Senate debates

Thursday, 15 February 2018

Questions without Notice

Mining

2:53 pm

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

You would hope that the industry that supplies thousands of jobs for Australians and that is our second-biggest export industry would have a level of bipartisan support in this place. Unfortunately, the Labor Party, as I said, are on a frolic with the Greens at the moment. They're deserting their base; deserting people like Tony Maher, a union official, who said today:

… what do you do with the next [coalmine], and the next one, and the one after that?

I see no reason for Labor to toughen its position. Why win Batman and lose in central Queensland?

The environment groups have worked themselves up into a passion about it. I don’t know why. Adani is just another project and it should be judged on its merits.

But the Labor Party are disagreeing with their own union officials.

There is still hope, though, because while some in the Labor Party did say a while back:

One count was the Prime Minister suggesting that somehow I did not support clean coal technology—

(Time expired)

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