Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Petrie for her question. The clean energy future plan that the government announced on 10 July contains very significant support for jobs in key industries. The jobs and competitiveness program in particular provides very significant support for, and assistance to, industries in the trade-exposed and emissions-intensive sectors of the economy. This assistance, just in the first three years of the carbon price mechanism, represents $9.2 billion of assistance for those industries and, of course, it is an ongoing program.

This program will be extremely important for the competitiveness of industries such as alumina refining, aluminium smelting, steel making and cement manufacturing. Industries under the Jobs and competitiveness program will be entitled to assistance in the form of free permits at the rates of 94½ per cent for the most emissions-intensive industries and 66 per cent for the moderately emissions-intensive industries. This will underpin the competitiveness of these industries by significantly offsetting their carbon liability. It will support the jobs of those employed in those industries and still, of course, maintain an incentive to reduce pollution and to invest in clean technology.

The package also contains a number of other very important measures: an $800 million Clean Technology Investment Program for manufacturing businesses, a $200 million clean technology program for manufacturing businesses specifically in the metal-forging and food-processing industries and a $200 million Clean Technology Innovation Program to support business investment in low-emissions research and development in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency. In relation to small business there will be an increased small business instant asset write-off, which has been increased to $6,500 for depreciating assets.

These are just some of the important programs announced by the government to support jobs and competitiveness. It is important that they are also appropriately represented in the debate. There are other measures, including approximately $1.3 billion to support jobs in the most methane-intensive coal mines and a $300 million Steel Transformation Plan.

But, of course, none of these measures will deter the Leader of the Opposition, it seems, from his campaign of fear and misrepresentation. He has run around the country trying to terrify people in a completely unprincipled, opportunistic and irresponsible manner. He has declared repeatedly that entire industries will be destroyed and that towns and regions will be wiped off the map. It is disreputable to undermine people's job security in this way, and it is disreputable to damage consumer sentiment in our economy with these claims.

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