Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says there is “a lot of cynicism” about Joel Fitzgibbon among voters in the Upper Hunter now “because he only has started defending and fighting for other people’s jobs when he nearly lost his own job.”
“Before the last federal election he was out talking down coal, saying we’ve got to transition and it’s all going to be over and then he had a come to Jesus moment in a fox hole, nearly lost his job and he converted, he converted to the cause of coal mining,” Mr Canavan said.
“So, you’ve got to ask the question do you want someone who protects your jobs through good times and bad times and all the time, or just only in the times when it suits their own political purposes.”