EXCLUSIVE: Labor MP born in a proud mining city turns her back on jobs and declares coal has NO FUTURE - and her betrayal of workers shows why climate change is tearing her party apart
A left-wing federal Labor MP representing one of Australia's most influential electorates has declared coal has 'no future' and will be replaced with hydrogen power, adding further fuel to climate change ideological battles within the party
Julie Owens, the member for booming Parramatta in Sydney's west, may have been born in the coal-mining city of Rockhampton, in central Queensland, but she's declared coal will need to be phased out to tackle climate change.
'I can't imagine that at this point in time, we will manage to stabilise the environment without phasing out of a whole range of fossil fuels,' Ms Owens told Daily Mail Australia.
'I'm not putting a decade on it and now you've really got me talking into stuff that I'm not supposed to talk about.'
Her comments show just how tangled the Labor Party's energy debate has become as it tries to win back middle-class and working Australians who are not obsessed with global warming.
Owens's sensational comments were made after Joel Fitzgibbon's decision to quit the front bench in protest at Labor's coal mining policies - even telling Daily Mail Australia he would challenge Anthony Albanese for the leadership if he didn't change direction on climate change.
Then this week, Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt - from the same left-wing faction of the party as Owens - argued coal would continue to be part of Australia's energy mix, even as renewables became more prevalent.
A federal Labor MP has declared coal has no future and can be replaced with a little-known new form of energy. Julie Owens, the member for Parramatta in Sydney's west, was born in the coal-mining city of Rockhampton in central Queensland
Owens, a 62-year-old former music industry executive and shadow assistant minister, said hydrogen energy had the potential to replace thermal coal, which is used for cheap, base-load electricity generation.
What is hydrogen energy?
Hydrogen is a common chemical and makes up 90 per cent of atoms, the smallest building blocks of a chemical element
Hydrogen is made up of one proton and one electron
Electricity can be produced by combining hydrogen with oxygen
The hydrogen energy can be stored as a gas and even delivered through existing natural gas pipelines and can complement renewable energy
It can also be converted to a liquid and transported on trucks and in ships
Water is the main by-product and hydrogen energy produces zero emissions
University of New South Wales engineer professor Veena Sahajwalla said hydrogen energy could be more widely used to make steel
Coalition government has pledged $1.9billion over 12 years to research lower-emission technology, including hydrogen energy
'Coal is the easy way to do it. They will find other ways to do it. They will find hydrogen over time,' she said.
'At the moment, it appears that hydrogen is a possibility.
'We've relied on fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial age but what we do know is we can't keep doing what we're currently doing, we can't keep increasing emissions in the atmosphere.
'We have to stabilise emissions.'
Assistant minister Michelle Landry, the Nationals member for the Rockhampton-based seat of Capricornia, said Ms Owens would be poorly received in the city she was born in.
'What I would say to her is perhaps the Labor Party should come up and tell the coal miners of central Queensland,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
'There's tens of thousands of people who have jobs in the coal-mining sector up here in central Queensland and the Australian economy is very reliant on it.'
Ms Landry's central Queensland electorate last year dealt Labor a 14 per cent primary vote swing against it, even though its candidate was a coal miner.
'They'd be very angry about it and that's why they voted against them last federal election,' she said.
'Renewables is great, but it doesn't provide many jobs.'
Australia's mining industry employs 188,500 people with 65,500 them in Queensland.
Landry and fellow federal Queensland Nationals MPs George Christensen, Ken O'Dowd and Senator Matt Canavan this year succeeded in securing a $3.3million feasibility study into building a coal-fired power station at Collinsville in north Queensland.
After iron ore and liquefied natural gas, coal was last year Australia's third biggest export to China, with thermal coal shipments worth $7billion.
