Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The topic of this afternoon's matter of public importance is the adverse impact of the carbon tax on the Australian economy. I might just touch on the contributions we have heard from the government side. We heard the rant from the Minister for Trade, the flippant 15 minutes of diatribe that was completely unrelated to the topic of the day. I might add that the trade minister actually grew up in my electorate, in a little town called Baradine. When he moved to Queensland, the IQ of both places improved, but that is by the by.

But I am looking forward to the minister coming to visit his old town, because when he does he is going to find the consequences of what happens when government dabbles in environmental matters—when government takes blind philosophy and turns it into a disaster, both ecological and financial. When the minister goes back to his old town of Baradine he will find that, instead of the 10 sawmills that were there when he left, there is now none; instead of the vibrant, living forest that sustained employment for hundreds of people, there is now a choking wilderness of cypress pine of which every couple of years another 50,000 hectares or so goes up in smoke and tortures all the wildlife within. That is what the minister will find happens when governments start to dabble in environmental policy.

We heard a contribution from the member for Robertson, and she spoke about the fear campaign in this debate. She did not mention the member for Sydney visiting the Central Coast a couple of weeks ago and scaring the pants off the good folk at a retirement village about the rising sea levels, saying that the Central Coast was going to be underwater. It was totally unsubstantiated scare campaigning. The member for Robertson also spoke about being in her electorate's classrooms. I suspect that those in her classrooms will be hearing that the government is their friend, that the government controls all and to stay away from those nasty farmers who use our water to grow crops and who have those belching cows that add methane to the environment. I can just imagine being in the classrooms in the member for Robertson's electorate, but we will move on.

The tone of this whole debate, from right back in 2008, on the emissions trading scheme and now the carbon tax has been one of fear from the government. We heard the member for Isaacs in his speech on the emissions trading scheme talking about his electorate going underwater. It is unsubstantiated. We heard from the member for Makin—I think it was in December at the time and it was 43 degrees in Adelaide—and he wanted that legislation passed by Christmas because he was worried about sunburn when he went to the beach. This policy was formulated in the middle of the worst drought in this country's history. We had the member for Wills talking about the dry river system of the Murray-Darling, somehow putting 10 years of drought down to the veracity of farmers, climate change and global warming, and saying that we needed to react. All of these untruths and overstated, emotional types of arguments have been used by the government to scare the pants off people. The job of the government is to give confidence to the people they serve. How can you give confidence to the people you serve when you are scaring the pants off them?

At the moment I am co-chair of the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Meals on Wheels. The Meals on Wheels volunteers are telling me that this winter, when they were delivering the meals, they were finding the old folk in bed—not because they were unwell but because they were conserving energy. They are frightened. It is not that they don't have the money but that they are frightened of what is to come, because they have been told that they need to show austerity and tighten their belts because of climate change.

Why are we getting this argument from the government? I will tell you why: it is because of the background of the members who have come from the union movement. The member for Robertson spoke about the small businesses in her electorate. The member for Riverina quipped that they probably used to be big businesses before this government came to power. I would like to know how many members of the government have actually run a business. How many of them have actually run an ice-cream cart or sold a dagwood dog? They have grown up on the sweat and blood of the Australian worker, sucked their way up to the size of some sort of large parasite to get to the stage where they could come into this place, but they have no idea what makes this country tick.

I saw a classic example of this. It used to be in the electorate of Parkes and it is now in the electorate of Hunter—the Kandos cement plant that has been mentioned many times in this place. It is now closed. Despite the protestations from the member for Hunter, it is now closed because of the upcoming carbon tax. Cement Australia have been coming into my office for the last four years telling me, 'If we get a carbon tax the plant at Kandos will close.' I went up there the day after that announcement was made and the members of the Australian Workers Union were there. Were they in uproar? Were they going to the media talking about this terrible government policy that had closed down a plant with a 100-year tradition and was putting over 100 people out of work? Not a squeak. Where was the champion of the Australian Workers Union, the member for Maribyrnong? Where was he when he should have been standing up for the workers of the cement industry? Put him in front of a TV camera with his head down a mine shaft, he is a champion; bring him in here and have him actually stand up for the people that he supposedly represents, not a squeak.

This is a disgrace. The country is suffering a crisis of confidence because of this government. In the electorate of New England we have one of the largest meat processing plants in Australia, Bindaree Beef, run by the McDonald family. It is the largest employer not only in Inverell but in the district. Off the top of my head, about a quarter of million cattle a year go through that plant. The increase in energy costs alone from this tax is going to cost that plant about $2.25 million. It is another impost. Members on the other side have never run a business. Margins on a plant like that are so small that an impost like that is unsustainable.

Not only will we find 600 workers in Inverell out of a job, but the cattle producers from the four states that supply that plant will no longer have a market. Where is their local member? Where is the member for New England? Doing some sort of a cosy deal with Bob Brown and Co. Where was the member for New England when it was decided to bring in the idea that agricultural transport would be hit by this legislation? Agriculture—the backbone; the one industry that kept this country out of recession a couple of years ago—is going to get hit from all sides. Every input that we use in agriculture—whether it is fuel, fertiliser, machinery—is going to be hit. They put in a scheme called the Carbon Farming Initiative. It is basically untried claptrap that will have very little effect on the environment and offer very little income to the farmer.

In closing, why are we having a carbon tax? The obvious answer is: to save the environment. When was the last time we heard anyone from the government speak about the environment and how this was going to have that effect? This is like having a high school debate—it is removed from reality. No-one is saying that this is going to improve the environment one scrap in Australia or in the world. If it is not going to have an environmental effect, why are we doing it? Are we going to subject our children and our grandchildren and future Australians to becoming a second-class nation for some grand gesture? Does the Prime Minister think that the Greens and Bob Brown will be happy with this if it gets passed? What will be the next stage? The Greens are like that cancer eating away at the side of your head: not happy until they have consumed your entire body. It is not going to stop there.

It is now time for members of the government to stand up for their electorates and show a bit of backbone. It is about time for the Independents, who sit up here behind me, to show a bit of ticker, stop looking after their political futures and look after the future of the people they represent. (Time expired)

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