Bob Brown ignoring tax impact: coal chiefs

By Ben Langford
Updated November 6 2012 - 12:19am, first published June 27 2011 - 11:13am

Coal industry groups have accused Greens leader Bob Brown of not understanding what the coal sector means to mining regions, after he said the carbon tax will eventually shut the industry.NSW Minerals Council chief executive Nikki Williams said Senator Brown did not comprehend what it would mean to the thousands in Illawarra mines."He doesn't seem to understand the impact on their families or on the local economy and the thousands of other jobs supported by mining," she said."Compensation for households is only any good if you have a job to pay the bills. Not only does Bob Brown not understand, he doesn't seem to care," Ms Williams added.On Sunday Sen Brown told the ABC TV Insiders program his party did not support carbon tax compensation for coal miners."We're not in favour of compensation to the coal industry, which is largely owned outside this country," he said."Companies like Xstrata ... they employ people in Australia but they line the pockets of millionaires elsewhere in the world."Sen Brown said he did not believe the carbon tax would close coal mines immediately."But that has to be the outcome. The coal industry has to be replaced by renewables," he said.None of the Illawarra's coal mining companies, which employ more than 3000 people, would comment on his statement.Member for Cunningham Sharon Bird said she disagreed with Sen Brown but firmly supported having a carbon price."We are determined to see a future for the coal industry."We want it to become a clean industry in the future and [we'll] work to get a balance," she said.Yesterday Greens deputy leader Christine Milne said the party would not comment directly on coal job losses in the Illawarra, but insisted policy must help people deal with changes."Everybody who reads and understands climate science realises that, over time, any industry which currently contributes to carbon pollution will have to change to clean alternatives," she said."The vast majority of the Australian population want to see us shift to renewable energy as fast as possible and clean up our industry to protect the climate."Ms Milne said the Greens wanted to ensure that other jobs were made available for workers in polluting industries, that skills were matched with new industries and they had access to training.However, Australian Coal Association executive director Ralph Hillman said Sen Brown had "missed the point"."What Australia must do is cut emissions but not at the expense of our economy and Australian jobs," he said.

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