Tony Maher says there is no point in winning the Melbourne seat of Batman while losing seats in central Queensland

The mining union says there is no need for Labor to toughen its stance on the controversial Adani coalmine, warning there is no point in winning the Melbourne seat of Batman while losing seats in central Queensland.

The CFMEU’s national president, Tony Maher, told Guardian Australia if federal Labor took the hardline stance against the Adani coal project it was currently telegraphing, promising to stop the mine if it won the next election, then “what do you do with the next [coalmine], and the next one, and the one after that?”

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“I see no reason for Labor to toughen its position,” Maher said in an interview. “Why win Batman and lose in central Queensland?

“The environment groups have worked themselves up into a passion about it. I don’t know why. Adani is just another project and it should be judged on its merits.”

The union leader expressed scepticism about whether the Adani project would ultimately proceed but he said if it did, the union would seek to make an agreement with the company.

Maher said he believed it was possible for the mine to be opened up and the world to meet the pollution reduction targets set at the Paris climate conference.

The negative comments from a significant internal stakeholder come as Labor in Canberra is continuing to deliberate on its Adani stance, mulling potential legal options it could take to stop the project.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tony Maher says ‘Adani is just another project and it should be judged on its merits. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

While the ALP federally has been weighing up Adani for some months, Labor leader Bill Shorten’s recent signal that Labor was considering adopting a more hardline position coincided with a decision by David Feeney to resign from parliament because he could not demonstrate that he wasn’t a dual citizen – triggering a byelection in his Melbourne electorate of Batman.

Adani is a hot-button issue in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, where the Greens have been running a ground campaign against Labor’s initial support for Adani for months. Labor strategists are pessimistic about holding Batman in a head-to-head contest with the Greens.

While adopting a stance of public opposition to the Adani project could neutralise progressive activist campaigns on the ground in the crucial byelection, Maher’s argument is that position will trigger a broader debate in the Labor party and the labour movement about the future of coal.

With a national conference due in the middle of the year, the CFMEU will resist Labor inching towards a no new coal stance, viewing that position as alienating to the party’s traditional blue collar base.

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One of the options Labor is mulling as a policy response is the insertion of a “climate trigger” in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which could be used to prevent any new coal mines on climate grounds.

Labor is also understood to be working up a regional package designed to reassure voters in Queensland concerned about a loss of economic activity and jobs if Adani doesn’t proceed, which will focus on opportunities beyond coal.

There are a range of internal views about how hard to go against the project. Adani was discussed by the shadow cabinet last Monday and it was thought Labor could make a decision last week, but no final position has yet emerged.