COMMITTEES

Senator CHISHOLM (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Regional Development, Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Assistant Minister for Resources and Deputy Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (16:39): I seek leave to make a short statement. The PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute. Senator CHISHOLM: The government is opposing this motion.

Negotiations between Origin and Centennial Coal are ongoing. We are watching them closely. But, unlike any other party in this building, we make sure workers at coal-fired power stations and dependent mines receive legally required support from employers at closing facilities through the Energy Industry Jobs Plan, which now covers 106 workers and may cover a thousand workers by next year, and through investment in their communities to deliver new blue-collar jobs—investment that One Nation and their friends in the Nationals and Liberals oppose.

Minister Ayres's office is organising the briefing for Senator Bell. If he has questions, he can ask them now. In its 30-year history, One Nation hasn't delivered so much as a roundabout—not in the Hunter nor anywhere else in the country.

The PRESIDENT: The question is that business of the Senate No. 4, standing in the name of Senator Bell, be agreed to.