Brown said the coal industry should not be compensated despite it being an export industry that is a big employer in regional Australia.

“We're not in favour of compensation to the coal industry, which, I repeat, is largely owned outside this country, [by] companies like Xstrata,” he allegedly told the ABC.

“They employ people in Australia but they line the pockets of millionaires elsewhere in the world.

“This is an industry that's got turning over hundreds of billions over the coming decade. And let me go back to it. It's exporting its money out of this country.”

Brown said the proposed carbon tax would only have a minimal impact on coal of between 1% and 3% on their profit line which should not lead to a reduction in employment.

He said the industry should be looking at renewable energy and trying to address the problems of climate change.

“You know the coal industry has to be replaced by renewables,” he said.

“The Greens recently got [a] $100 million package from the government for baseload solar in this country, and that'll be in regional Australia. We're the sunny country.

“We're way behind Germany and China. We need to catch up, because the Howard government and governments since then have been pouring money into this mega-rich coal industry.

“These big, and I reiterate this, largely foreign-owned, multinational corporations which are digging up our minerals and which will export the profits and continue to do that out of the country, should be paying their way when it comes to fixing up climate change.”