Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. Will the Deputy Prime Minister update the House on why energy reliability is important for Australia's booming wool production sector? Is the Deputy Prime Minister aware of any threats to the ongoing viability of wool production and processing in Australia and the thousands of hardworking Australians it employs?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. He, more than most, would be very aware of the huge turnaround we have had in the wool sector. In fact we are experiencing the best prices in 29 years. That is in real terms. This boom means that people in the western districts, which the member would be very aware of, are actually making a dollar and getting ahead. This has been assisted by the investment by the Commonwealth in such things as dog fences, especially in south-west Queensland. It has also assisted in bringing more people into these districts—shearers are bringing their kids and families and bringing commerce into the towns. This is something that is so formative for our nation. In fact, the Labor Party was started by shearers.

It is also important that we understand that the returns are also based on the fact that we are getting great returns from fat lambs. So if we get a ewe that now cuts about $65 worth of wool because of the record prices that we are getting and a fat lamb at about $120, that means that we are getting a return of about $180 from a ewe unit if you put a Border Leicester ram over it. These are brilliant returns for people on the land.

But of course there are risks with this. One of the biggest risks is that we want to keep Australian manufacturing workers in jobs, too. But we are losing Australian manufacturing workers because of the price of power. The price of power has become ridiculous. We have seen this especially in Adelaide. Adelaide would know better than most. In Adelaide we have Michell, one of our last major wool processing plants. They have said, 'Wool processing is energy intensive, so when faced with a $300,000 rise in the contract price of electricity, the business has decided to switch to the spot pricing market, but it can prove volatile. In the past week we've shut down two or three times. It was cheaper than paying the power bill.'

This is what is happening to Australian jobs and Australian workers. Australian workers are losing their jobs and their jobs are going to China. Their jobs are going overseas because the Labor Party will not deal with the power crisis. It is only this side of the chamber that says that we are brave enough to build a new coal-fired power station. If we need a new coal-fired power station, we will build a new coal-fired power station. It is only this side of the chamber that is talking about hydro-electricity and hydro storage, to make sure that we can get new base load power on.

We are trying our very best, in areas such as the processing of wool, to make sure we keep Australian workers in Australian jobs in Australia. But, of course, until the Labor Party decide they want to go into bat for Australian workers, until the member for Hunter and the member for Shortland start standing up for Australian workers, then we will have the Labor Party, led by the nose by the Greens, leading Australian jobs overseas, putting Australian workers out of work. The wool industry is one of the most classic examples of Australia so desperately trying to keep Australian jobs in Australia, and what are the Australian Labor Party doing? They are sending them overseas. (Time expired)