Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I referred to comments by the Leader of the Opposition on 27 April in a doorstop. I am now referring to comments made by the CEO of OneSteel, Mr Geoff Plummer, on 10 July 2011, when he said:

We believe that on balance, the sectoral approach announced today by the Prime Minister for the steel industry, including the introduction of the—

Steel Transformation Plan—

is both appropriate and sensible. We are pleased that the Government has responded by adopting this approach.

So to the Leader of the Opposition I say this: our carbon pricing package is about seizing economic opportunities for the future. Our carbon pricing package will enable great Australian businesses to continue doing what they are doing. Indeed, we will see businesses grow, we will see economic growth and we will see 1.6 million new jobs. What the Leader of the Opposition most certainly should not do in this parliament is try and associate announcements today about job losses—very unfortunate announcements about job losses—with the government's policies and plans. To do so is an attempt to mislead Australians already in difficult circumstances because their employers have said that they will need to reduce jobs. We will take a different approach. We will work with those businesses. We will work with those employees. We will support them and not get them involved in a political debate, because that is such an inappropriate thing to do.

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