Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that, at 8.30 this morning, Senators Gallagher and Siewert each submitted a letter in accordance with standing order No. 75, proposing a matter of public importance. The question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot, and, as a result, I inform the Senate that the following letter has been received from Senator Siewert:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

The Turnbull government's enthusiasm to waste $1 billion propping up Labor's Adani mine shows they're working for billionaires, not for the future of everyday Australians.

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

The proposal is supported, and I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate and, with the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly. I call Senator Waters.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr President. It is good to be back—and that breastfeeding was perfectly timed; she has just finished, thank you very much.

I rise to speak today about what a complete waste of money and a foolish idea spending $1 billion of public money on the largest coalmine in the southern hemisphere would be. The Adani mine is the best and the most appalling example of the way in which the big parties are working for the big end of town and not actually for communities or, for that matter, for the planet. Australians know that our political system is broken and that our economic system is rigged against everyday people. The same system that lets greedy bankers rip off everyday people, with the full protection of politicians, is the same system that is going to let—over our dead bodies—Adani take unlimited groundwater from Queensland when about 90 per cent of the state is in drought. This is the same system that lets property developers steamroll local residents with insider deals, and it is the same system that wants to hand a billion dollars of taxpayer money—your money—to a multinational mining company. And this is the system that allows political donations to buy influence and to buy policy results, which is exactly why we see the dominance of gambling, alcohol, tobacco, property developers and, of course, the mining sector. They tend to get their way, and the community is utterly forgotten. Adani, the banks, insurance companies and the big end of town have got their well-paid lobbyists and they have got their well-connected former politicians. We know about the revolving door between MPs in this place, or their staffers, and the resources sector; it goes back and forth, and it is a very cosy relationship which borders on corruption. All we have got is people power. But, thankfully, I think that is going to be enough.

When ordinary people stand up, we can win, and the growth of the community movement in the last few months, with a new coalition of environment groups launching the Stop Adani campaign, has really generated some interest in this issue, and people now know what a foolish and ridiculous spend $1 billion of taxpayers' money would be on a polluting coalmine that will further endanger the Reef, which has just faced back-to-back bleaching episodes. Never before in the Reef's history has so much of it bleached, and never before has it happened two years running. Yet this government, with the full support of Labor in Queensland, are happy to bend over backwards to fast-track approvals, and now want to give $1 billion to this project. You could not design a more ridiculous situation. It is clear that, for the donors, it is payday; they have made their donations, and now they are getting the results that they want.

Unfortunately, no-one has done as much to grease the wheels for this coalmine proposal as Queensland Labor. They have given a water licence, with unlimited and free groundwater, for the life of the mine. Nobody else gets that sort of special treatment. Farmers and other water users are asked to be very careful with their water use. They have multiple levels of bureaucratic process to go through. They have to tighten their belts in a drought situation; the mining industry do not. They get free and unlimited groundwater.

The Queensland government also want to offer Adani a royalty holiday. They have been very cagey about this. They will not actually tell us how long the royalty holiday is going to be for. Nobody else gets a holiday on their royalties, but they have, once again, picked up a Campbell Newman idea that the first mover in the Galilee Basin would get a freebie and not even have to pay for the pleasure of ripping coal out of this planet's core and burning it, worsening climate change. Again, you could not think of a worse deal.

To silence the community, the Queensland Labor government have also created a special legal loophole for Adani in relation to their water licence. The community can no longer have a say on whether they think that is a good use of our precious water and, hence, they cannot go to court even if the decision made is a poor one either on the merits or on the process.

They have approved the mine at every level, they have lobbied for federal taxpayer funding to come out of this Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, the NAIF, despite going to the election saying that they would both save the reef and not spend taxpayer dollars on this project, and they have gone to India recently to beg the head of Adani to build the mine. What is less well known than all of those appalling facts is that the Queensland government has the power to veto the billion dollars that Mr Malcolm Turnbull and this government want to give to Adani. Queensland Labor could block that $1 billion loan to Adani, and they could announce that today, if they so wished.

Before the election, Labor said that they would not give any money to Adani's coal railway to nowhere, and now they have been actively facilitating that loan. As a Queenslander and as someone who cares deeply about the reef and about a safe future for the generations to come, I think that Queensland Labor needs to veto that NAIF money. If, indeed, the Liberal government is going to insist on giving free taxpayer money to this overseas company with a billionaire at its helm to trash the reef, then Queensland Labor needs to stand up and say, 'We will not accept that money.' They have that power under the NAIF Act and they need to use it.

Of course, federal Labor could also weigh in on this issue, and should do so. They have been quite prevaricating. One minute they are saying they love the coal industry; the next they are saying, 'Oh, but it's got to stand on its own two feet, but we might think about giving them taxpayer money.' They are all over the shop on this one. We know that the Liberals have thrown their lot in with the coal industry. That is beyond question. We know Labor often do that also, but they need to come clean on what their actual position is, and Mr Bill Shorten needs to announce that if his lot were to form government he would require a review of the environmental approvals for this company, because what has come to light in the last few months is their appalling environmental track record.

