Labor's war of words in the Hunter Valley

Labor MPs Joel Fitzgibbon and Pat Conroy have clashed over climate and coal policy as the Coalition starts its campaign for their seats of Hunter and Shortland which saw a significant swing against Labor at the last election.

Senior Nationals Senators have spent the week campaigning in Mr Fitzgibbon's Hunter electorate with a close contest predicted at the next election.

After suffering a significant swing against him in 2019 Mr Fitzgibbon has become increasingly vocal on issues regarding climate change and coal fired power stations which has put him at odds with Labor colleagues.

However, neighbouring MP for Shortland Pat Conroy argued the policies Labor adopted before the last election would not have impacted on a single coal miners’ job.

“So what Joel is doing is he’s diagnosed a false problem and his solution would have us in permanent opposition," he said.

Mr Fitzgibbon said Mr Conroy’s words “might be confusing” for people trying to work out Labor’s policy platform on climate and coal and “that’s why Pat Conroy should spend more time agreeing with me”.

While Mr Conroy agreed “mixed messages make it hard for people to understand what we’re arguing for,” he claimed “what Joel has put forward is not Labor policy”.

Labor has committed to a net zero emissions target by 2050 and survey results show 84 per cent of Australians want action on climate change.

[alibarber]

Get rid of the job killers..Labor and the Greens
But you can akways retrain for a job that doesnt exist...

[Conky]

Going to handball the entire coal industry to russia and china... while labor goes woke.

[jasonseng]

Im a coal miner and its misery. Its all casual labour hire work now anyway. Go

[BellumCarroll]

Gotta love those political photos, someone's always pointing off into the distance

[marbonifacde]

Can we just get 3rd gen nuclear power and stop having this annoying energy debate, please?

[richardtravers]

Labours only policies are give ME a pay rise I work so hard at least 1 day a month.

[johnwoodrow]

Who would vote for a Labor politician that says "Labor's position on coal wouldn't have impacted on a single coal miners job". Straight up they are showing them-self to be a lair and prepared to say anything. If you want to be 'anti-coal' (Labor's position) then at least be honest about how many long-term unemployed people and economic damage to various regions of Australia you expect this policy to create. Then justify that against the quantifiable benefits you expect to achieve from the exercise. Simple enough.

[okcantbelieveit]

What affect would losing the coal industry impact on the Hunter region? Forget about renewables, not going to happen anytime soon . The lifesaver would be nuclear but that will never happen.

[peterhavord]

Trump should be jailed for making this mess

[bobhawke]

5500 directly employed by the industry are a drop in the bucket when 84% of all Australians want action on climate change.
These overpaid miners will no doubt receive government paid training to transition work on the 4 new hydro dams that are too be built in the next 15 years anyway.