Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

will be all borrowed money. It will be used to fund high-risk pet projects of the Greens and Labor, projects the private sector would not touch with a barge pole. The lessons of the failed Tricontinental bank, the failed State Bank of South Australia and WA Inc. are so easily forgotten. It is criminal; it is pure politics; it is not policy inspired. No less than Don Argus said he was bemused that such vast sums of money were being staked on risky and expensive renewable energy and not carbon capture and storage—it was explicitly excluded from those $10 billion funds. He said:

This example highlights just how politically expedient this government's tax reform agenda has been. … The government has rushed ahead with proposals that are … not in the best interests of our country—

despite the endless mantra about what is the in the interest of the country being pursued.

While Senator Brown rages against foreign ownership in mining, he remains silent about wind farms. About 30 per cent of Australian wind farms are foreign owned and their manufactures are all foreign owned. Doesn't he have a problem with this—their proliferation and the way they are shattering communities?

We know from the lessons learned in Europe that all the talk about green jobs, which will replace jobs in traditional industries, is pure nonsense. In fact, it is quite disingenuous the way in which this government comes into this House every day to talk about green jobs. The US study by Verso Economics recently found that for every green job created 3.7 jobs in other parts of the economy were destroyed. This supports similar findings from Spain, Germany and other parts of Europe. This is what we can expect in Australia in manufacturing, mining and resources. Thousands of jobs will be lost—and the cost of green jobs is extraordinarily high, compared with traditional jobs.

Look at the billions this government has wasted on green rip-offs: $2.4 billion on pink batts, $850 million on solar homes, $300 million on green loans and, despite the enormous tax take under this scheme, $9 billion a year that cannot even make the numbers add up. Incredibly, this scheme will cost the budget $4.3 billion over the forward estimates. That is a real black hole, yet, according to the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, this adds up to broadly budget neutral—and they wonder why people are so sceptical about their management skills of this economy. No wonder they are a laughing stock. Senator Wong wants nothing to do with this carbon tax. Here is a snapshot of her past comments:

The carbon tax does not guarantee emissions reductions.

…   …   …

A carbon tax … is a recipe for abrupt and unpredictable changes.

She goes on to say that the introduction of a carbon price ahead of effective international action can lead to perverse incentives for such industries to relocate or source production offshore. That is the current finance minister, the former Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. These are all contradictory in terms of the carbon tax policy that has been laid down and which we are debating here today. I could not have said it better myself.

They are also creating six new bureaucracies to administer this dog's breakfast of a scheme. This will cost a staggering $382 million. I went to Tasmania recently, where they built a beautiful dam for $34 with hydro. It changed the economics of that small region. You could build 11 of those around the country for the cost of the carbon tax bureaucrats each year. By contrast, the coalition's direct action policy will cost $3.2 billion over four years and it will be transparently funded from savings within budget—and capped. Virtually all this money will be spent on purchasing least-cost abatement through competitive tender.

Competitive tendering is a market based system but one which does not come with tens of billions of dollars of new tax and tens of billions of dollars of higher electricity charges. Direct action is a no-regrets policy. If there is still no global agreement by 2020, Australia will have remained competitive while reducing emissions by five per cent, avoiding tens of billions of dollars of tax, yet still in a good position to assess the way forward from there. The direct incentives to invest in lower energy and emissions technology in our business sector, greater carbon levels in our soils and tree planting in appropriate areas will see major productivity gains regardless of action taken by the rest of the world.

On the other hand, going it alone with a carbon tax and then an emissions trading scheme is highly irresponsible. This politically inspired going-it-alone policy approach guarantees that Australia will be far worse off than if a global agreement applied. In fact, under a global scheme, closures of inefficient power generation and value-adding resource plants, such as zinc and aluminium smelters, would occur elsewhere in the world first. This carbon tax will deliver around 40 million tonnes, or just 25 per cent, of overall abatements. The world economy is facing the likelihood of a further major slump over the next 12 months, yet this government wants to introduce an economy-wide tax. I urge any government members opposite who want to do the right thing by our nation and our communities to reject these bills. (Time expired)

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