Health and Welfare Rely on New Mines for Funding: Australian Deputy PM

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia Barnaby Joyce at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 29, 2022. Martin Ollman/Getty Images

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has reminded voters not to forget where funding for health and welfare comes from when they drop their votes on the ballot box on May 21.

Whichever party wins the upcoming federal election can determine the prospect of at least three coal mines in Queensland.

Election campaigns in many electorates have revolved around renewable energy and discontinuing fossil fuel use as a new wave of independent candidates is targeting Coalition MPs with calls for more decisive action on carbon emissions reduction.

The Green party also wants to win some new Senate seats by promoting more environmental policies with ambitious goals.

Expressing his support for more coal development, the deputy prime minister said a coalition government would invest in things that generate revenue for the economy.

“Medicare and social security have to be paid for,” he told the Seven Network on April 18.

“We are the side that is brave enough to say that we make it from iron and coal and gas. And if we lose sight of that, we’re not making the money that can support all of the vital economic and social infrastructure so important to this nation.”

This picture shows a conveyor bridge dumping soil and sand removed at another area of a coal mine in the town of Singleton, in Newcastle, Australia, on Nov. 5, 2021. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek said her party was willing to have a debate on economic management with the Coalition.

“This is a government that actually doubled the debt before COVID-19 hit,” she said.

“The Morrison government and the Howard government are the two highest taxing governments in the last 30 years.”

In addition, she said the Coalition government had acknowledged that it intentionally kept wages at low levels while managing the economy.

“We want to lift that (cost of living) burden to make sure that they have good jobs and a pay rise and cheaper childcare and cheaper healthcare and an easier life,” Plibersek said.

At the same time, the Green party leader Adam Bandt said that a critical test for the incoming government would be how to deal with three new coal mines in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

“If you open new coal mines, you’re not serious about climate,” he said.

In a related development, when speaking with reporter Andrea Crothers from Sky News recently, Joyce emphasised that the threat from China was a more significant issue to Australia than the net-zero debate.

He also said that investing in projects that would grow the economy was important to the country’s national security.

“The difference is here making sure you get the investment and the infrastructure so that you have the capacity to extract more wealth, grow more wealth, develop more wealth, manufacture more wealth because we need it,” he said, as reported by Sky News on April 15.

Meanwhile, the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which provides independent updated information on the economy and budget for the public to review before the election day, will be published by the Treasury in the week commencing April 18.