SENATOR Barnaby Joyce has launched an online petition as part of a push to torpedo China's grab for a bigger share of the mining giant Rio Tinto. The petition comes after it emerged that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd held private talks with China's fifth most powerful man Li Changchun on Saturday.
Chinese state-owned media were told about the visit at The Lodge involving the propaganda chief of the Chinese Communist Party but Australian journalists were kept in the dark.
An incensed Senator Joyce, the leader of the Nationals in the Senate, said he was concerned Mr Rudd was considering "side deals over lunch".
The Chinese Government-controlled Chinalco wants to increase its stake in mining giant Rio Tinto in a deal worth $US19.5 billion ($28 billion).
Rio would sell stakes in key Australian operations to Chinalco including the Weipa and Yarwun aluminium projects in Queensland. It has threatened to scrap 2000 jobs, mostly in Queensland, if the deal is blocked.
The Foreign Investment Review Board was recently granted a 90-day extension to assess whether the bid is in the national interest. Treasurer Wayne Swan will decide whether to give the deal the green light after receiving the board's report.
But Senator Joyce said it was important ordinary Australians had a chance to raise their concerns.
"There is frenetic lobbying going on from the Chinese side. I'm trying to give an avenue for some lobbying from the Australian side," the Queensland Senator said.
Meanwhile, Queensland unions have backed better compensation for the coal industry under emissions trading to protect thousands of jobs now at risk.
The Queensland Council of Unions secretary Ron Monaghan said Queensland workers could not be left to become victims of the scheme.
Unions and employers fear the coal industry, which has been given little compensation for the millions it would have to pay in carbon offsets, would have to shed thousands of jobs to cope.
"We don't want one job shed. Any threat to that will be met with opposition," Mr Monaghan said.