VIC: Greenhouse gas reduction should not cost jobs: Beattie

AAP General News (Australia)
12-17-1998
VIC: Greenhouse gas reduction should not cost jobs: Beattie

MELBOURNE, Dec 17 AAP - Australia's moves to reduce greenhouse gases in line with
international agreements should not come at the expense of jobs, Queensland Premier Peter
Beattie warned today.

Mr Beattie urged the federal government to take Queensland's current high emissions into
account when setting deadlines for their reduction.

"Queensland has the worst problem in this area and what we have to do is play our
constructive part in it, and we will.

"But we're going to need some common sense from the Commonwealth in how we do this," he
told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) lunch in Melbourne.

"Of course we will cooperate with the Commonwealth, but I've made it clear: not at the
expense of jobs."

Mr Beattie wrote to Prime Minister John Howard setting out his concerns ahead of last
month's release of the National Greenhouse Strategy, developed in line with United Nations
guidelines.

He said part of Queensland's problem lay in its reliance on coal-fired power stations such
as Callide in central Queensland.

One of the reasons the Queensland government was so keen for the proposed Papua New Guinea
natural gas pipeline to go ahead was that it would give many coastal centres cheap, clean
energy for the first time.

"(It's) not just the regional development, not just the jobs, not just the opportunities
but it's natural gas, it's clean, and therefore will help us considerably in playing our
part," he told CEDA.

AAP kmh/er/rap

KEYWORD: GREENHOUSE

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