The federal Australian Greens Party MP Adam Bandt has labelled the conservative Liberal-National premier, Ted Baillieu, an “environmental vandal” for looking to expand brown coal mining in the southern state of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
Mr Bandt said he was “stunned” to hear the state would potentially expand brown coal mining for both domestic and export use and vowed the Australian Greens would try to block the move federally.
“The premier, Ted Baillieu, is an environmental vandal and must be stopped,” the House of Representative member for Melbourne said in the national capital, Canberra.
“I will be seeking advice as to what can be done federally to stop this environmental madness.”
The state government has confirmed it is seeking expressions of interest for new allocations of coal in a bid to boost jobs and investment in the Latrobe Valley in the state’s east, which sits on more than 30 billion tonnes of brown coal.
“The government believes that brown coal can and should play a key role in our energy future,” Energy Minister Michael O’Brien told the Herald Sun newspaper yesterday.
Mr O’Brien said the government would undertake a market assessment on brown coal demand with China, India and Japan already expressing interest.
“Previously we have not been able to use that resource as effectively as we would have liked because of the high emission content,” he added.
“But everyday there are new technologies being proposed, being developed to use brown coal in a lower emissions way.”
However, Mr Bandt said scientists had made it clear that economies needed to “decarbonise” by mid-century and governments should be supporting clean energy manufacturing industries.
“Meanwhile, Ted Baillieu has got his foot on the accelerator in the other direction,” he said.
“Increasing use of brown coal in Victoria will ultimately be to the state’s economic detriment.”
Mr Bandt said the minority federal Labor government’s carbon price laws, due to start on July 1, meant there was no economic case for creating new coal-fired power stations in Australia.
“The only way that new coal-fired power stations would get up is if they received some form of government subsidy,” he said, adding if the Victorian government looked at doing that the Greens would fight it “very strongly”.
Mr Bandt also noted the federal Labor’s carbon price legislation didn’t cover exports: “and that’s something that will ultimately need to be looked at”.
