Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

We understand, quite clearly, that you are going to have either cheap power, cheap wages or no jobs, so we are going to make sure that people maintain their jobs in the manufacturing industry. We know that so far the Labor Party have come up with one thing—their biggest attack point so far is to say, 'Where's your regulatory impact statement?' That is it. Can't you imagine them at the manic monkey cafe, where dewdrop is talking to moonbeam and saying that the coalition does not have a regulatory impact statement? That is about the extent of their concerns for blue-collar workers' jobs.

We have 66 billion reasons to make sure that those people who are doing it tough do not get the Labor Party bill, because the Labor Party bill makes people poorer. There is no doubt about it. A Labor Party bill will make you poorer. If you are doing it tough in the Hunter Valley, a Labor Party bill will make you poorer. If you're doing it tough in Shortland, a Labor Party bill will make you poorer. Without a shadow of a doubt, the Labor Party is now run by those with the philosophical ilk of a manic monkey cafe—basketweaver No. 1 and all their friends—running a power policy that is going to drive blue-collar workers out of a job. And you can see it. Queensland now has the new mantle of the dearest power prices. They've taken over from South Australian Labor. So Queensland Labor now beats South Australian Labor as the most effective Labor policy to put you out of a job.

We have brought forward a policy today which shows that we are not scared of coal-fired power. We are going to make sure that coal-fired power remains in the mix. We are going to make sure that there is a capacity of baseload power to keep people in a job. We stand behind blue-collar workers and their jobs—something the Labor Party has absolutely given up on. They are bereft of the soul they once had under Curtin and Chifley. They no longer believe in the people they were put here to represent. They turn their back on the working-class people every day. Every day, they turn their back on the working-class people and they look towards the basketweavers. They turn their back, they face the basketweavers and they take their dollar.

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