Carbon tax threatens thousands of coal jobs in NSW and Queensland
20/04/11
COAL miners, their unions and their communities in the Hunter and Illawarra regions of NSW, as well as across Queensland, need to get behind industry efforts to force federal Labor to abandon its carbon tax as it poses a grave threat to their futures, Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss urged today.
Overnight, Australian Coal Association (ACA) Chief Executive Ralph Hillman warned that if Labor uses fugitive emissions from coal mining as a means of reaching its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 5% come 2020 “the only way you are going to do that is by closing mines”.
“Mr Hillman’s concerns are well founded,” Mr Truss said. “Targeting all aspects of the coal supply chain is a key element of the Labor/Greens push for reducing Australia’s carbon emissions.
“Labor’s climate change guru Professor Ross Garnaut has highlighted the fact that almost half of Australia’s emissions growth to 2020 will come from greenhouse gases that escape during mining operations, especially for coal and gas.
“The Prime Minister habitually and deliberately refers to coal as ‘dirty’ and demonises Australian industry generally – not recognising it as a major employer and generator of societal wealth – but as ‘the big polluters’.
“The Greens would ban any new coal mines, any expansion of existing coal mines, new coal-fired power stations, and even any public assistance for the refurbishment of existing coal-fired power stations to make them cleaner.
“Make no mistake, Labor and the Greens are out to destroy every aspect of Australia’s coal industry, as quickly as they can.”
Mr Truss said an ACIL Tasman report for the ACA in 2009 identified 16 coal mines that would be forced to close prematurely, with job losses exceeding 9,000, because of the Rudd era’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, upon which the new carbon tax is modelled.
The closures would inevitably be in the coal fields of the Illawarra and Hunter, as well as across Queensland.
“The economics of many coal mines are even tougher today because of the high dollar and the surge in competing supply sources for the mainly Asian market, especially China,” Mr Truss added.
“Even more mines could be adversely affected than those highlighted two years ago. So miners, their unions and their communities need to understand they are now in a desperate, last ditch battle for their very livelihoods. They need to make their voices heard.”