Greens coal mines ban buried

THE Greens have slammed the major parties after their bid to have Parliament ban new coal mines in Tasmania was defeated.

Labor yesterday voted with the Government to pass amendments to the Greens’ motion put forward by Resources Minister Guy Barnett.

The Greens had introduced a six-point motion that called for a prohibition on new thermal coal mines in the state.

It also asked Parliament to acknowledge thermal coal combustion was a driver of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and that burning fossil fuels must end to limit warming and prevent climate breakdown.

Mr Barnett labelled the motion “unacceptable” and tabled his own four-point amendment that said the Government does not support mining developments on productive agricultural land.

The amendment also vowed to support existing coal mining operations in Tasmania, and clarified that the Government had not granted, or been asked to grant, any coal mining leases in the Southern Midlands.

The Greens’ action came after a grant of up to $50,000 was awarded to Perth-based company Midland Energy under the Exploration Drilling Grant Initiative.

The land in question is at Woodbury and Jericho.

Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff condemned the stance of the Liberal and Labor parties.

“It’s incredible given everything we know about the state of climate breakdown that we can countenance mining new thermal coal in Tasmania,’’ she said.

“It is really ludicrous and impossible to understand why the Liberal and Labor parties don’t stand with Tasmanians for their future.”

Dr Woodruff said there was “nothing of substance” in the Government amendment.

“There is no way you can possibly put a tiny number of jobs in the future that could be created from mining thermal coal up against the whole of Tasmania’s future,’’ she said.

Speaking to his amendment, Mr Barnett said mining and mineral processing supported more than 5700 jobs across Tasmania.