Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Mining and Energy Division secretary Gary Wood condemned comments made by Dr Thomas, claiming he should not comment on coal matters without doing sufficient research.

Mr Wood was referring to a story in a recent edition of the Collie Mail, in which Dr Thomas criticised the Federal Government’s 1.8 percent allocation of funding to Western Australia from the National Clean Coal Fund.

“It is ridiculous of Dr Thomas to link Western Australia’s allocation from the National Clean Coal Fund to our population, when he should be looking at coal production,” Mr Wood said.

“Western Australia has a very healthy coal mining industry but, of the 405 million tonnes of raw black coal produced in 2006 in Australia, Western Australia produced only 6.8 tonnes, or 1.7 percent.

“In the same year, Queensland produced 227 million tonnes, while New South Wales produced 167 million tonnes, which is 97 percent of Australia’s production between those two states.”

Mr Wood said for Dr Thomas to make comparisons between the State’s funding and their relative populations was ridiculous, and showed his shallow understanding of national coal production.

He said in allocating 1.8 percent of the National Clean Coal Fund, the Rudd Labor Government was actually giving WA a slightly greater share than its coal production would warrant.

However Dr Thomas said he had researched the subject very well.

He said Western Australia produced five percent of the national total of coal, but was still only receiving under two percent of the Federal funding.

“Power stations need to be funded,” he said.

“We need the money in place to make sure these stations are ready for carbon capture.

“According to the figures, we should be getting about two and a half times more funding than what we have got now, and there has been no indication to me that the Federal Government will put any more money into WA.”