Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I rise with great sadness, because there is so much concern out in the community. It is not limited to one demographic but is right across the board. There is particular anxiety and sadness in those demographics that have traditionally voted Labor, and those members opposite know that. They are not only defying the wishes and concerns of their constituents but also destroying the future opportunities and prosperity of their communities—and they know it. And for what? For the short-term political gain and the short-term political survival of the worst Prime Minister this country has ever seen.

We have heard a lot of cute comments from those opposite, a lot of gilding of the lily to try to justify the position they have taken in supporting an economy-wide carbon tax that will do absolutely nothing to save the environment but will, in fact, arguably increase worldwide emissions by exporting manufacturing to countries that do not have the same environmental regulations as we do but will make the same things we used to make but create more emissions in doing so. Those opposite know it. We have seen the experience in Europe where carbon leakage has risen massively, where Europe has lost industries only to have them replaced by industries abroad that have increased carbon emissions.

We have seen the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency—he is coming back to the table; I am grateful for that—be very cute and use a twist of words, trying to claim some sort of implicit carbon tax. He was very embarrassed when that was exposed as an absolute fraud. He was trying to claim that China was moving ahead of us in leaps and bounds when the reality is that China is engaged in an extraordinary increase in emissions. China will replace coal-fired power stations with other coal-fired power stations, and it will increase emissions far more than Australia will. We have seen the US abandon an ETS. We have seen the Japanese decide to postpone it, and we have seen that countries that compete with Australia are not even contemplating introducing an ETS.

We have seen the discussion on the Steel Transformation Plan. If you were not going to damage, with a sledgehammer, an industry as important as this you would not need to contemplate this very expensive use of taxpayers' funds to compensate it. But what about the vast majority of steelworkers who are not going to be covered? According to the most recent figures we have, there are about 91,000 employees across the entire Australian steel industry, and the Steel Transformation Plan will only cover those in BlueScope and OneSteel, and at best there are 17,000 employees there. You cannot have a viable steelmaking industry in Australia without a viable steel fabrication industry. If there are no steel fabricators in Australia, there is no need for steel to be made in Australia—particularly since BlueScope has closed the door for the moment on its export market. So it is a fraud to say that the Steel Transformation Plan will save the steel industry, because there is no plan for when this money runs out. That is because it has not addressed the basic problem of competitiveness. It has not addressed the problem of what happens when this money runs out and when imports will effectively be given a leg up with this reverse tariff that we have on Australian industry and Australian manufacturing. As for the green jobs: what a joke, what a farce. Nowhere in the world have we seen jobs in industry destroyed and replaced with commensurate jobs in the green sector, and it will not happen here.

Constituents in my electorate are extremely concerned about the retarding impact that the carbon tax will have on development of their rural and regional communities and on their cost of living. I am sure it is the same in non-rural and regional electorates and I am sure it is the same in Labor electorates as well. The people will have a say. They should have a say at the next election. I take this opportunity to seek leave to table signatures of more than 1,200 people in my electorate who have opposed a carbon tax and want to seek an election.

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