Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is a certain irony in comparing two recent Illawarra Mercury articles relating to BlueScope Steel. If it were not so serious, it would be laughable. The first was reported on 19 July, just gone. The headline says 'Simon Crean likes what he sees at Port Kembla'. The minister is quoted as saying:

… after adjustments under the recent Federal Government package to help it cope with carbon pricing, BlueScope is still well and truly in the game.

That may well be right in one sense, but it is especially ironic in another. In an article in the same newspaper less than one month later, on 15 August, another headline read 'Carbon tax money may fund BlueScope cuts'. The opening line read:

Much of the $180 million in taxpayers' money promised to BlueScope Steel in the carbon tax package could end up funding the company's job cuts, which are expected to start within weeks.

BlueScope Steel has also announced that it would be likely to cease production at one of its two Port Kembla blast furnaces. Aside from the direct job losses, there will be considerable flow-on effects impacting on contractors and other small businesses that are organic to the steelworks. The Illawarra Mercury ventured that this could well be the tip of the iceberg.

The House would recall earlier this year a motion by the member for Throsby ardently lending his support to a carbon tax on our steel industry. This is what he said:

We are taking action to create new job opportunities in a clean energy generation and taking action to help Australia’s trade-exposed emission-intensive industries.

The reality is that jobs are going to be lost despite the delusional thinking of the member for Throsby, as events are revealing. He thought it was a great thing, but those closer to the working class have a different view. He also said:

It is beyond question that the Gillard government is not prepared to see jobs go offshore as a result of our transition to a low-carbon economy. Nor do we want to see the emissions that come with those jobs go overseas.

That is exactly what is happening. My former colleague and former member for Throsby, Jennie George, now retired, did a splendid job representing the working class voters of Throsby. We may not have agreed on a number of issues, but she had my respect in the way that she stood up for the welfare of those she was elected to represent, especially BlueScope Steel. I just wish I could say the same thing about her successor, who is ignoring the need of those he was elected by simply to curry favour with his political masters.

Bob Harrison is the former state member for Kiama, who served in the New South Wales parliament for over 13 years and is a life member of the Australian Labor Party. He was also former Mayor of the City of Shellharbour. Earlier this year Bob contributed an article to the Illawarra Mercury whose banner read, 'Carbon tax will burn Illawarra'. It was a rejection of what the Labor member for Throsby was advocating. Bob's theme was that this carbon tax would have a significant and adverse effect on the employment prospects for the greater Illawarra region. How prophetic were his words?

BlueScope is a major steel product manufacturer in the Illawarra, employing hundreds of workers, including those from the suburbs I represent in and around Shellharbour. Many of those workers are now going to lose their jobs. It is not as if the Gillard government and its supporters were not warned. BlueScope Steel's CEO, Paul O'Malley, said that they could live with the tax provided tariffs are imposed on their overseas competitors who will not have to pay a carbon tax. This was never going to happen, and some manufacturers were already saying they could move their operations overseas. This is bringing that scenario closer to reality. BlueScope and OneSteel have said:

It's a direct threat to this NSW regional economy and the 12,000 workers and their families …

How true. There is plenty of evidence to back up those concerns, but despite all the evidence Labor's cheer squad chooses to remain in denial. The people who allegedly seek to represent the views of the workers in the Illawarra, the Australian Workers Union, have dismissed these concerns as scaremongering, yet the concluding remarks of its head, Mr Andrew Gillespie, as reported in the Illawarra Mercury, acknowledge that many workers were concerned about the talk of BlueScope potentially shifting operations offshore. He said:

I keep telling them I can't give you answers on carbon price, or carbon relief, because it hasn't been done yet.

It is done, and this is the result. The motion by the member for Throsby exhorted this House to agree that governments must work with the manufacturing industry and communities to assist their transformation to meet the challenge of a carbon constrained future. The only transformation is the migration of our local manufacturing industries and their jobs to the Asian economy.

I will certainly be doing all I can to protect jobs, and if that means crossing swords with the member for Throsby and the unions, so be it. Unlike them, I take seriously my responsibilities and the interests of the people I represent. I despair and say: what a foolish government this country has been cursed with.