Our environmental laws need reform, but they do at least require that sort of thing to be considered, and when the track record is so appalling and when new information has come to light now, since the approvals have been issued, there is the ability to reconsider those approvals. So, in short, Labor need to come out and say that they would reconsider those approvals and they would look at the dodgy environmental history of this company. That would send a very strong message and could help to kill this mine.

We know that regional Queensland is crying out for jobs. We know that it is crying out for jobs that will last, that are not subject to a boom-and-bust cycle, that are not killing workers with black lung, which is resurgent in Queensland. We thought we had killed that off decades ago, but black lung is back and it is here, in a Queensland coalmine, coming to you. We need jobs in those areas, but we need jobs that do not kill the workers and do not kill the reef. It is not that hard to think about positive, this-century options for job generation, but Labor are blinded by the money coming from the coal sector, and the donors continue to get their way.

Other, lesser heard voices in this debate have been the voices of the local Indigenous people. The Wangan and Jagalingou mob, whom I meet with regularly, and their lead spokesperson, Adrian Burragubba, who is a deeply honourable man, have been opposing this mine from the outset. There have been all sorts of dodgy tactics, which have meant that the group has been infiltrated, there have been attempts at bribery of the process, and people who are not even from country have been ferried in to stack the process. What is really clear is that the legitimate traditional owners of that area do not want this mine. They do not want their groundwater ruined. They do not want their sacred spaces trashed and dug up and turned into an open-cut coalmine. No means no, yet this government is completely deaf to them, such that we now have a bill to ram through a reduction in native title rights just so the Adani mine can get up. What an absolute farce—and what a real abrogation and an insult, once again, to our first nations.

There is a lot of talk about job creation, and we love job creation. We also love the 70,000 jobs on the reef. They are at risk from a continued bleaching episode, driven by climate change, which will be made worse by this coalmine were it ever to proceed. So it is a bit rich of Minister Canavan and others on that side to be trumpeting the potential for jobs from this proposal when the company itself has massively backtracked and said: 'Oh, actually, we weren't telling the truth when we first told you it was going to be 10,000; it's going to be more like 1,464. Soz about the arithmetic error.' Yet we hear nothing from that side about the 70,000 reef jobs that are at risk from climate change, which will be turbocharged by this mine. So do not buy the lies from that side or from the company, who distance themselves from their original projections anyway.

If we think about jobs, there are some recent proposals for solar thermal plants for Queensland—in fact, up to six, by a company that has a demonstrated positive environmental track record offshore—that could generate 20,000 jobs in clean renewable generation in Queensland. That is the sort of job creation we want to see. Those jobs will last. They will help us keep the lights on. They will not trash the reef. And they will not kill their workers with a disease that we thought was eradicated decades ago. That is the sort of positive planning that needs to be done, rather than the dog whistling to One Nation with this propping up of last-century so-called technology in an effort to pander to people who are desperate for jobs. They do not want promises of fake jobs; they want real jobs, and they deserve that.

We know that our reef cannot withstand another bleaching event. And, as Terry Hughes has said, it is a choice between the reef and new coal. The decision is pretty clear to the Australian Greens. It is now over to the government and to Labor to cast their lot. (Time expired)

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

For those who might be listening to this debate on the Adani mine, one can understand why the Greens political party is on the downwards slide. Unfortunately perhaps for democracy, nobody takes any notice of them anymore, and the previous speech exemplifies just why: it was full of inaccuracies and deliberate misstatements of the facts. For example—just to pick up a couple, and time does not allow me to show the lie of everything that was just said in that speech—the suggestion that the local Indigenous people have been bribed to support the mine is just not true. If Senator Waters had attended the hearing in Brisbane of the inquiry into the native title amendment, she would have heard from the local Indigenous people there that they had a number of meetings and that the local Indigenous people support this proposal. And she would have heard the same from Indigenous groups right around.

Senator Waters also said that the Commonwealth was going to be handing out free money to Adani to trash the reef. Well, there is no free money. In case Senator Waters is not aware—and I am sure she is, but that does not stop her deliberately misstating the facts—the North Australia Infrastructure Facility is a loan based facility. It is a loan from that particular organisation which has to be repaid by the recipient. And it is not the government, Senator Waters. NAIF is a completely independent group, a company set up under its own legislation. It makes the decisions. It is not subject to federal government direction or, in most cases, veto.

The Greens continue to misstate the facts. Any speech by the Greens now will always include—you can bet your bottom dollar, whatever they are talking about—that it is going to destroy the reef. Again I say that Australia emits less than 1.2 per cent of carbon emissions in the world. If it is carbon emissions that are causing climate change and if climate change is affecting the reef, then nothing we do in Australia is going to have any impact upon that, Senator Waters. And I keep challenging you and your colleagues to tell me how that is going to be the case, but never do you respond to that, because it is an argument that you cannot respond to. So I disregard entirely anything the Greens might say on these issues. I take no notice of them, and most Australians no longer take any notice of the Greens political party at all.