Despite her personal connection with a mining community, the Labor backbencher said coal would need to be phased out to tackle climate change. Pictured is a coal loader in Newcastle
Coal exports to South Korea last month increased by $168million or 47 per cent, Australian Bureau of Statistics international merchandise trade data showed.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor said coal had a future and would be part of Australia's national electricity market for decades to come, despite the benefits of hydrogen power.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor said coal had a future and would be part of Australia's national electricity market for decades to come, despite the benefits of hydrogen power
'Coal remains an important part of our energy mix,' a spokesman said.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese's Labor Party is divided over how to alleviate climate change with Joel Fitzgibbon this month quitting his frontbench in protest at ambitious renewable energy goals.
The former motor mechanic last year suffered a 14 per cent swing against him, on primary votes, in his coal-mining Hunter electorate, which Labor has held continuously since 1910.
Mr Fitzgibbon this month told Daily Mail Australia he is prepared to 'go to the next step' and challenge the boss if Labor's emphasis didn't change soon.
'I've given him a big warning and another chance and we'll see whether he can grasp that opportunity or if we'll have to go to the next step,' he said.
Asked how long he would give Mr Albanese to turn things around before making his next move, Fitzgibbon said: 'I haven't defined a time, let's see where this take us.'
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten's plan for a 45 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 was also unpopular in regional Queensland mining electorates, with his party also suffering a 12.5 per cent swing against it in the north Queensland seat of Dawson covering the provincial centre of Mackay.
Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt has this week tried to stem the political damage, telling the Developing Northern Australia conference in Rockhampton coal had a future.
Michelle Landry, the Nationals member for the Rockhampton-based seat of Capricornia, said Ms Owens would be poorly received in the city she was born in. She is pictured right with Prime Minister Scott Morrison
'The fact is the north will continue to source much of its power from coal and gas for years to come - and we should treasure every job they create,' Senator Watt said.
Senator Watt, from the party's Left faction, also stressed that Labor supported coal exports.
Ms Owens, a 62-year-old former shadow assistant minister from Labor's Left faction, said hydrogen energy had the potential to replace thermal coal, which is used for electricity generation
'As Labor's leader, Anthony Albanese, has repeatedly said, we should continue exporting commodities like coal, iron ore and other minerals, gas, beef and crops to a world that's hungry for them,' he said.
Owens, however, is lukewarm about the long-term future of even natural gas, arguing hydrogen energy could be used in the process of making metal.
'There are already signs that hydrogen will be able replace it. Again, I'm not the expert in this,' she said.
'Even the ones that use metals, there are now real signs you'll be able to do it with hydrogen.
'There is no doubt that all over the world right now, there are people and countries figuring out how to do it in other ways.'
Albanese is campaigning to win back coal mining electorates but wants Australia to commit to a net zero carbon emissions target by 2050.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese's Labor Party is divided over how to alleviate climate change with Joel Fitzgibbon (pictured with Nine News reporter daugher Grace) this month quitting his frontbench in protest at ambitious renewable energy goals.
US President-elect Joe Biden has promised to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change on his first day in the job in January, which would see the world's biggest economy adopt the same target as the UK, Japan and South Korea.
Owens agreed.
'We have to get it to net zero and we have to do that fairly quickly,' she said.
'Every year we argue about it instead of trying to figure out what the path is, it makes the path more difficult.'
University of Sydney engineering professor Julie Cairney said hydrogen energy could 'potentially replace fossil fuels'.
Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt has this week tried to stem the political damage, telling the Developing Northern Australia conference in Rockhampton coal had a future. He is pictured left with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese
However a paper she co-wrote, that was released in January, found hydrogen could weaken steel, which means it's not yet advanced enough to be used as an energy source in steel production.
University of New South Wales engineering professor Veena Sahajwalla, a recycling pioneer, said hydrogen energy could eventually be more widely used to make steel.
Professor Sahajwalla developed the green steel technology where hydrogen is obtained from waste as an energy source and then used as an input material for manufacturing.
While the federal Coalition government is capitalising on Labor's divisions over coal mining, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg dedicated $1.9billion over 12 years to advance lower-emission technologies, including hydrogen energy.