Senator Roberts said he chose the wording for Tuesday's motion to remind voters that the National Party had made the same call in last month's Manufacturing 2035 policy, produced by party back-benchers.

"Voters need to look closely at the hypocrisy of the Nationals' message; at a federal level there is a sudden spruiking for coal, but at a state level the Nationals continue to pursue closing Liddell coal power plant in 2023," Senator Roberts said afterwards.

The motion was lost 45 votes to two, with Tasmanian Liberal Jonathan Duniam and Mehreen Faruqi of the Greens the only senators to speak.

With one minute allotted for her contribution, Senator Faruqi opened by saying: "The Hunter Valley needs a new coal-fired power station like it needs a hole in the head.

"I have spent a lot of time in the Hunter Valley, and the people there know that coal has no future.

"The irrational exuberance of Pauline Hanson's One Nation and the Coalition to keep pushing coal is criminal."

The National Party continued to push its Manufacturing 2035 policy this week, with the party's Senate leader, Bridget McKenzie saying "opponents need to put aside the fear-mongering and political point scoring and embrace a positive low emissions future".

NSW Nationals Senator Perin Davey said: "Using our world's-best and cleanest thermal coal to power Australian manufacturing makes sense and that coal comes from the Hunter."

As the Newcastle Herald recently reported, voters in Joel Fitzgibbon's electorate of Hunter have been rung by automated polling firms seeking opinions on various aspects of Labor's political performance, but especially on coal and climate change.

The veteran Labor MP moved to the back bench late last year and says he welcomes a "more sensible" approach to policy after leader Anthony Albanese replaced longtime climate change spokesperson Mark Butler, in a reshuffle of his shadow ministry last week.

Mr Fitzgibbon was questioned on Sky News on Monday night by broadcaster Alan Jones, who pushed the nine-times-elected Labor MP on his party's climate change policies.

After saying "Labor had developed an obsession with climate change", Mr Fitzgibbon went on to say that governments could also lose power through not doing enough about it, as shown by Prime Minister Scott Morrison's statements this week guiding the Coalition towards a zero net emissions target.

Mr Fitzgibbon's One Nation challenger, Stuart Bonds, was in Sky's Sydney studio, and the two traded accusations over the next few minutes, with Mr Fitzgibbon deriding the Hunter coalminer as "a one-issue candidate".

Mr Bonds said that despite Mr Fitzgibbon's support for coal, he did not control ALP policy.

"Unfortunately, it's not Joel Fitzgibbon's Labor Party, it's Anthony Albanese's Labor Party," Mr Bonds said.

"They've said time and time again that Joel Fitzgibbon does not represent the view of the broader Labor Party".

Mr Jones criticised the ALP for preferencing the Greens ahead of One Nation, saying they were influencing Labor policy.

In an exchange at the end of the interview, Mr Fitzgibbon defended Labor's stance, saying: "No one's climate change policy is going to impact on the coalmining industry."

Mr Bonds looked stunned, while Mr Jones said: "That's nonsense, Joel."

In the Senate on Tuesday, Senator Roberts spoke to a motion from Greens Senator Senator Janet Rice - lost 33 votes to 31 - that called on the government to commit to 2030 climate targets.

As he did in Cessnock last month when supporting Mr Bonds, Senator Roberts described the "climate change agenda" as "pseudo-science" aimed at introducing "an economic and social agenda that Australians would otherwise reject".

In the same debate, Liberal patron senator for the Hunter Hollie Hughes said that as well as producing "some of the highest-quality coal in the world", the Hunter was "a hotbed of energy innovation", listing developments including a $28-million lithium-ion battery factory planned for Tomago, and the region's "hydrogen hub" tender, as examples of the region's progress.

"We remain committed to any technology that promises energy reliability and affordable comfort for all Australians," Senator Hughes said.

Senator Hughes listed a series of renewables benchmarks - including 7000 megawatts of renewable generating capacity installed in Australia last year, which gave Australia "the highest amount of solar PV capacity installed per person in the world" and "the most wind and solar per person of any country outside of Europe".

Mr Fitzgibbon named a similar list of achievements to say that despite criticisms from the left, Australia was getting on with the job of diversifying energy sources.

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