Adam Bandt says Australia must quit coal and take advantage of ‘enormous opportunities’ in critical minerals and green metals
The Greens have proposed a $19bn plan to diversify fossil fuel-reliant towns and subsidise the wages of coal workers who transition into new jobs, saying employees can stay in mining but should seek employment in critical minerals or green metals.
Workers would get a decade or more support under the plan, with the Greens’ idea seeing the government pay half the wage of their new job in “non-polluting industries” outside the coal, oil and gas sectors. The focus on transitioning mining towns into new industries comes as the Greens stress their belief that “coal workers haven’t caused the climate crisis”, three years after former party leader Bob Brown’s anti-Adani convoy through Queensland was partly blamed by some for a cratering of the progressive vote in that state.
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