During Question time on Wednesday 13 October 2021, I asked the Deputy Premier Steven Miles whether he will use his legal powers as Planning Minister to call in and stop Clive Palmer's proposed new coal-fired power station in Central Queensland.
You can read the full question and his answer below, or in the official Queensland Parliament Record of Proceedings (Hansard).
Mr BERKMAN: My question is to the Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning. As environment minister, the Deputy Premier oversaw approval of Adani’s Carmichael coalmine while the then deputy premier and planning minister called in a bad development in her own electorate. Instead of just pretending it will never be built, will the deputy premier get off the fence and call in Clive Palmer’s proposed coal-fired power station?
Dr MILES: I thank the member for Maiwar for his question, although I must say that in a week in which this government has stood up every day and talked about how we are embracing a clean energy future, how we are delivering the projects that will create jobs and deliver zero net emissions by 2050, the Greens are yet again determined to fall for Clive Palmer’s trap, determined to be distracted by his stunt for the sake of their own political differentiation with no regard whatsoever for the ultimate policy outcome, with no regard whatsoever for our efforts to deliver a better negotiating platform from Australia at the COP.
The ultimate outcome in terms of reducing emissions will not be affected by any of Clive Palmer’s projects—not the Titanic that he will not build, not the dinosaur park that he will not build and not this proposal which is simply designed to distract the environment movement into another culture war. That is a culture war that wins votes for those two up there, but it does nothing for our state, it does nothing for our environment, it does nothing to deliver action on climate change and it does nothing to bring Queenslanders with us and secure their support for the kind of ambitious climate action that we support and that we think will deliver jobs here in Queensland.
Instead of coming in here and trying to make sure they are sufficiently differentiated to get their inner-city votes, they should come in here and ask questions about how we are going to build hydrogen electrolysers in Gladstone. They should ask about how we are delivering the solar and the wind farm projects that will create jobs in local industries and that will convert electricity that we can use here and export to our trading partners who need it. From the performance of the member for Maiwar, it is clear that the only party in this place that will deliver real emissions reduction is the Australian Labor Party.