Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Indi has kindly agreed to join us as well, so potentially we can have a team of four going. I invite them to come with me, even to visit Vicpole, as soon as possible. The implementation of the carbon tax would be bad enough if the situation for Australian manufacturers were not so dire in the first place. Close to 90,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in the last three years alone. That is 550 jobs lost each and every week. One in 12 workers in the manufacturing sector in Australia has lost their job in the last three years. Despite manufacturing being under significant pressure—it is declining and jobs are being lost and it is suffering from the high Australian dollar and higher interest rates, compared to overseas countries—the government seeks to make things worse.

And of course they come into this place and have the temerity to say that the carbon tax is actually all about jobs. Almost day in and day out the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have had the temerity to come into this place and say that the carbon tax is actually all about creating jobs.

An opposition member: It is about imaginary jobs.

Exactly. They are imaginary jobs in their own imagination. In fact the only jobs they appear to be interested in are their own.

Are so many manufacturing businesses wrong when they say that the carbon tax is going to hurt them. Are they simply not listening to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer when they say that this tax is actually about job creation. I do not think so. I do not think that Kate Carnell from the Australian Food and Grocery Council is incorrect when she says:

For Julia Gillard to say that food companies who aren't in the top 1,000 emitters won't be affected by a carbon tax is simply wrong.

I do not think Kate Carnell is incorrect in saying that. And I do not think Manufacturing Australia is incorrect when it says:

… it tolls the death knell for manufacturing in Australia. It represents the introduction of a multi-billion dollar tax that will impact on every Australian financially, far in excess of the capacity of many businesses and everyday Australians to pay.

I do not think they are wrong in saying that. And I do not think that Paul Howes is wrong when he says:

Carbon pricing could be the straw that breaks the camel's back as far as (some) industries are concerned.

I do not think he is wrong in that regard. I could go on. The chairman of BlueScope Steel says:

Why is (the government) prepared to sacrifice a key sector of the Australian economy by introducing a carbon tax on Australian manufacturers, with little impact on world CO2 generation?

I invite the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the climate change minister, the industry minister and, indeed, all members on the other side of this House to listen to the words of those industry leaders and to the words of the union leaders, who have been supporting them to date. These industry leaders, and Paul Howes, are not wrong. They know of the impacts a carbon tax would have on their businesses. They know it will cost jobs. They know it will have very, very little impact, if any, on global emissions. They also know, like every Australian, that no matter what the carbon tax starts at—whether it is $15, $20 or $25 a tonne—that will just be the beginning. Over time it will continue to go up and go up and go up.

Let us not forget that this carbon tax has no mandate. None of us will ever forget that. It was introduced on the basis of a lie. The day before the election last year the Prime Minister went to the Australian public and said there would be no carbon tax under a government she leads. Each of us in this House knows that, had she been honest on that day and said that there would be a carbon tax under a government that she leads, she would not be Prime Minister today. We all know that. The tax is being introduced on the basis of a lie. It has no mandate. It is going to affect our manufacturers right across Australia, including in my own electorate of Aston. We call on the Prime Minister to call an election to get a mandate if she honestly believes this is the answer for the manufacturing sector. (Time expired)

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