Hunter federal Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon says he is delighted that the Upper Hunter by-election has demonstrated an "almost universal" political commitment to the coal industry.
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Mr Fitzgibbon has intensified his pro-mining campaign in the party since almost losing his seat in 2019.
He argues more aggressive climate change targets will alienate the party's working-class supporters in electorates like Upper Hunter.
Labor has chosen mining union official Jeff Drayton to contest Saturday's vote and has run the by-election campaign comparatively free of concerns about driving progressive inner-city supporters to the Greens.
The Nationals, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers and One Nation have also campaigned in support of the coal industry, which accounts for 64 per cent of gross regional product and 41 per cent of jobs in the electorate's main population centre of Singleton.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, meanwhile, has endorsed independent Kirsty O'Connell's call for a ban on new mines.
Mr Drayton said on Sunday that Labor was "certainly moving back to what people would traditionally expect the Labor party to do".
"Certainly some of the views I have align with Joel's," he said.
NSW Minerals Council boss Stephen Galilee wrote in an opinion piece in Tuesday's Newcastle Herald that it was "misleading" to suggest global demand for Hunter coal was declining.
The Minerals Council predicts that international demand will rise slightly until at least 2040 and that mining communities do not need to transition to other industries.
The Reserve Bank predicts long-term demand will fall as renewable energy becomes more viable.
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Ms O'Connell said mining companies were sending a "pretty clear signal" when "BHP are choosing to produce less coal than they're permitted to, when they're writing 75 per cent off the book value of Mount Arthur".
A briefing paper prepared by the NSW Parliamentary Research Office in January noted that "neither the NSW government nor the Commonwealth government have "introduced a coordinated and detailed plan for managing the regional impacts of an economic transition from coal to clean energy".
A survey commissioned by small investment firm Infrastructure Access Managers (IAM) this month of 630 Upper Hunter voters found 71 per cent, including 64 per cent of Nationals voters and 77 per cent of Labor voters, want the state to prioritise diversification of the economy over approving new mines.
One Nation supporters, at 55 per cent, were by far the most likely to want more mines.
IAM, which has an interest in Newcastle port diversification, said the survey had found 69 per cent of voters, including 62 per cent of Nationals supporters, believed demand for coal would fall or stay the same in the next 10 years.
Mr Fitzgibbon said the Hunter economy was already "more diverse than we've ever been", regardless of debates over coal demand.
"I tire of people pointing to developments in the renewables sector as if they're evidence we are wrong.
"It's simply evidence the economy is changing, but that doesn't mean demand for our thermal and metallurgical coal in Asia is going south any time soon, because it isn't."
He said governments did not need specific transition strategies.
"None of these people who are obsessed with the term transition plan ever nominate a strategy to do things that we are not already doing.
"Are we developing a hydrogen hub? Yes. Do we have large-scale solar projects in the investment pipeline? Yes. Do we have pumped hydro in the pipeline? Yes. Do we have battery storage in the pipeline? Yes. Do we have a gas peaking station in the pipeline? Yes. Do we have the CSIRO Energy Centre working every day? Yes. Do we have the University of Newcastle leading the way in innovation in a whole range of energy areas? Yes.
"What more are they looking for us to do, other than put in place policies that will unnecessarily shorten the life of the coalmining industry?"
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