I am entering into this debate because I am fascinated, I am curious and I cannot wait to hear what Senator Chisholm is going to say on behalf of the federal Labor Party in relation to this MPI discussion. It is not often that I agree with state Labor. It is not often that I will praise the Labor Premier of Queensland. But on one point, I must say, the Queensland state Labor Party and the Queensland state Labor government have done the right thing on this particular issue. They are supporting Adani because they, like me, appreciate that this means 10,000 jobs for people in Central Queensland and North Queensland, where I live, work and see the despair of huge unemployment. This project, which is a first-class and state-of-the-art facility, will provide enormous numbers of jobs during construction—something like 8½ thousand. There will also be 3,900 permanent direct jobs in these coalmines.

It is not just Adani, of course. Once the common-user railway line is built it will be used by other mines in that area. So it is not going to one particular producer. It will be used by everyone. This provides real jobs. I know that Queensland state Labor are interested in this. But I would be fascinated to hear, Senator Chisholm, what you are going to tell us about the federal Labor position. It seems to vacillate every day. We still do not know what Mr Shorten and Mr Dreyfus are going to do about this native title amendment. The Queensland Labor government totally support the government's amendment to the native title legislation to deal with that unusual and unexpected court decision that changed the whole process. As part of it, it could have meant that all of the coalmines in the Galilee Basin, plus the existing mines at Weipa and the ongoing work of the aluminium industry in Gladstone, would have been shut down completely. But so far we have the Labor Party vacillating on whether they are for it or against it.

When my committee dealt with this, it appeared that the Labor Party were totally supportive. One of the Labor senators wanted to make some further inquiries, but we generally got the—

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Which one?

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

It was Senator Dodson who was there. You were not, unfortunately. That was a pity, because it was very important for Queensland. Senator Dodson wanted to check something. Since then, Mr Shorten—or Mr Dreyfus, apparently; he seems to control Mr Shorten—seems to be putting different things in the way of that particular resolution of an issue which means real jobs for Queensland. I will be delighted and fascinated to hear what the Labor senator is going to say in relation to federal Labor's position.

We on this side believe in jobs. We understand the enormous importance of these projects to employment in my state of Queensland in particular. Senators will know that in Townsville at the present time there is 10.9 per cent unemployment. In Mackay, there is 6.8 per cent unemployment. In Rockhampton it is 7.2. Even the AWU—not a union that I have a great regard for usually—understands the importance of this and is supporting the Queensland Labor government in its bid to get these projects underway.

There have been over 300 very strict environmental conditions on this proposal. It is one that will be carefully monitored by both the Queensland and Commonwealth governments. Those conditions and the oversight of both governments will ensure that there is no damage to the local ecology or to the environment of that part of Queensland, or to the Great Barrier Reef or anywhere else. Those conditions are very strict, but Adani has accepted them.

This work will bring electricity and a slightly increased standard of living to millions of people in India that the Greens will always talk about at the appropriate time in this chamber—helping disadvantaged people in Third World countries. But when there is an opportunity to do something tangible to help those people, to give them the electricity that the Greens take for granted every day—they can go and flick a switch and enjoy the benefits of electricity—they do not seem to want that to happen to people living in India who do not have the benefit of those facilities.

I will listen intently to what the next speaker will say about federal Labor's position. I hope it will be a rousing endorsement of the Queensland Labor government's position on this, which of course reflects the position of the Liberal National Party of Queensland and the federal coalition in relation to this much-needed project that will help those poorer people in India and will provide real and permanent jobs in a part of Queensland that is currently suffering substantially from unemployment, caused principally by the mining turndown in other parts of North Queensland.

The matter of public importance that we are debating today refers to $1 billion. I am not quite sure where that is coming from or what is being wasted. As I say, any money that might come from the NAIF—and that is a matter for the NAIF board to determine, not the federal government—will be a loan that will have to be repaid at some time in the future. So the proposition put before us today that we are debating is completely nonsensical. It is put up by the Greens political party, who—I am pleased to say—most Australians now take no regard of.

Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure to follow Senator Macdonald. We well know that Winton in Western Queensland is the home of a dinosaur museum, but there are other dinosaur exhibits in regional Queensland—particularly in Townsville, where Senator Macdonald is from. It is pleasing to follow him after his endorsement of Premier Palaszczuk, a very good friend of mine. He neglected to mention the great work of the Mayor of Townsville, Jenny Hill—also a good friend of mine—who is out there fighting for this project; of Mayor Strelow in Rockhampton, whom I spoke to last week about this project; and of local regional mayors, who are talking up the importance of this project because they know that it means so much to them for local jobs.

