Senator Bob Brown wants to kill off 20,000 Queensland jobs, exports worth $24 billion and the lifeblood of countless towns and ports.
Greens' Senator Bob Brown is calling for the death of Queensland's $24 billion coal industry and thousands of jobs, demanding an end to all coal exports within three years.
The Tasmanian senator's proposal — which comes amid growing debate about the cost of climate change— would cripple the Queensland economy, and put an end to Australia's single largest export industry.
"We are exporting to the rest of the world what is effectively a deadly threat to the whole planet and our children," he said yesterday.
Federal Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said Senator Brown had "lost the plot", warning Australia would become an industrial backwater under such an unrealistic plan.
"Ordinary Australians realise we have to clean up coal but what he is presenting only frightens people," Mr Macfarlane said.
The plan also has the potential to cost the Greens votes at the next federal election.