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

Those interjections were disorderly but amusing nonetheless because they are a glimpse into the alternative universe that this government lives in driven by green ideology rather than reality. They talk about offshoring aluminium manufacturing. Can I say, when you've got a government that brings in this draconian safeguard mechanism, which is offshoring aluminium smelting jobs, if you go out and talk to the high-vis army working in these smelters, they will tell you what this government's policies have done. They will tell you what the cost of energy is doing to their capacity to manufacture in this country. They will tell you what it's doing to their workforce, which is decreasing because we are being outpriced by our competitors from countries where they don't care about the environment, emissions or workers rights.

Those opposite are happy to see that happen all in the name of green ideology because they know, as every pollster does, as the bookies know and as we are tracking today, that the Labor Party is set to win in minority with the Greens political party down the end. Therefore, we need to make sure that they think we're on the same page before the election. We are going to see the offshoring of jobs under this plan, and if the minister or any other government senator wants to tell me—or workers in smelters in Bell Bay, for that matter—that this legislation is going to help them then I would love to know what happens when we exclude all other sources of energy generation, as this government does. They exclude consideration of every other technology and every other source of energy generation because it is all about the green agenda, as I said.

The green agenda is failing Australians, but it is one this government has signed up to. You've got to understand that, if you go out doorknocking, people aren't saying, 'Yes, I know it's going to cost a bit more, but we'll go along with it; I know it might affect grid reliability, but we'll go along with it.' They're saying, 'No, please honour your promise and bring down power prices by $275.' That's what they're after, that's what they were promised, and I don't think it's wrong for us to point that out. When you talk to manufacturers who struggle with the cost of compliance with the safeguard mechanism and struggle with these skyrocketing electricity prices and industrial relations laws which have made the ability to compete internationally very, very difficult, they're not saying, 'This government has got our interests at heart.' Therefore, by extension, the government does not have those manufacturers' employees' interests at heart, because what does an employee in a company want? They want a job, but we are eroding certainty around employment. This legislation will absolutely harm the capacity of people in Bell Bay.

It'll harm the capacity of people on the West Coast of Tasmania at the MMG mine or, of course, the Port Latta—