What was interesting in Senator Macdonald's speech was that he talked about the high rate of unemployment in a lot of these regional towns. Since we last sat, I have visited Townsville, Bowen, Mackay and Gladstone. I have spoken to a lot of people on the ground there who are suffering from the economic downturn. The saddest thing about it is that the federal government have done nothing about it. They talk about NAIF—they talk about its importance—but it has spent zero dollars. It has not contributed one thing or created one job, other than that of the CEO, whom they appointed from down south. The only money it has spent is on a CEO and its executive structure. It has not actually spent one cent on a project in northern Australia. Whilst the government can talk a big game on it, NAIF has not done one thing to create a job apart from some fat-cat salaries.

We saw the government 12 months ago going around regional Queensland, promising money for jobs packages. Here we are, hours before the federal budget this year, and they have still not spent one cent on those job packages—including in the Bowen Basin, which, as Senator Macdonald said, has a high level of unemployment, along with Townsville. I know, particularly through the travels I have done over the last month, that there are really strong concerns from locals about their economic future and what opportunities are before them. That is something that the Labor Party has been very strong on and will be addressing between now and the election campaign, to ensure locals have those strong job opportunities.

It is really sad to hear from the Greens—and what a sad political movement they have become. Once a principles based organisation, now they have basically become a left-wing version of shock jocks. After sabotaging the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in 2009—a national scheme Labor had produced that would have brought down carbon emissions that the Greens were responsible for knocking off—we see them going around the country, project by project, trying to knock off these resources projects. They give no thought to local economies and how important these projects are for local jobs. If you spend any time in these communities, you get an understanding from locals of how important it is that they have opportunities for themselves, and, particularly, from those people who have kids who are about to finish high school, the feedback I get is: what is their economic future in regional Queensland?

Labor has been very clear on its position in regard to the Adani coalmine: it has to stack up commercially and financially, and it has to meet the stringent government approvals that are set in place. That has been the absolutely clear message from Bill Shorten over a period of time now, and it is supported by the federal Labor Party. I was with Bill in regional Queensland over the last month, and he has been very strong in his language around this so that people understand where he is coming from.

But all we see from the Greens is pandering to the inner city with no consideration of what is good for regional Queensland. This project is important for regional Queensland because of the unemployment that we see in these towns. Townsville has gone into double figures for unemployment, and across regional Queensland we see a higher level of unemployment compared with the south-east corner. And this is whilst the federal government has been sitting on its hands in regard to the local infrastructure.

As I mentioned, NAIF, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, has not spent one cent on job-creating projects in regional Queensland, despite all the talk we hear from Senator Canavan and others in this chamber. It is really sad to see that, even when the federal government do spend money—like on the Mackay Ring Road, which is a very important local project to that economy, with about $500 million to $600 million being spent on it—local contractors miss out. It really is not good enough that, even when they are coming in and spending money, not enough of that money is going to local contractors so that local communities can benefit. Instead, contractors are coming from down south, scooping up the money, doing the work and then taking it with them. The federal government need to do much better to ensure that, when they do spend money on local projects, it is local contractors who are getting the work so that the local community can benefit.

Then there is the sad case of the jobs packages, which Senator Nash went around spruiking over the election campaign that went for two months. Yet here we are, a year later, with not one cent having been spent and not one job having been created. It really is not good enough for this government to talk a big game on this but fail to deliver.

It is clear from the way that Senator Waters talked about this, and from what you hear other Greens say about this issue, that they have not spent time in regional communities in Queensland. If they had, they would understand the importance of this project for these communities. As I mentioned, I did a jobs forum in Cairns and I spent time in Townsville. I went with the shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, to Bowen, where we had a strong response from locals there. I did a northern Australia jobs forum with the shadow minister for northern Australia, Jason Clare, in Mackay; and I also did a jobs forum with Matt Thistlethwaite, the shadow Assistant Treasurer, in Gladstone, over the last month. These have been really important opportunities for me to listen to locals, to get feedback from them and to use that to influence Labor policy as we get closer to the election.

We understand the importance of fighting for local jobs and of creating opportunities for locals to get employment not only now but into the future—and, particularly, where the TAFE and training system fits in with that so that people can see a future for themselves where they grew up, in their local communities and, often, where their families have spent time as well. It is really important, and Labor understand the importance of these local projects to regional communities. They will be at the forefront of our policymaking before the next election.

In terms of the NAIF, there are concerns about its governance. This is something that Wayne Swan, the member for Lilley, has raised in the other chamber. He has written to the Auditor-General asking his office to investigate potential risks in the fund, saying:

I am concerned the real risk of maladministration may lead to significant losses to the Commonwealth in the future and the misallocation of resources due to political pressure and poor governance, resulting in funds failing to be allocated to more worthy purposes.

So this government cannot have it both ways. On one hand, they are saying that the NAIF is independent and will make decisions itself. On the other hand, the minister is pushing his preferred projects, such as the Adani rail line and his other pet project, the coal-fired power station. And he is trying to do this with minimal scrutiny.

