Greens leader Bob Brown delivered a jaw dropper on Fran Kelly's Radio National program this morning when he told us of his policy to cease coal exports in the next term of government. However, midway through the interview the policy had changed to a plan, either way his intentions are clear.

Australia lives by terms of trade. Have a look around you now ask this question; what was imported? Realise the only reason people from another country send us something is because we've put something on a ship and sent it in the other direction.

Coal is our major trade export earner. Quite obviously, when you take away our major income earning potential you're on your way to living on the streets under a tarpaulin.

Remember the Labor party gets in on Green preferences. Rather a dangerous marriage don't you think? The Greens want the balance of powering the Senate. Mr Brown was quite vocal on Radio National about their wish to work with Rudd's Labor and it appears their policy will be "sending Australia stone motherless broke".

One part of their 'magnum opus' is to replace coal exports with such things as energies from hot rocks. One could come up with some very clear suggestions as to where they could find them. We should be pursuing cleaner coal burning technology; we should be pursuing renewable fuels such as ethanol but we don’t do that at the expense of our major export earner.

My strong suggestion is to steer well clear of voting for anybody whose ideology comes at the expense of our income. The cost of a Labor-Green Senate will be the loss of approximately $25b in coal exports if Bob Brown keeps his word.