Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This carbon tax is a watershed for our country because it poses the question, in the starkest possible terms: what do we want to be as an economy? Do we want to be an economy that manufactures things or do we want to be an economy which is in thrall to green zealotry? The Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Andrew McKellar, speaking of the carbon tax, said:

… we won't have green jobs, we will have green unemployment.

The Chairman of BlueScope Steel, speaking of the so-called compensation for manufacturing industries that the government is talking about, said:

It's simply a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.

Even Paul Howes, the National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, has said:

Carbon pricing could be the straw that breaks the camel's back as far as some industries are concerned. … If one job is gone, our support is gone.

That is the test that members opposite should lay down for the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister cannot realistically guarantee manufacturing jobs, mining jobs, coal jobs, power jobs, they should withdraw their support for her; they should get rid of her. Most of all they should get rid of this toxic tax.

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