There is one issue they have not addressed. To be eligible for financial support Adani must demonstrate the assistance would be, from the investment mandate of NAIF, 'necessary to enable the project to proceed or to proceed much earlier than it would otherwise'. In December last year, a NAIF spokesperson said:

This is something that governments of all political persuasions have done in the past and I assume will do in the future, it doesn't necessarily mean it's make or break for the project.

This has been said on multiple occasions. They are also on the record as saying that government funding is not necessary for this project to happen.

The government have not adequately dealt with this. They are trying to use NAIF to fund this rail line, but Adani have been on the record, on multiple occasions, saying this is not necessary. The government definitely have questions to answer around how that will transpire. Given their track record, I expect more loans schemes with no concrete funding, more back-of-the-envelope accountability and more platitudes about the regions but a failure to deliver.

Federal Labor has been clear. The government needs to meet the tough legislation that is set up. It needs to stack up financially. This is an important project for regional Queensland.

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia I rise to speak to the Greens' fatuous MPI. Our Greens colleagues would have us discuss a statement which, in fact, is a fallacy of many questions, variously asserting that investing in infrastructure somehow benefits billionaires at the expense of the future of 'everyday Australians'. How wrong can they get?

As the party of smug government-employed Canberra bureaucrats and middle-class elites, the Greens would have no idea—nor would they care for the future—of everyday Australians. In fact, all this Greens MPI really reflects is the Greens' neurotic and irrational hostility to coalmining and coal based power generation, regardless of the impact of this on the standard of living of everyday Australians, as often their screechings contradict the evidence and the facts.

The real truth is that the last 170 years has seen billions of people lifted out of poverty and removed from the vagaries of nature's weather, extremes of drought, flood and famine. We have enjoyed vastly lengthened life spans, greatly increased comfort, safety, ease and security. And this has occurred hand in hand with a miracle of hydrocarbon fuels, coal, gas and oil that, until recent Greens-led government interventions, saw ever-falling real prices.

Unlike the Greens, informed senators would be aware that the Carmichael coalmine, to be built by the Adani group in the north of the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland, represents a $16.5 billion investment in our state. Expected to produce 2.3 billion tonnes of coal over a projected 60-year lifespan, this wonderful project will generate thousands of jobs and many hundreds of millions of dollars of export earnings for our nation—jobs needed because Queensland's Labor government has killed our state through excessive energy prices, needless tax and over-regulation and the theft of property rights that are decimating regions.

As the first of a number of mines expected to be built in the Galilee Basin, the infrastructure to be built for the Carmichael mine will greatly facilitate the development of subsequent mines, which, in turn, will generate yet more jobs and yet more earnings for Australia. This is the reason that the northern Australia infrastructure fund plans to lend the $1 billion to which this MPI refers. This will not only facilitate the development of the Carmichael mine but also assist the development of numerous other subsequent mines by other companies and open up regional Queensland.

For the Greens to claim that a NAIF loan to build vital infrastructure somehow means that the government is 'working for billionaires' is simply logically incoherent. It is the Greens who feathered the nests of billionaires—American billionaires like George Soros—who drove down the share price of coal companies by calling for action on climate, contradicting the empirical evidence. Those billionaires drove down the share price of coal companies and then swooped to buy those same companies, expecting massive profits as coal in future fulfils huge forecast increases in usage in China, Japan, Germany, Italy, Russia, India and on and on. Also note that I said 'lend', because, contrary to the Greens' claim in their MPI, no-one is giving Adani anything. The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was set up precisely to lend money to assist in the development of railways, port and airport facilities, roads, water and communications facilities and on and on—specifically to assist the development of northern Australia.

The NAIF loan and the Carmichael mine will open up the Galilee Basin to the world, creating untold thousands of jobs and a treasure trove of government revenue and export earnings. Much of the coal mined in this region will go to India to power Prime Minister Modi's amazing industrial revolution. In addition to fuelling power generation that will help to transform much of India and provide the lighting, heating and cooling that we take for granted, this coal will also directly provide many with fuel for domestic cooking. Instead of facing the severe adverse health effects of burning animal dung or scarce wood, millions will benefit from being able to burn clean coal. Of course, as this ridiculous Greens MPI demonstrates, the Greens could not care less about creating jobs or generating export earnings here in Australia, much less about lifting much of India out of the Third World. Oh, no, the Greens could not give a damn about any of that; they are anti-human. Subject to our scheduled discussions on underground water, we support the Adani project and the opening up of our state of Queensland.

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure, might I say, to speak on an MPI on a subject put up by the Greens. It makes it very simple. Very little research is required, because the response you can give to their contribution is the same very time. This anti-development party, anti-employment party, is a party will go to extreme lengths to prevent the development of economies in regional and rural Australia in particular, where resources and, in this case, the Adani mine will be developed. Of course, the Greens were supported by the metro-based Labor senators from the state of Queensland. Every one of the colleagues on the other side have an office in Queen Street—nobody has an office in regional Queensland—and they want to do things that will impact on the economies of communities that are thousands of kilometres away from where they are, places they rarely visit.

