Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this important MPI in relation to job creation. The government once again, true to form, have an incredibly last-century view of jobs and job creation. Where is their support for job creation and new jobs in the new clean economy? Where is their support for renewable energy jobs? Where is their job for green manufacturing jobs?

Where is their support for ecotourism jobs? Where is their support for jobs in agriculture and the Great Barrier Reef, which are huge employers and which are under threat from climate change? Where is their support for jobs in science and innovation? We know science funding is at record low levels under this government. Where is their support for technology and medical innovations?

Let's start with the carbon price. In the lead-up to the election, the Abbott government said that the carbon price was a job-destroyer, that every job would be decimated and that the repeal would create jobs. Let's look at the figures. Unemployment averaged 5.7 per cent during the two years that we had the carbon price and it is now 6.3 per cent. So the unemployment rate is actually higher now that we do not have a carbon price. Again, that demonstrates the complete false rhetoric of Mr Abbott and his government. Similarly, economic growth was at five per cent under the carbon price and under this government it has been 3.8 per cent. So much for the carbon price being a job-destroyer and an economic handbrake—quite the contrary. This government still fails to realise that an ambitious climate target will create new employment and investment opportunities right across the economy. The old energy industry has already started that irreversible decline and we can at least start to create those new jobs of the future while we help to support and retrain those workers and transition them into the inevitable clean energy jobs of the future.

On renewable energy jobs, there are already many more people employed in renewable energy generation than there are in coal generation. And we are only at the beginning of this transition—this transition that this government is doing all it can to withstand. Globally, renewable energy jobs are growing at 18 per cent a year. Australia is missing out big time on that growth opportunity and we have some of the best renewable resources in the world. What a wonderful opportunity for us to capitalise on our natural advantage and create employment and prosperity whilst also tackling global warming.

Instead, during the uncertainty that this government created with their review of the renewable energy target—a review by a climate sceptic even though an actual review by the actual appropriate independent statutory authority had just been completed—during that complete debacle, the freeze meant that 2,300 jobs in renewables were lost. That is 15 per cent of the workforce. We have a government that claims to care about jobs. Well, they only care about dirty jobs; they do not care about the jobs of the future or clean energy jobs. Yet, we know that that transition is already on.

Sadly, there has been a 32 per cent reduction in coalmining employment. I say 'sadly' because this government has not planned for that transition. We are seeing mass sackings by big coalmining companies and the government has not done the work to make sure that those people are re-employable and transitioned into other work, perhaps rehabilitation, perhaps renewable energy generation—the skills for which those workers have. This government is happy to let the coalmining industry turf them out on their rear ends. It is a huge missed opportunity. We should be protecting the jobs of today and the jobs of the future by taking action on global warming. Sadly, that is all the time allotted to me. Thanks.