Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1)

agrees that putting a price on carbon is an essential step in reducing carbon pollution and transforming our economy to achieve a clean energy future;

(2)

notes that in many manufacturing regions in Australia, business, unions, government and community organisations are already working to develop green jobs and clean energy production processes; and

(3)

agrees that governments must work with the manufacturing industry and communities to assist their transformation to meet the challenge of a carbon constrained future.

We know that greenhouse gas levels are one-third higher than before the Industrial Revolution. We know that global temperatures have risen 0.7 degrees Celsius over the past century. We know they continue to rise. We know that the last decade was the world’s hottest on record. We know that globally 2010 was the equal warmest year on record. We know that 2010 is the 34th consecutive year with global temperatures above the 20th century average. We know that climate change and global warming are real.

We know the consequences are real and we know that climate change will change our lives in real and practical ways. It will change the way we work and it will change the way we live. It will change our economy and our industries. This change is inevitable. The way that this nation responds to this change is not inevitable. It requires political leadership. That is why the Gillard Labor government has committed to taking action on climate change—action to transform our economy into a high-skill, low-carbon economy; action to transform existing jobs; action to reskill workers for the future. We are not sitting on our hands. We are not denying that the future will be different but we are taking real action now to transform our economy. We are taking action to create new job opportunities in a clean energy generation and taking action to help Australia’s trade-exposed emission-intensive industries. That is why the Gillard Labor government is already working with trade exposed employers to support jobs, like those jobs in my electorate at BlueScope Steel Australia at Port Kembla in the Illawarra.

Around the country organisations are already rising to this challenge—organisations like Green Jobs Illawarra. In 2009, Regional Development Australia Illawarra launched their Green Jobs Illawarra project and, with the assistance of the federal and state governments, started along the road to transforming our economy. Green Jobs Illawarra brings businesses, unions, innovators and community organisations together to help create the conditions to develop sustainable green jobs to power a future low-carbon economy. With project areas now including Wollongong, Kiama, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and Wingecarribee, Green Jobs Illawarra has grown from a good idea to a positive force for change. Some of their current activities include a green streets project, showcasing the best practice in sustainable construction, design and technology; the retrofitting of iconic public buildings; a wind power industry project; a transformation of the manufacturing and engineering industry; green jobs in Aboriginal community projects; and the establishment of a green technology and innovation advisory service for small to medium sized businesses across the electorate.

A clean energy future will open up opportunities that we are only just now beginning to imagine, but in order to kick-start this vital transformative work across the region we need simply to put a price on carbon. Recognition of the need for action on climate change is not new and it is not without precedence in this place. Despite this, the disgraceful fearmongering on public display quite recently by the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Gilmore, who last week found her way to the BlueScope steelworks in my electorate, has really been quite appalling.

It is beyond question that the Gillard government is not prepared to see jobs go offshore as a result of our transition to a low-carbon economy. Nor do we want to see the emissions that come with those jobs go overseas. That is not the solution that we are working towards. Labor has a commitment that all funds raised by a carbon price will go to assisting households and businesses to transition and to programs to tackle climate change. That is why the opposition’s fear campaign is both baseless and debasing.

When you listen to those opposite talk in this area you see a combination of denial of the science and a complete abandonment of hope—an abandonment of hope that a great country like Australia has it within itself to face the challenge of the future. Those opposite belong to a party which would stand on the side of a street and, when it sees a house on fire, argue amongst its members about whether or not it is a fire. When they cannot resolve the argument about whether or not it is a fire they would argue about the cause of that fire. Then, in the process, they would argue about the media coverage of that fire and complain that it has been unfair and unbalanced. At the end of the day, while they are sitting on the sidelines arguing about the cause of the fire, it is Labor that is in there doing the hard yards—

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