do not care about those communities. In fact, right now we're watching Adani fight against having to employ a single local. This is the reality of how these polluting fossil fuel corporations operate.

It is well past due for the government and the coalition to fess up and be honest with those communities about their future and take proactive steps to help them in the energy transition to make sure that they are best placed to take up opportunities in renewable energy with high-paid and secure work. That's why I put a bill before this parliament for a National Energy Transition Authority that would make that a reality, because a national authority to lead the energy transition, driven by communities and workers, is critical as we see the writing on the wall with coal and gas.