During Estimates hearings on Tuesday 23 July 2024, I asked the Premier whether he's advocated to stop or limit new coal and gas approvals in Queensland.
You can read my question and his full response below, or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings (Hansard) here.
Mr BERKMAN: Premier, since coming to power Queensland Labor, as I understand, has approved 38 new coalmines and opened up thousands of new gas wells. Given your commitment upon becoming Premier to take action on climate change, what changes have you advocated for as Premier in relation to the approval of new coalmines and gas projects? I want to preface this again by saying that this is not a question about renewables or about domestic emissions reduction targets; it is specifically about the approval of new coal and gas projects in Queensland.
CHAIR: I thank the member for Maiwar for his guidance on conditioning what I will or will not allow the answer to be. Eliminating any answer that makes reference to renewables will be difficult for the Premier, and it is within my purview to determine whether he is answering your question.
Mr MILES: Chair, I thank you for your ruling and the member for Maiwar in his attempt to limit the scope of the answer. It goes, really, to the heart of the difference between our approaches to addressing climate change and reducing emissions. We have long advocated for demand-side measures, and that is precisely what our renewable energy and jobs plan is. It will reduce emissions by reducing the amount of fossil fuels used in our energy network gradually over time in an orderly way, ensuring our households, industry and businesses can continue to have reliable power supply. I have not just advocated that since I became Premier; that has been a long and strongly held belief of mine. One of my first commitments and a clear and ongoing focus is achieving those emissions reduction targets by managing demand in the energy system as well as across other sectors, and the member would be aware that we have significant planning work underway on how to reduce non-energy emissions.
Mr BERKMAN: Specifically in respect of the approval of new coalmines and gas projects, what changes have you advocated for as Premier?
Mr MILES: As I have again indicated, the primary mechanisms through which we aim to achieve our renewable energy targets and our emissions reduction targets are on the demand side. We will continue to advocate for those kinds of measures. Meanwhile, we do have world-leading environmental impact assessments for those projects. Not only are they amongst the safest places to work—there are similar places to work in the world—but also they have strict financial assurance and rehabilitation measures, which I am very pleased to have worked on in my time as environment minister and to have seen them successfully adopted since then. We have made significant reforms there.
In the resources sector itself, there will be a resources sector plan to achieve emissions reductions there, and I expect that will go to things like fugitive emissions, particularly in the open-cut contexts. I met with the Queensland Resources Council just last week to discuss their efforts there, as well as electrification of on-mine-site plant and freight operations. They are the low-hanging fruit in reducing the greenhouse gas impacts of those operations.