Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, it is. But we won't be doing it by destroying the economy. You want to talk about coalition positions because you can't answer questions about the impact of Labor policy and Labor legislation. We don't know how many of the 215 facilities are going to be able to comply with this baseline without shedding a single job. I note that no promise has been given about that. I'd love to know whether the government commits to there being not one job lost out of these 215 facilities. I guarantee you that I'll get an answer about extensive consultation and working collaboratively with a very willing crossbench—very willing, indeed—but there will be no promise given because 'we can't speak about specific entities,' or 'we can't speak about specific facilities,' or 'we can't speak about Australian jobs'. You know what? That is not the priority of this legislation. That is not the focus. It is a siloed, myopic approach to dealing with something that they are doing a deal with the Greens on and are doing with no regard for the impact on the economy.

The perverse outcome here in dealing with this issue this way is that, not only are you not going to get the environmental outcomes you promised Australians, you're going to get worse environmental outcomes. It's all going to go offshore to countries where they don't care about the environment, so our global responsibility as global leaders, as responsible citizens on this planet is all just talk. It isn't reality, according to this government. We're going to have bad economic outcomes.

Minister, we remain committed to our policy on net zero, but let me tell you, I expect an answer. I expect a guarantee today that not one job will be lost because of your safeguard mechanism and the deal you've done with this mob down here, the Australian Greens.