Let us have a look at the impacts of the policies of the Labor Party and the Greens in their efforts to date. They have been particularly successful. We have lost 14,000 jobs in Central Queensland in the coal industry, not directly from coal employees but from businesses and others who are there whose whole welfare in life exists around the development of the coal industry. I look to places like Emerald. If only my Labor colleagues were present, though I have one of our Queensland Greens senators here. Emerald is a small community that is west of Rockhampton. If you are ever inclined, you should go up the Cap Highway until you get to Rockhampton and then turn left—there are no other deviations—and you will find yourself in the centre of the township of Emerald. It is a fine place. I used to own a property not far from there—a farm that we had.

I bet you London to a brick that you will never go to Emerald. But, if you do, I bet that you wear a false moustache, because you will not want the good people of Emerald to recognise you—with 600 vacant houses in the community and unemployment rates nearly double that which you enjoy out the window of your office and where you live. Communities like Emerald have gone into depression because of the efforts of the Greens and the Australian Labor Party to prevent the development of industries in regional Queensland.

It is a remarkable thing for a party like the Labor Party, who live on the back of union support, to be anti-union with respect to the development of these 14,000 jobs that are on the table in Central Queensland. It defies logic. Slowly but surely, and sadly for them, the coalition are becoming the party of the workers, particularly as you get into the resource industry. They are looking to us now. They are looking to us to nourish their lives. They still put money into your coffers and the coffers of the Australian Labor Party, but that is slowly changing. In my home state a couple of private unions have performed. People are voting with their feet; they are moving across. I think the nurses union is getting 80 or 90 new memberships a day in my home state.

I invite you—and I am happy to put it onto my tab; our offices can liaise—and I invite all the senators from the Labor Party and any senators from the Greens, particularly the Queensland senator, to join me. We will have a good couple of days. We will kick back and we will have the odd stubbie in Blackwater, Emerald and Alpha, and places. These economies are depressed and they will remain depressed until we stimulate them with the proper development of this Adani mine resource.

We have 400 kilometres of rail line to be built that they are suggesting that somehow the government is doing for this company without any form of return. The cost-benefit analysis has been done. The stimulus that it will give to Central Queensland and all the way through to the port at Bowen will be enormous. It will have a flow-on effect that will last for decades. Generations of people will have job opportunities up there as a result of this investment. For Senator Chisholm to cast aspersions on the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Senator Canavan, and somehow suggest that his support and the processes involved in trying to get this project up have happened in the shadows and that no-one is following the script is complete and absolute nonsense.

We know that units of the Greens party in Australia have taken these people to court. These Newcastle based environmental activist groups funded by corporate money from the United States have been taken to court. Every single facet of this project has been thoroughly and transparently examined not only in the court system but in the public. I can tell you the jury has come in—the jury of Mackay and the jury of Townsville, where unemployment is almost at 10 per cent when the national figure is 5.9 per cent. These are depressed economies that want this project to happen.

If you think about it, there is not a business or a service in Central Queensland, all the way from Townsville down to Gladstone, that does not have a real interest in this. This is a massive part of our home state. I remind you that no senators other than our party, the coalition government, have senators in these areas. We have Senator Macdonald in Townsville. We have Senator Canavan in Rockhampton. That was done deliberately so that we could spread our representatives across the state so that we could get on top of what our communities want in terms of development and progress for their economies.

It really is insulting to hear Senator Chisholm and our friends in the Greens come into this place and endeavour to influence decisions that will impact on the hundreds of thousands of people and families in this massive area of my home state without one thought for their welfare. Senator Roberts raised a good point. There are those in this place who are absolute bleeding hearts. They would like to see us develop tofu farms and injured animal hospitals all the way through Central Queensland rather than invest in something that will provide a job. They put a lot of time and effort into saving the blue-winged parrot and a possum that I cannot pronounce, yet there is not one regard for the hundreds of millions of people in India who are endeavouring to pull themselves out of poverty.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So why did you cut the foreign aid budget?

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know it does not affect you. You can look out of your office and look out of your house down on your mown lawn, but you do not have any regard for these people because you do not understand these economies. Our government tried to give some tax relief. Mind you, those opposite lost sight of the fact that this is the money and the business. They own it and all we wanted to do was to take a bit less. They think it is some sort of tax break that we are gifting them out of the Australian purse. That is not what is happening. We just wanted to take a bit less. We know what they do with it.

I say to those opposite—and I have said this in here before and no-one has ever protested or corrected me—none of you have ever employed anybody. You have never put your hand in your own pocket and pulled out your own money to pay wages or to promote the development of any industry or any business anywhere in my home state—not one of you. When you put your hand in your pocket you have got someone else's money. I tell you now that you are ignorant to what it takes to drive regional economies.

