Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to Prime Minister Bob Brown's—sorry, I mean Senator Bob Brown's—statement that the coal industry should be phased out and Senator Lee Rhiannon's statement that the coal industry can be closed within a decade. Prime Minister, have you received any represent­ations from the member for Capricornia, the member for Throsby, the member for Cunningham or the member for Hunter seeking a guarantee that no coalmine will close and that no coalminer will lose their job as a result of your carbon tax?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I believe that the coal industry has a bright future in this country—that is, I completely disagree with the outlook and analysis of Senator Bob Brown and others on this question. I believe the coal industry has a bright future in this country. The members named by the member for Paterson represent their electorates well in this parliament and they frequently raise issues with me in relation to their elect­orates—issues about jobs, health, education and meeting the assistance that families need with cost-of-living pressures. But on the coal industry they, like me, understand that this is an industry with a very bright future. It is an important part of our economy and it is an industry that has experienced very solid growth.

I will remind this parliament how strong our coal industry is right now. The spot price of coking coal is over $300 per tonne and it is around $120 per tonne for thermal coal—that is, it has doubled since 2008-09. The industry's gross value added was $22.5 billion. The near-term outlook is strong. Our experts are advising that for coal alone there is an investment pipeline of over $70 billion. Nineteen mine projects are committed or under construction and are expected to add around 60 million tonnes of additional mine capacity per year by the end of 2014, and a further 64 mine projects in the coal pipeline are awaiting approvals. So it is a strong industry with a bright future and with great employment prospects associated with it. The member has asked about the impact of carbon pricing on this industry. The best way I can respond to that is to use the words of James MacKenzie of Gloucester Coal, who talked about the expected impact of a price on carbon. The words of James MacKenzie, who works in the coal industry, are:

We are talking about $1 a tonne in the coal industry. It is not something that is going to affect the economics of the coal industry ...

He also said:

I was in London last week on a road show for Gloucester Coal, so I would have seen 20 institutional investors. There was not one grizzle about the carbon tax. Not one mention of it.

Not one grizzle about the carbon tax; simply not mentioned! I understand that the member who asked this question will be out there trying to spread fear in coal communities but I say to coal communities that they should feel absolutely reassured that this industry has a bright future, that employment will continue to grow. Even those in the coal industry who have been critical of the government's plan, such as Ralph Hillman of the Australian Coal Association, have confirmed that the coal industry will continue to grow and employment prospects will continue to grow in this industry.

There is a bright future for coal with a carbon price. There are a limited number of particularly gassy mines which the government will assist as we work with the coal industry but it would be wrong, irresponsible and not in the national interest for people to try to distort the facts and claim that the coal industry does not have a bright future. It does.