Senator Matt Canavan has labelled the Greens’ anti-coal rhetoric as “denialism” that refuses to accept factual evidence.

“When it comes to the importance and future growth of the Australian coal industry, the Greens are denialists,” Senator Canavan said today. “They simply refuse to accept the economic science recognised worldwide. Demand for Australian coal will continue to grow and it will continue to make a key contribution to the Australian economy.
 
"Indeed, the latest data released this morning by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science confirms the strength of the Australian coal industry, with steady growth in export volumes of both thermal and metallurgical coal predicted over the next five years.” (See “Note 1” below.)
 
Senator Canavan was responding to announcement of a Greens policy that would impose a crippling levy on the coal industry to rehabilitate what they describe as future “abandoned coal mines”.
 
“The Greens want to deny the fact that the latest data demonstrate Australian coal production has grown strongly in recent years.
 
“For example, Australian coal production was 491.5 million tonnes in 2014, an increase of 4.7% on 2013 production (of 470.9 million tonnes).
 
“Production volumes have been rising steadily over the past decade, with an average annual increase of more than 3 per cent a year.  Total volumes increased from 363.1 million tonnes in 2004 to 491.5 million tonnes in 2014, or an average increase of around 13 million tonnes every year.
 
“Total Australian coal production over the decade was 4.25 billion tonnes. It earned Australia $350 billion in export income and was vital to the economy, communities and jobs in rural as well as metropolitan Australia.
 
“The Greens demonstrate ignorance and apathy – they don’t know and they don’t care – about how important mining in general and coal mining in particular is to our nation. It’s time they stopped denying the facts about coal.”
 
Note 1: Go to http://www.industry.gov.au/Office-of-the-Chief-Economist/Publications/Documents/req/Resource-and-Energy-Quarterly-September-2015.pdf
“resources and Energy Quarterly”, pages  43 and 55.
 
Note 2: Detailed figures are presented in the PDF available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e3v2belkexftue8/Document1.pdf?dl=0. (Production and value figures in the media release above are for the last decade; figures in the attachment span 11 years.)