KEY POINTS:
A battle is on for the hearts, minds and votes of Australia's miners and their families.
The key battleground is Queensland's A$23 billion ($26 billion) minerals and energy sector, which just so happens to be contained in some of the state's most marginal and sought-after federal seats.
Coal is being touted by some political parties, notably the Australian Greens, and the environmental lobby as the number one evil in terms of global warming.
But the Labor Party is in a bind, attempting to balance environmental credentials with the commitment to mining jobs and economic development, particularly in struggling regional areas.
Labor leader Kevin Rudd and environmental spokesman Peter Garrett this week visited the voter battleground of central Queensland, armed with plans for a A$1.5 billion national clean coal initiative.
Rudd argues Australia can have a viable coal industry and address climate change through both the local use and export of clean coal technology.
"The best way we can protect [miners'] jobs into the future is to do everything we can do on the technology front," Rudd says.
But he says Prime Minister John Howard is a "climate change sceptic" and has failed to put significant funds into making coal more environmentally friendly.
Labor says while there is a pool of about A$500 million in federal money available for renewable energy, only about A$150 million is going into clean coal technology.
Howard is banking long-term on the success of a new nuclear power industry which he says is the cleanest and greenest of all energies.
But in the short to medium term the Howard Government is working with industry and scientists on clean coal and renewable energy technology.
A year ago black coal companies committed to a five-year programme to raise up to A$300 million to support the demonstration of clean coal technologies. State governments in Queensland and Victoria have committed almost A$500 million to a range of cleaner energy projects.
But environmentalists say the federal Government's own greenhouse target - which allows the nation to produce levels of emissions 8 per cent above 1990 levels, rather than actually reduce them - immediately puts it behind the eight-ball.
Greens leader Bob Brown is planning his own visit to the central Queensland coalfields next week.
But he is likely to get a cooler welcome than Rudd and Garrett as he sells his message that the coal industry's days are numbered.
The Greens also argue the jobs impact is overstated.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, coalmining employs about 28,000 workers - a drop in the bucket compared with the 300,000 jobs in total created last year.
But Queensland Resources Council chief Michael Roche told a forum this week the minerals and energy industry would not go down without a fight.
In Queensland alone the industry is worth A$23 billion a year, or just over 14 per cent of the state's economy.
Roche said if coalmining was to be phased out it would mean the loss of up to 130,000 jobs, directly and indirectly.
"In Queensland, that's turning off the tap on more than A$2 billion in wages," he says.
- AAP