We have had a lot of depression in my home state. We have had a battle because the mob over here decided to knock out the live cattle trade. That absolutely devastated thousands of business enterprises in the middle of a drought, which no-one wants to support. No-one wants to support us to support those people in drought conditions. Here is a serious opportunity for us to develop an area where the impacts on our national interests will be very positive. It will put much into the purse of the nation, so that we can continue to invest in supporting business and regional and provincial communities so that they can employ people.

When they all get a job they can spend their spare time going out to find your wounded possums, strap their legs up, take them home, put them on the teat and try to save them, but until then you have to start to consider supporting this government as we support these industries and as we promote the development of this wonderful state of ours—in my case, the state of Queensland. The invitation stands for all of my Senate colleagues on the other side, including those in the Greens, who I doubt have ever been outside the CBD of Brisbane. Give my office a bell. I will make myself available to take you for a run and to introduce you to some of these people. I cannot guarantee your safety and I cannot guarantee that I will get you home, but the offer stands.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is quite the offer. I am disappointed that we are debating this MPI framed in this way. These are very worrying times for me and for all of us who believe that combating climate change is important. Climate science is under attack here and overseas. Every day seems to bring some fresh story of a conservative attack on the scientific consensus that we need to take climate action. This is a time for progressives to work together to achieve real change, but instead what we have from the Greens is, frankly, pretty petty politics in the form of a divisive MPI.

The simple fact is that we are not going to get meaningful climate action from this government. That much is very clear. The only hope for addressing climate change is to change this government and to point out the folly of their position. Instead of deciding to work with us to make that happen, Greens politicians seem much more interested in spending their time attacking the Labor Party, and in doing so they are betraying millions of Australians who want to see meaningful action on climate change.

Labor's position on the Adani mine is consistent. We do not have a special position on this project. Our position is consistent whether we are talking about projects in the Illawarra, the Pilbara, the Galilee Basin or anywhere else. Every project needs to meet the environmental tests. It needs to comply with relevant environmental protections and have the relevant approvals.

We are not interested in propping up mining projects that are not viable. Projects need to make business sense. There are some indications that this project may not. There is a reason that Westpac are not interested in funding these types of projects, and it is not because there was a single protest at one of their events. They stated that it is a commercial decision based on their assessment of the commercial realities, and that is how it ought to be because it is not a great system to have senators making assessments about the commercial viability of individual projects. That is not a pathway for meaningful climate action, and every single one of the Greens political party people sitting up there on the crossbench know that to be true. The market is far better at doing that.

What we are seeking to do now, and have sought to do for more than a decade, is make sure that the policy settings are right so that the market delivers the kinds of answers we want, by putting a price on carbon. The point that Greens senators from the Greens political party need to understand is that this should not be about a single mine in Queensland. What is needed is a proper policy on climate. What is clear is that that is on offer. It is on offer from this side of the chamber and it is not on offer in any meaningful way from the other side of the chamber, and yet we see all of the focus of the Greens political party directed in this direction.

The government's climate policy does not provide meaningful signals to the market, and we are paying a great price for that. This is largely because—to state the obvious—the government actually do not have a climate policy. The situation is not just embarrassing; it is very dangerous. Last night, we had the Minister for the Environment and Energy admitting that his government is essentially giving up on meeting our commitments under the Paris Agreement to ensure that Australia achieves net zero emissions by 2050. We need action. We need to fulfil our obligations to the international community, and the simple fact is that only a Labor government can deliver this. Whatever hopes Australia may have had for climate action under Prime Minister Turnbull have been well and truly extinguished. There can be little doubt that we will not see meaningful climate action from the coalition.

If we want to change the policy, we need to change government and we need a Labor government. Labor has had a consistent approach to climate for more than a decade. We believe that climate change is a systemic problem and it needs a systemic policy response. We believe that there should be a price on carbon, and it is one of our key policy priorities. If the Greens were serious about delivering climate action, they would work with Labor to bring down this government. Instead, the Greens, under the leadership of Senator Di Natale, seem more interested in attacking Labor. I am growing very tired of the continued cynicism from the Greens political party on climate change. When you watch the position that Greens politicians have taken over the last decade, it is hard sometimes not to suspect that they care more about climate change as a campaign issue than they do about obtaining meaningful action from government on climate policy.

Labor in government will take action on climate. That is what we did last time we were in power, with absolutely no thanks to the Australian Greens. When Labor got elected in 2007, we had an opportunity. There was widespread community support for climate action. The business community had swung behind it, and we sought to make the most of that opportunity. We had Treasury develop policies. We tried to build a wide base of support, support that could endure for meaningful climate action. And that opportunity—let us be very, very clear—was scuttled by the Greens. They voted, in this chamber, against the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Let us be clear about the history. If the Greens had voted for the CPRS, Australia would have had a price on carbon for almost a decade. The Greens political party, through their cynicism, ruined our chance to be first movers on climate, and we will never let them forget it, and the environment certainly will not.

My great worry is that the Greens' political leadership are gearing up to do it again—to play a spoiling role. We are actually having another moment for action on climate in this country because, despite all of the best efforts by the climate deniers, there is a convergence of business, scientific and public opinion in support of an emissions intensity scheme.

