Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As the Deputy Leader of the Opposition says, it is a big call for this government. But let me make it perfectly clear that the live cattle export ban, which prevented 180,000 Australian head going to Indonesia, is a catastrophe for the northern parts of Australia in primary production. I wonder why the Prime Minister has not picked up the phone to the President of Indonesia recently. I wonder whether the President of Indonesia would not return her calls after what she did to Indonesia when it came to live cattle exports. But that is the way that this government operates.

There can be no excuses for rising unemployment at a time when the country is experiencing unprecedented demand for our resources and 140-year highs in our terms of trade. So what has the government done? They had a jobs forum. That is typical of Labor's approach to problems—do not fix it, let's talk about it, let's get everyone together, hold hands, sing Kumbaya and maybe we will come up with a solution to the challenges of the nation. The talkfest in this case broke all records. It went for just 24 hours—one day. Usually the Labor Party have two- or three-day talkfests but, no, when it comes to jobs it was just one day. That would not have been any comfort to the 68,000 full-time breadwinners who have lost their jobs since April. Not surprisingly, out of a jobs forum, the outcomes were limited but there were two fundamental undertakings given by the Prime Minister: first, make major federal grants of $20 million or more, including grants to the states and territories, contingent on maximising opportunities for Australian businesses; and, second, require future project developers to publish more extensive details on opportunities available to Australian businesses if they want to receive a five per cent tariff exemption on imports for major projects through the EPBS.

As the Leader of the Opposition has stated, both were credible initiatives but they are not going to lead to the reappearance of jobs. For example, it is the case that the mining industry in Western Australia already has to provide the government of Western Australia with regular details on the amount of Australian product involved in their mines. A keynote speaker at the forum, Andrew Liveris, President, Chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, has previously called the decision to proceed with a carbon tax unwise and ill timed. Bear in mind the government asked this fellow to come along to the jobs forum and here he was quite appropriately criticising the carbon tax. So the government could not even pick a keynote speaker who would support their job-killing carbon tax.

The government wants us to believe that introducing a carbon tax will have no impact on jobs. I observed earlier today there is a statement in the updated Treasury modelling of the carbon tax that says:

Employment continues to grow strongly, with national employment increasing by 1.6 million jobs by 2020, with or without carbon pricing.

The Treasury assumes that all workers in trade-exposed and carbon-intensive industries will immediately find new green jobs. The Treasury modelling says there is no impact whatsoever of the carbon tax on jobs and, in fact, it does not make any difference to jobs. That means effectively you can penalise Australian export industries, you can make the costs of production far more expensive for Australian manufacturers and, according to the inputs from Treasury, there will be no impact on jobs.

My colleagues and I have been travelling the country from Karratha to Perth to Cairns and down to Tasmania and I can say to you emphatically that is not what the employers think. That is not what small business thinks. That is not what the tourism industry thinks. That is not what the manufacturing industry thinks. That is not what the steelworkers think. That is not what the professional service providers think. They all know, because they employ people, that the carbon tax will cost jobs and the Treasury advice in this case is dead wrong. I am concerned that the recent deterioration in the labour market may not yet be over. I do not want to alarm the workers of Australia but I think there is quite a clear case to be made that this government is totally inconsiderate about their jobs.

The latest IMF report card which the Treasurer keeps misrepresenting, as he does everything else as well so it is no surprise here, was released five days ago and it says:

Key downside risks are that the global recovery stalls or Asian growth falters, impacting demand for commodities.

The funding markets could also be disrupted by concerns about sovereign debt in advanced economies and the outlook is fragile. The Treasurer knows the outlook is fragile because he is coming to us asking us to expedite our policy to allow for covered bonds to be issued by Australian banks. He says it is urgent because of the fragility of the funding of Australian banks. Yes, that is why we raised it more than a year ago. We identified this issue, we saw the challenge coming and it is now that the Treasurer suddenly wakes up and says: 'This is urgent. The funding needs of the Australian banks must be delivered urgently.' That is why he is pressing us to get our agreement to expedite the covered bonds bill, a bill that we suggested in a policy form over a year ago.

Let me be very clear about this. I am not as concerned about funding requirements as the government is. While some European banks are experiencing difficulty in accessing finance, Australia's banks remain highly rated, well capitalised and with little exposure to European debt. However, the coalition will support the initiative because we are the ones that suggested the policy. If it needs to be done quickly we will help to expedite that. But if it is the case that it is so urgent why doesn't the government delay the carbon tax bills to bring on the covered bond bill? It is because the government wants to destroy the jobs to make business and commerce in Australia more expensive before it actually gets anything in place that is going to make it more affordable.

I have been warning about the global risk to Australia for some time. The May budget forecast solid economic growth prospects and a return to surplus in 2012-13 on the back of the strongest terms of trade in 140 years. Not a finger has been lifted by the government, they are sitting back and waiting for China to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to the budget. But it is foolish to base our economic plan for the future on the assumption that these unprecedented good times will continue. In my post-budget National Press Club address I noted that the May budget showed a relatively small fall in the terms of trade of only four per cent would plunge the 2012-13 budget back into deficit. At that time, after the Treasurer claimed that the carbon tax package would be roughly budget neutral, little did I know that it in fact takes away over $4 billion dollars from the budget. So this is a Treasurer who thinks budget neutrality is when you actually have a deficit of $4½ billion dollars on a single policy initiative.

The IMF is now flagging a very near and present danger, so it is no surprise that the Treasurer is backing away from his promise to deliver a budget surplus in 2012-13. In recent weeks the promise has morphed from an objective to an expectation, .a determination, a plan—'a guiding principle', he said—and, more recently, he said he would give it his best shot. If the Treasurer cannot commit to a surplus then it will prove that the so-called strategy to repay the mountain of debt that Labor has created has failed and is in tatters.

Given the increasingly uncertain outlook for the global economy and the risk to Australia, now is not the time to be saddling our economy and Australian workers with a carbon tax. The recently released report by the Senate Select Committee on the Scrutiny of New Taxes, which was chaired by Senator Matthias Cormann, assessed whether Australia should implement such a tax followed by an emissions trading scheme at a time of great uncertainty both about the economic outlook and even more so about the nature and the extent of the international abatement effort. The committee found that the carbon tax will have a substantial impact all over Australia. Many Australian jobs are in industries that are carbon intensive. The committee also found that under the government's own modelling the carbon tax is likely to impose a trillion-dollar cost on the Australian economy. This trillion dollars, as the Leader of the Opposition said earlier in this place, is roughly the equivalent of the total output of our nation in one year today.

Obviously, there are a number of issues that need to be addressed. The Senate committee did a great job in making a number of recommendations. Ultimately, however, the best way to create jobs, the best way to stimulate the Australian economy, the best way to inoculate us against global volatility and the best way to handle the immediate future is not to have a carbon tax. The best way to promote job growth in Australia, the best way to give security to Australian families and the best way to stabilise the cost of living for Australian families is not to have a carbon tax. When it comes down to it, the Labor Party talks up jobs but delivers little. When it comes down to it, the Labor Party talks up reform but all it delivers is pain. The carbon tax is pain, and it is going to cost Australians jobs. (Time expired)

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