Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Williams for his question. I, too, would like to echo the government's sentiments supporting and thinking about those people facing Cyclone Debbie in North Queensland.

The government is focused on doing everything we can to create jobs and bring down the cost of living for Australians and to improve the environmental sustainability of our energy network. We need cheap sources of power to create jobs. We need cheap sources of power to keep downward pressure on people's electricity bills. Coal remains one of the cheapest forms of power. That is why the government is open to considering new coal-fired power stations around our country.

They are already working in our country, of course. They produce 70 per cent of the electricity on our eastern seaboard and 60 per cent nationally, and they are working right around the world too. Indeed, for the latest coal-fired power technology, ultrasupercritical coal-fired power, which burns coal at higher temperatures and has roughly 20 per cent to 30 per cent lower emissions, there are 123 of these units operating right around the world. And there are just over another 100 in planning for construction or operation very soon as well.

This is working. I was in Japan in the last fortnight at the Isogo ultrasupercritical coal-fired power station. They had virtually no pollution at all. They had no particulate dust matter being emitted to a decimal point of parts per million of air. Their nitrous oxide results were only 0.06 grams per kilowatt hour, and their sulfur oxide was only 0.01 grams per kilowatt hour as well. It is a clean coal-fired power station. It does all of this while reducing its emissions from its previous plant by 17 per cent as well.

What is wrong with clean coal? It creates jobs, it provides reliable power and it cuts emissions as well. It ticks all the boxes. That is why the government is focused on providing power that creates jobs in our economy and brings down prices.