Federal minister attracts ridicule after he says state should ‘concentrate on saving jobs today’ instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050

The federal resources minister, Matthew Canavan, has attracted a slew of criticism after attacking the Queensland government for trying to “save the planet in 2050”.

On Tuesday, Queensland announced it would aim to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050. The announcement was far from radical, with identical pledges already made by the Coalition-led New South Wales government, as well as Labor-led Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

But the move attracted the ire of Queensland-based Canavan, who tweeted: “Instead of trying to save the planet in 2050 the QLD labor should just concentrate on saving jobs today!”

Matthew Canavan (@mattjcan) Instead of trying to save the planet in 2050 the QLD labor should just concentrate on saving jobs today!

People on Twitter had a field day.

Many attacked the short-sightedness of Canavan’s suggestion.

Michael Lucy (@MmichaelLlucy) instead of trying to avoid the cliff we're heading for we should just concentrate on going as fast as we possibly can

Jane Saville (@jsaville74) Comments like this epitomise the short-sighted political era we live in! There is #noplanetB

David Caldicott (@ACTINOSProject) Matt, poppet, of the very many dumb things that we regularly hear from you, this really has been one of the dumbest.https://t.co/AJqABlYoxu

Some pointed out the seemingly selective focus of the government’s concern for “intergenerational theft”, which it spoke a lot about when attacking the budget deficit under Labor.

Ariane Wilkinson (@arianewilkinson) Not a big fan of intergenerational equity, are you Minister.

Meanwhile, it was unclear to many on Twitter why taking action on climate change and growing employment today would be seen as mutually exclusive aims.

Malcolm Astle (@Callum_bec) You are captured by a binary mindset. Try doing both by supporting renewables that actually employ more people. Think ... don't just react'

Caitlin Fitzsimmons (@niltiac) But luckily anyone with an understanding of economics knows that's not the choice. Handful of jobs in Adani, tens of thousands on the Reef.

Although Queensland’s announcement was unlikely to have much impact on Adani’s plans to build Australia’s biggest coalmine in the state, many people pointed out that coalmining produced relatively few jobs compared with those threatened by climate change.

John Englart EAM (@takvera) Dear Matthew #Adani will kill as many coal jobs as it creates, not to mention lost tourism jobs #nojobsonadeadplanet https://t.co/bnFl197uVW

Craig Kelly, the Liberal MP who chairs the Coalition’s backbench energy committee, was also criticised after he claimed renewable energy would lead to people dying of cold because it was pushing up energy prices.