Coal mine ban far-fetched, says Bligh

A Greens' proposal to ban new coal mines is far-fetched and would cost thousands of jobs, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says.

Greens deputy leader Christine Milne this week predicted the coal-seam gas industry would be a disaster for Australia and called for a ban on the development of new coal mines.

But Ms Bligh has called the idea radical and extreme.

She said the coal and gas industries fuelled homes and business, and she would continue to approve mines because the state needs them.

"That's why we have to have cleaner versions of coal, that's why we have to have transition fuel like gas and it's why we need to invest in renewables - a sensible balanced solution," she said in Mackay on Thursday.

Ms Bligh said "sensible solutions" were needed to ensure the industries had a future in Queensland.

"Radical, extreme ideas like shutting down a whole industry overnight doesn't help (us get) to a sensible debate," she said.

"... The call by Christine Milne for us to refuse to approve any new mines is not a sensible solution.

"We need to have a balance between this energy source and new energy sources.

"We need to have well-informed, sensible debate.

"We can't just put thousands of people out of work and shut down our electricity system."

Nationals senator leader Barnaby Joyce said the Australian Greens proposal proved the party had some extremely dangerous ideas.

"The Greens have no sense of the realities of politics, they have fanciful ideas which are extremely dangerous," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

"Now they are coming into a position of power where they will control the Senate."

The Greens will hold the balance of power in the upper house from July.

Senator Joyce said exporting coal allowed Australia to import essentials such as clothes, food and fuel.

"The biggest thing you put on the boat is coal and (Greens leader) Bob Brown wants to shut it down."

But Queensland Greens spokeswoman Libby Connors said the Bligh government was guilty of radical and extreme behaviour by offering exemptions to the coal and gas industries.

She said rural towns and industries were under threat from activities not subject to laws aimed at protecting water and land assets.

Dr Connors said the only responsible way to proceed was with caution and science on the state's side.

" ... you first do the baseline studies to show where and how our essential underground water supplies will be impacted, you protect our valuable cropping land and rural residential communities from the hazards of gas field development and you apply policies that prevent wholesale habitat destruction consistently," she said.

"Anna Bligh's government has done none of the above."

"It is her government that is taking an extremist position on dangerous and harmful sectors of industry that are owned and run by multinational corporations and have no regard for Queensland's existing agricultural sectors."