Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Throsby is an articulate and talented politician—we just happen to disagree on a few things. I have worked with her on a number of committees in this House. I know the background of the member for Throsby when it comes to sustainable cities and sustainable strategies for the nation. However, to carry on from where the member for Throsby left off, the proposed 60 per cent cut in emissions in Australia would have this effect: petrol prices would increase by approximately 100 per cent. How would that go in the Hunter Valley? GDP growth would be 10.7 per cent lower. Real wages would be 20.8 per cent lower than they would be under a business-as-usual scenario. There would be a fall in oil and gas production of 60 per cent. Coal production, which the member for Throsby mentioned, would be down by 32 per cent. Electricity output would be down by 23 per cent. The agricultural industry, which is a major part of my electorate, is also projected to decline by 44 per cent relative to the reference case.

So who was right today? How would you like to have been the member for Kingsford Smith today, starting off with a complete shemozzle of a presentation of a policy? He announced a doubling of the subsidy. The subsidy is $4,000, and he has announced a $4,000 subsidy. What an embarrassment that would have been. There but for the grace of God go I; may that never happen to me. The first announcement of a Labor Party policy in an election year and what do they do? They get it wrong and are unable to answer the question. That is the worst thing that could happen to anybody. The member for Throsby showed the way on how the public and government interact with one another. Obviously, somebody made a mistake when they chose the spokesperson, because I really do not think that the member for Kingsford Smith gets the way that government works. That showed today. It was a bit of an embarrassment to see the member for Throsby present her case so well while the member for Kingsford Smith muddled through it.

It has been very important for me in the last few weeks to see this government responding to climate change in a way that responds to the workers in my seat, the seat of the member for Throsby and the seat of the member for Gippsland. There are 130,000 families across the nation that have something to do with coal. I would say to the community, which I know is listening to this debate, that if you do not work within a power station you probably know somebody, or know somebody who knows somebody else, who works in a power station. That is where the connection is. It affects an enormous number of people in our community.

Are we doing it better? Even before I arrived in this place for the third time, I was watching how the companies producing our electricity were cleaning up their own act over these last few years. Even before this enormous breakout of climate change argument, these coal companies and electricity power generators were cleaning up their act, and doing it very well. Now government has responded through HRL and our partnerships overseas. We put in another $100 million the other day for a coal gasification plant that will hopefully reduce emissions by 30 per cent. We are heading in the right direction all the time. As the Prime Minister said today, it is a providential resource. It is the same in New South Wales and the same in Queensland. We have been blessed with this huge resource; we will not as a nation turn our backs on that competitive advantage. We cannot and we will not, on the altar of climate change, walk away from the families that are so well employed in these industries. We will not walk away from you.

What was good about the HRL announcement? You might say: ‘It’s another $100 million. Big announcement, but it doesn’t count; it’s just your reaction to climate change. It’s no big issue.’ I tell you what: for the first time I am talking about the future of the Latrobe Valley and not the past. We are talking about the future development of the coal industry here, and not the past. We are talking about future generations.

It was great, when you were here the other day, Mr Deputy Speaker Causley, and I was speaking in the House, to celebrate our heritage in the production of coal, in growing the Latrobe Valley, in growing the Hunter and—

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