GREENS MLC Abigail Boyd clashed repeatedly with Treasurer Dominic Perrottet yesterday as she criticised the government for ignoring a massive and looming clean-up bill once the state's coal-fired power stations were shut down.
Ms Boyd and One Nation MP Mark Latham were the dominant questioners in a session of Budget Estimates that was expected to focus on port privatisations, but did not.
Instead, it was power stations and the coal industry that dominated proceedings, as Ms Boyd asked what money had been set aside to rehabilitate the hundreds of hectares of unlined pits full of toxic ash and other contaminants including asbestos that were the legacies of the Lake Macquarie and Hunter Valley power stations.
Treasury officials said the state was liable for most of the costs because it owned the stations before they were privatised. Ms Boyd criticised the government for documents that referred to clean-ups only to "minimum legal standards" rather the world's best practice used in the US and elsewhere.
Mr Perrottet said the Coalition was a strong supporter of renewable power but energy security was a basic government obligation that needed base-load power from coal.
He repeatedly professed his support for the coal industry as the only practical means of keeping the lights on in a state where renewables were not yet capable of round-the-clock supply and most of the land was unsuitable for hydro power.
Noting that nuclear power was blocked by law in Australia, he called for it to be "reassessed".
He endorsed the Narrabri gas project as capable of supplying half the state's gas needs but acknowledged a need to "balance" its environmental concerns.
Asked about projections from coal royalties, Mr Perrottet said they were generating about $2 billion a year and "staying pretty solid" for the next four years, providing funds to pay for more "teachers and nurses".
The treasurer questioned Ms Boyd on Greens policy, which she said was to phase out coal by 2030. When Mr Perrottet said "that's only 11 years away" she said "that reflects the urgency".
Treasury officers were probed on what they knew about the sudden shut-down of Myuna Bay sport and recreation centre, but took most of the questions on notice.
