Gladstone coal fired power station will celebrate its 50th birthday next year. The power station was built to power the Boyne Island aluminium smelter.

Thanks to coal we have built one of the greatest industrial cities in Australia at Gladstone.

Aluminium smelting takes a lot of electricity. Some call it solidified electricity. In rough terms, the smelter uses the entire output of the coal fired power station every year.

Coal fired power stations typically last about 50 years. Rio Tinto, the major owner of the Boyne Island smelter, has a contract with the coal power station until 2029, at which time the Gladstone Power Station would be 53 years old.

We have known for some time that a power solution is needed post-2029 to keep the smelter running, and most importantly to keep the more than 1000 people employed there in work.

Rio Tinto said a few years ago that they were “progressing to switch the Boyne Island and Tomago smelters in Australia to renewable energy”.

So Rio has signed contracts to build 204 wind turbines and 2 million solar panels blanketing around 40,000 hectares of Central Queensland, including koala and sugar glider habitats. That environmental footprint is around 40 times the area that the Gladstone coal fired power station uses. But solar and wind are apparently “green”.

We were assured by Rio Tinto’s Chief Executive, Jakob Stausholm, who said that “we have a pathway to provide the competitive, firmed power our Gladstone plants need.”

But if this solar and wind power is “competitive” why did the Prime Minister have to announce that Australian taxpayers must now provide $2 billion to Rio Tinto, and other Australian aluminium smelter owners, just to keep them going.

For 50 years we have used coal to make aluminium without taxpayer subsidies. On the contrary, our aluminium smelters have made money for our nation and have paid taxes helping to fund our public services.

But in our mad rush to net zero we have ended up “transitioning” industries that once produced wealth, to ones that become dependent on the rest of us to pay for. There is nothing renewable about renewable energy because the massive taxpayer subsidies they require are completely unsustainable.

Why are we writing cheques to Rio Tinto, one of the world’s biggest companies, when Australians are suffering just to pay their bills? If Rio Tinto shareholders want to invest in more expensive forms of energy to make themselves look good, they are a big enough company to do this themselves. And, if they no longer want to make aluminium from coal, which never needed a taxpayer subsidy, they can sell the smelter to someone who does.

Life is coming fast for those who signed up to the net zero madness. Last year, BHP had to shut its nickel smelter in Western Australia because Indonesia was undercutting its “green” operations by using coal fired power. The Albanese Government’s response was the same. Announce more taxpayer funding for nickel but even that was not enough to save the once proud Australian nickel industry.

The Albanese Government also promised us hydrogen jobs. Again this was all meant to be funded through large amounts of government cash. But even with this help you do not hear Labor politicians talking about hydrogen much anymore because those jobs have not materialised.

We are learning the hard way that you cannot subsidise yourself to prosperity just as you cannot lift yourself up from your bootstraps. The solution for Australia is to return to the unapologetic use of our natural resources.

The only subsidy our manufacturing industry needs is for government to get off their backs and let them use the natural resources that the lucky country has been blessed with.

Hon Matt Canavan

Senator for QLD