Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last August environment minister Greg Hunt said:

We are keeping ARENA and ARENA is the body looking at specific support for development projects in the solar space.

In its first budget the Abbott government scrapped the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and with it thousands of jobs in the renewable energy sector. The cuts will not only place so many of those jobs on the scrap heap but also additional new jobs that were in the pipeline. Many of those jobs were in the manufacturing sector, adding to the loss of Australian manufacturing jobs.

I understand that in Germany today more people are employed in the renewable energy sector than in auto manufacturing, highlighting the potential for manufacturing jobs in the renewable energy sector. Equally concerning, much of Australia's innovation and expertise could be lost to overseas countries that are embracing renewable energy rather than walking away from it. At time when so many manufacturing jobs are being lost in Australia, renewable energy projects provide alternative opportunities for skilled manufacturing workers who otherwise may find it difficult to get jobs. It shows the Abbott government's twisted priorities that they would abolish an agency that is creating jobs, benefiting the environment but yet commit $2½ billion to pay polluters so they can keep polluting.