Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a disgrace. These companies employ a lot of people and produce reasonably cheap power at this stage—but we all know, with the carbon tax, the price of it is going to go through the roof, to the extent that Rio has already divested some of their properties, their manufacturing plants, one of which is now called Pacific Aluminium. That is part of the business they are getting ready to sell off. But who wants to buy a smelter which has a high-usage of electricity? And who wants to buy a coal fired power station, when some of the people in this House want to knock it down? It is not a good investment area for those people.

The last tier is those on Struggle Street, as I call them. These are people like pensioners and people on fixed incomes; police officers; teachers; salespeople; shop assistants—those type of people who are on incomes but do not own their own houses. The housing rentals in the area, whether it be Moranbah, Emerald or Gladstone have gone through the roof. We have people sharing houses at $300 per week for a room. There are people living in cars, in caravans and so on and so forth, but it is the people who are working in the industries that do not have the ability to make the big money. These are the problems we face in my electorate. Not-for-profit organisations, local fishermen and trawlers are all in trouble. One thing we all have in common in my electorate is that we all lack infrastructure. Infrastructure is what we need from this government.

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