Inadequate port, rail and road infrastructure and a skilled workforce that could not keep up with demand were the real issues in the region and not a carbon tax, he said yesterday.

‘‘The expansion of the coal industry in the Hunter is bullish, underpinned by a tripling in the price of coal over the past 10years,’’ Mr Rush said.

The council supported the carbon tax, he said.

Coal extraction around Muswellbrook had increased from four million tonnes each year in 2001 to 37million tonnes in 2011, and is projected to reach 80million tonnes by 2014.

‘‘The capital investment decisions by each of the operations or proposed operations, each made in the last two years, are certain to have contemplated the introduction of a carbon price,’’ Mr Rush said.

His comments came after a speech to the National Press Club yesterday by Australian Coal Association chief executive Ralph Hillman, in which Mr Hillman repeated that jobs would be lost because of the carbon tax.

Mr Rush said there were no operational underground coalmines in his shire, gaseous or otherwise, and no proposed underground coalmines, which the Australian Coal Association says are most at risk of closure under a carbon tax.

Three approved underground coalmines were ‘‘mothballed by operational difficulties’’, he said.

‘‘Any suggestion that net jobs in the Hunter will be lost in the mining industry rather than created over the next 10 years as a result of the introduction of a carbon price is fanciful.’’

Mr Hillman said the coal industry would fight the carbon tax until the last minute it passed parliament.

He declared any Australian action on climate change would be largely useless because it would happen before massive global emitters like China and the United States took action.

‘‘Australia is moving ahead of major global emitters,’’ he said. with AAP