Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

The best thing any government can do is to help young people obtain jobs by creating a sound economy. The worst thing a government can do is to stand idly by when there are forces at work that deliberately sabotage job creation. The EPBC Act did not envisage radical environmentalists cynically gaming the system to engage in vigilanty legal actions and to stop important job-creating projects. I have in front of me the document Stopping the Australian coal export boom—Funding proposal for the Australian anti-coal movement. It is very informative, having been sponsored by GetUp! and the Australia Institute, among others. Under the executive summary it says:

Our strategy is to ‘disrupt and delay’ key projects—

It is not to protect the environment; it is just sheer sabotage. Moving through the document, it says, 'What is the strategy? To disrupt and delay key infrastructure and increase costs.' Then the number one proposal is litigation and what would they do? By disrupting and delaying key projects:

We will lodge legal challenges to the approval of all of the major new … ports—

and mega-mines, all of them. They will not consider them case by case; they will just oppose all of them. The most concerning thing about this cynical and manipulative document is that program management, the funding of it is to come from the United States of America and Australia. So we are going to get US funding to destroy jobs for young Australians. We will not stand idly by to see our young Australians put out of jobs with US money. (Time expired)