A left-leaning protest has hypocritically used vehicles powered by fossil fuels to oppose a $21 billion mega mine in Central Queensland, an industry body has said.
The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) claims the Stop Adani convoy, led by former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown on April 22, used vehicles that rely on coal to ask the State Government to intervene in India-headquartered Adani Australia’s Carmichael Coal Project.
“The Bob Brown anti-job convoy had already demonstrated hypocrisy with the vehicles dependent on steel made from metallurgical coal and electric vehicles, powered by thermal coal generated through Queensland Government-owned efficient generators,” the QRC said in a public statement.
QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the protestors fail to acknowledge the federal budget’s finding for 2019-20 that the rising price of coal and other commodities helped bring the nation’s first $7.1 billion surplus since the year 2007.
“As Mr Brown rallies against jobs in Brisbane, the economic contribution of the resources sector to both the capital region and regional economies is very significant,” Macfarlane said.
CFMEU Mining and Energy Queensland district president Stephen Smyth demanded that Brown apologises on behalf of his supporters who suggested coal mine workers were like “Nazis working in gas chambers during the Holocaust”.
“Bob Brown is stirring up hysteria and these claims that jobs in Queensland coal mines are like Nazi gas chambers in World War Two are the bottom of the barrel,” he said. “On behalf of those men and women working in our coal industry, Bob Brown should apologise for the attack on them by his supporters.”
QRC described the protest’s Holocaust remarks as a “shocking attack on hard-working Queenslanders and their families”.
“I cannot think of a more offensive comment for one Australian to call another,” Macfarlane said. “Bob Brown needs to repudiate this rubbish. Brown needs to stick to the facts and drop the disgusting attacks.”
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