Via The Guardian:
Anthony Albanese will use his first day as opposition leader to travel to Queensland, pledging to reconnect with voters who turned away from the party and position Labor for victory in three years’ time.
The first-order visit to Queensland comes as the party’s likely new deputy, Richard Marles, admitted he was “tone deaf” to the concerns of coal workers in the state after he suggested the demise of the industry was positive for the country.
Albanese, who was confirmed as leader uncontested on Monday, will visit the seat of Longman, north of Brisbane, where Labor suffered a 4.1% swing against incumbent Susan Lamb.
It was one of a swathe of seats in the state that saw huge swings against Labor, leaving the party holding just six of Queensland’s 30 electorates.
Albanese, who was coy when asked about his position on the divisive Adani coalmine, said that he would travel to the state to hear directly from voters about their concerns.
“One of the things I will be doing … is visiting Queensland, to talk to people about some of the issues that might arise there,” he said. “I intend also to listen, not just talk.
“The old saying, and I quoted it the other day – ‘I think that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason’ – is a philosophy that I intend to put in place. We should listen more than we talk and it’s up to a leader to listen to all those people around them.”
But when asked if he supported the Adani coalmine – a key economic priority for people in central and northern Queensland that was seen as a crucial election issue – Albanese equivocated.
Clive Palmer isn’t equivocating:
Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal is trying to piggyback on Adani’s fast-tracked path into the Galilee Basin, claiming to have lobbied the Queensland government for intervention to progress its massive coal mine proposal as well.
The businessman appears to have seized on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s about-face on Adani’s Galilee Basin coal project last week, with Waratah Coal saying it had contacted Ms Palaszczuk and the government to press for action.
“The company has been communicating with the Premier and the Queensland government for their assistance to progress the Galilee Coal Project,” a Waratah Coal spokesman said.
Not equivocating at all:
Queensland mining billionaire and political tragic Clive Palmer has a clear message for Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – watch your back.
Fresh from the federal election campaign where Mr Palmer’s $60 million advertising spree helped bring down Bill Shorten and keep Scott Morrison in the nation’s top job, the mining magnate now has his sights turned on Ms Palaszczuk and her Labor state government.
“Palaszczuk should be shaking in her shoes,” Mr Palmer said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review.
This won’t work. You can’t out-coal and the COALition. And the party just looks like a flip-flopping hack. It hasn’t even taken the time to quietly assess and alter its platform. Via The Australian:
New Labor leader Anthony Albanese has questioned the “economics” of opening up the Galilee Basin to coalmining and refused to publicly support Adani’s $2 billion Carmichael mine, ahead of his visit to Queensland today to win back blue-collar workers.
The inner-Sydney left-wing powerbroker, who previously called into question the future of thermal coal and the feasibility of the Adani project, is facing internal pressure to further distance Labor from the coal industry.
Asked yesterday whether he supported the Adani coalmine, Mr Albanese, who will today visit the northern Brisbane electorate of Longman which Labor lost to the Coalition, said he would “respect the process” but did not endorse jobs for central Queensland.
You have to set out your own agenda to brings the Quexiteers back in. They didn’t want the Coalition, they voted for change but it got anyway it via preferences. What they voted for were nationalist parties:
- socially conservative;
- skeptical of climate science;
- anti-immigration;
- anti-globalisation;
- biased towards ‘aged battlers’ over ‘young bludgers’.
The ALP needs a lot more than just Albo’s QLD junket.
