Now is the time for new coal plants, resources minister says.

The resources minister, Matt Canavan, has declared “now” is the right time to build new coal-fired power, as the prime minister insisted his pre-election priorities were securing passage of budget bills and helping north Queensland recover from the recent floods.

 Matt Canavan: ‘The best time to start building a coal-fired
power station was 10 years ago, the second best is now.’

The comments from Canavan and Scott Morrison follow a new push from Queensland Nationals for “immediate” government action to underwrite new power station construction in regional Queensland, and a separate demand the government pass the “big stick” energy package in the final sitting week of the 45th parliament.

Canavan backed the intervention from his Queensland colleagues, which was targeted primarily at their own party leader, Michael McCormack, although he left the timing of the passage of the “big stick” legislation “to the wiser people in the House of Representatives”.

Read the story from The Guardian by Katharine Murphy - “Now is the time for new coal plants, resources minister says.”

(Delusion manifests itself on many forms and sometimes disguises it identity as madness - Robert McLean)