Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for her question. Of course, mineral resources have a lot of business in the seat of Capricornia. Mineral resources are very important for the seat of Capricornia.

What we also note, first of all, is that we do have a policy to make sure that, in the member's electorate, we keep coal-fired power going and we keep people in those jobs. It's vitally important that we keep over 1,500 people in Gippsland still employed. We want to keep them employed. We want to make sure in the member's electorate we have over 700 people employed in coal-fired power. In the Hunter Valley—I'm sure the member for the Hunter Valley would be interested in this—there are over 650 people. In the electorates of Paterson, Charlton, Shortland and Newcastle, there are over 600. In the Darling Downs there are close to 600. In the seat of Forrest there are 560.

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