Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you for correcting me. The member for Corio is equally guilty actually, but thanks for drawing it to my attention. I won't make that mistake again; I have very high regard for the member for Corangamite. Having said that and having been corrected, I haven't been corrected on the fact that there are 200 people totally supported by their union, the CFMMEU forestry division, begging the Victorian government to do something about this issue so that we have the pallets needed for our exports and all the internal freight moving round Australia—no pallets; no freight.

All of these things have consequences. This legislation has consequences. All this side has asked the government of the day is: what are the consequences? 'We have a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030, which is in seven years time, and it's going to affect all of these 215 businesses—end of story.' Can you explain what the cost will be for us to get to that by 2030? 'No, but we'll have a 43 per cent reduction.' To the detriment of whom? Who's going to lose their jobs? What businesses won't to be able to operate under this process? Is it a crime in this day and age to ask reasonable questions of the government of the day about the policies they've put in place? There is nothing I've read here, or in the excellent talking points I was given by the coalition, on what the cost is going to be. Nobody knows. It could be anything.

Are we going to risk our most important industries? I heard the members of parliament on this side of the House—on the coalition side, the opposition side—talk about how it's going to affect individual companies in their electorate. Those companies are probably not part of the big business spruikers. They're just businesses trying to get along in a very difficult world. I recognise that. We recognise there are changes in the climate. I've been seeing changes in the climate since 1990 when I came into this place and recognised there were differences and there were practical things we could do. I've seen every government struggle with it. But to come in and implement it this way will, I believe, be a detriment to the nation.

I also haven't seen one of these programs, in all my years in the House and out of the House, come to fruition with the promises and dreams that were made in the process of implementing the legislation. I've never seen one. I've never seen one state government meet its targets for emissions reduction—not one. I've heard a lot of promises, usually just before elections—a lot of promises and a lot of guarantees. My state government—the Andrews government—is actually introducing the State Electricity Commission of Victoria back again, with renewables. Because I'm out of time: every time I've seen an announcement on renewables, the price of power goes up.

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