Senator Waters interjecting—

'Where are you?' asks Senator Waters. We could ask exactly the same thing about the Greens on this very question. Experts agree that an EIS is as effective as an ETS in curbing carbon emissions—even Professor Garnaut, who was so instrumental in the design of the CPRS. It has widespread community support from businesses all across different industries and sectors. We have seen BHP, AGL and EnergyAustralia come out in support. The Chief Scientist has come out in support. CSIRO has come out in support. The CEFC supports it. The Climate Change Authority supports it. It even has the support of the National Farmers' Federation and the NSW Young Nationals.

The Greens have had countless opportunities to lend their support to an emissions intensity scheme in public statements, in committee reports and in this chamber, and they have been conspicuously silent. Let us be clear. We want practical action that can gain the support of the widest possible base in the Australian community, and the emissions intensity scheme is the best chance we have to bring that into action, to take meaningful action against climate change in this country. My worry is that, when the time comes, Greens politicians are going to refuse to back an EIS for political reasons, just like they did back in 2009. I am worried that Senator Di Natale and the others in the Greens' leadership group are going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good once again and scuttle growing consensus on climate action. I am worried that the campaign team—because it is all about the campaign—may think that their chances at the next election are better if they can show policy difference with Labor, even if it comes at the cost of meaningful and effective climate policy, even if it means standing alongside Labor against a government that is plainly unwilling to take any action. I am worried that the Greens care more about attacking Labor than they do about critiquing a government that is populated by people who, on a daily basis, deny the science of climate change, a government so desperate to divert attention from their own failures in energy policy that they are willing to take lumps of coal into the chamber in the other place. The problem is we need an effective climate policy to drive long-term change, and that can only come from a Labor government.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia is at a crossroads. We have an opportunity to be smart, to be making wise choices, to be heading for a clean, green, prosperous future, but this government is leading us down the wrong path. Instead of saying 'yes' to clean, renewable energy, the Turnbull government is sticking with dirty, polluting coal. Instead of planning for a transition to long-term jobs that assure regional communities a future—the regional communities across the country, including in Queensland—this government is sticking with a dying business model that is leaving people high and dry. Instead of protecting our precious Great Barrier Reef, the Turnbull government is choosing to destroy this precious natural wonder. And, instead of taking note of the structural decline of coal worldwide, this government is backing a losing industry.

Coal is in decline. It is an industry from last century and the century before. We need to usher it out gracefully, plan the transition and look after the workers that are currently working in the coal industry, instead of propping it up. Instead of doing this, instead of listening to local groups across Australia, who are hitting the streets and who are talking to their MPs, this government is only bending to the vested interests. What a diabolical path to lead us all down. What is more, this government's support for the Adani coalmine is being backed by Labor. For all of the talk of Senator McAllister about being concerned about climate, we know the Adani mine is the biggest issue on the Australian agenda, in terms of tackling climate change, that we face. This mega coalmine, which is being pushed by Labor and defended by Labor, as it was just then—a Queensland Labor plan, backed by the Turnbull government—is a certain road to disaster. It is going to spew out 4.6 billion tonnes of carbon and absolutely wipe out any carbon reductions that Australia would otherwise make. As Senator Roberts told us, it is the key to unlocking global climate catastrophe because of the number of other mines that opening this mine would then make possible.

I really want to pay tribute to the many hardworking campaigners who are rallying huge support behind the Stop Adani campaign, and, in particular, I pay tribute to the young people who are taking action and are standing up for a safe, clean future when the government is so badly steering us on a dangerous path. People are coming together and are saying no to a dirty, coal fired future. Australians want a future society and economy that is based on renewable energy. I hear from people across Victoria and across the country that they understand that their kids' and grandkids' future is severely compromised if we leave them a damaged and desperate world that is destroyed by a legacy of polluting, climate-wrecking coal, not to mention the financial legacy of handing over $1 billion to prop up the mine. What a travesty. This is our money. We need to spend it on infrastructure that is going to take us towards a zero-carbon future, not take us in the completely opposite direction.

I spend a lot of time in my place arguing for people to be put back into the infrastructure planning processes. This whole debacle exemplifies the problem where big private companies' interests are put before people. The government has absolutely no time for anyone or anything but its billionaire coal mates. There is the proposed funding for a rail line for Adani while the government is simultaneously ignoring the neglected and failing public transport networks in our cities and towns.

Labor needs to take a stand on this. Labor needs to rule out supporting this mine. We are you, Bill Shorten? Who do you stand with? Senator Chisholm and Senator McAllister, does Labor stand for jobs that do not kill workers via black lung and industries that do not kill the reef? Does Labor stand for clean groundwater for Queensland? Labor needs to rule out supporting this mine. There is so much at stake—too much at stake—for the old parties to be blindly stumbling ahead, backing the vested interests.

David Leyonhjelm (NSW, Liberal Democratic Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for consideration of the matter of public importance has expired.