Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Climate Change and Water (Senator Wong) to a question without notice asked by Senator Boswell today, relating to the emissions trading scheme.

In today’s Courier-Mail, there is a photo of the member for Capricornia, Kirsten Livermore; the member for Flynn, Chris Trevor; and the member Dawson, James Bidgood with ‘censored’ written across their faces. They obviously are not speaking out for their electorates on the emissions trading scheme. Today in question time I asked Senator Wong whether she had given them instructions not to speak out. She denied it, and that may well be true. But I do not know why these people do not speak out for their electorates when their electorates are coming under so much pressure. These electorates represent the coal-mining industries of Queensland. Most of the coal mines are in these electorates. The mayors of the towns in these electorates have pleaded with the government not to go ahead with the emissions trading scheme. But the unions have been absolutely quiet on this issue.

The mining companies have come out and warned the government about how many jobs will be lost if it goes ahead with the scheme. There will be thousands of jobs lost if this $2.4 billion carbon tax is placed on the mining industries. Every dragline that runs on electricity and every electric motor used in those mines will be hit with a carbon tax. Yet, day after day, the people who should be opposing this tax are sitting there like stunned mullets, not saying a word.

Today, in question time, Senator Milne asked a question about agreements on emissions, and the answer was that there were no international agreements on anything. There is no modelling on a white paper and no modelling on a green paper to tell us where the economy is now. No modelling has been done on the economy. The government is absolutely determined to go ahead with this scheme, and there is no opposition coming from the government benches.

Senator Cameron was an absolute raging lion before he came in here. He was on every radio station and in every newspaper saying what he would do when he got here. He got here after garrotting Senator Ian Campbell, and he has been like a weak, whipped squib. He has not said a word. He has been one of the great disappointments of the Labor Party. I am sure the union people who put him here would be disappointed by his lack of commitment to the union movement. It is a disgrace. Where are the people who represent the blue-collar workers? Where are they? Why have they disappeared? Why do you let down the people who pay their union fees, who keep your labour movement together through blood, sweat and tears? You have walked out on them. You know that you are trading their jobs off for Greens preferences. You are making exactly the same mistake as your previous leader, Mr Latham, did. He decided that he would trade off the jobs of timber workers for Greens preferences. The blue-collar workers dumped him, and you are going to get dumped. Mr Rudd is also going to get dumped in exactly the same fashion, unless he listens to the people whose jobs will be lost because of him. He is going to be deserted by the blue-collar workers.

Let us go back to the beginning. This thing started as an absolute farce. A professor said that we had to get rid of our cattle herds and our sheep flocks, we had to farm 240 million kangaroos and we had to turn our arable farming land into a tree plantation. It was a joke then, and everyone laughed at it and thought it was ridiculous, but it is getting damned serious now—(Time expired)