Laura Smyth (La Trobe, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to participate again in this debate, particularly following the member for Moncrieff, who has so significantly acknowledged that action on climate change is such a moral imperative and there is a need to take urgent action on climate change, because it is not often that you get those concessions consistently from members of the opposition. Certainly it is very unlikely that we would get, on any given day, and indeed on consecutive days, those sorts of concessions from a leader of the opposition.

This is certainly a historic occasion for those of us on this side of the House who have assiduously committed ourselves to moving along a policy initiative that is very significant for our environment and for business certainty to create the kind of long-term opportunity and prosperity that we know is necessary and required for the development of clean energy industries in order to give Australians jobs into the future and in order to sustain the kind of economic circumstances that we find ourselves in presently.

By contrast, in those opposite, and certainly in the most recent statements of the Leader of the Opposition in moving his amendment, we see hysteria; we see continuing hysteria. We see a bid to delay significant action on climate change. We see a policy vacuum. We see a leadership vacuum. The Leader of the Opposition's amendments today seem to me to be more about distraction. You might ask, 'Distraction from what?' I think the most significant thing that the Leader of the Opposition wants to distract all of us from with his amendment is his failure to support the steel industry in this country through the steel transformation plan.

That is curious because not long ago the Leader of the Opposition visited and spoke at the Australian Steel Convention and said:

The steel industry is very important to Australia’s economy. From smelting to fabricating, steel employs about 90,000 people—critical to so many other sectors of our economy as well … So, steel is critical to our way of life, steel is important in our economy and I’ve been making the point up hill and down dale since the carbon tax was first announced …

Well, he has been up hill, he has been down dale, and occasionally he has snuck off the edge of the dale and into the gutter—in fact, more often than not he has found himself there. But unfortunately today, despite his several pages of oration to the Australian Steel Convention, he seems incapable of coming into this place and supporting and encouraging those who sit alongside him to practically give support to the steel industry. Instead he comes up with another fig leaf—this sad little amendment, which is a bid to delay one of the most significant reforms being made to our economy and in our country's history. He inevitably will and his colleagues in the Senate most likely will try to oppose significant endeavours to continue to support the steel industry. So, despite all the rhetoric and visits to steel mills, the wearing of hard hats and pretending to be out doing hard graft alongside Australian workers, once again, when it comes to actually making a decision and taking a vote, Mr Abbott is off having another siesta.

This reform that we are pursuing today we have pursued long and hard for many months now. Indeed, as one of the previous speakers mentioned, our action on initiatives such as this and action on climate change has been many years in the making. Our efforts are about ensuring that electorates such as mine benefit from the development of clean energy industries, clean energy technologies. They are about ensuring that electorates such as mine which have significant areas of environmental heritage are duly protected and are not exposed to extreme weather events such as bushfires. My electorate covers an area including much of the Dandenong Ranges, so I am very familiar with the environmental impacts that are likely to flow from inaction on climate change.

So, contrary to the reformist, forward-thinking initiatives of this government, all that those opposite and the Leader of the Opposition can offer to the Australian people is delay and a policy and leadership vacuum. That is simply not good enough.

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