Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

she so desperately wants, the coalition now will give the Prime Minister a way forward to achieve the emissions reduction target through a direct action plan, a plan which will, by her own admission, reduce the emissions of carbon to the achievable target.

If this Prime Minister pursues a carbon tax, she is not only jeopardising the Australian economy but also Australian jobs. A DeLoitte Access Economics report predicted job losses of 21,000 in Queensland, while separate Queensland Treasury modelling predicted 12,000 jobs would go. The Victorian government commissioned a DeLoitte report, which found that there would be at least 23,000 fewer jobs created across Victoria by 2015. New South Wales Treasury modelling predicted 31,000 jobs would be lost in New South Wales by 2030 under this tax and 18,500 jobs would be gone from my region of the Hunter Valley alone.

Australian jobs in the steel industry, aluminium industry, energy industry, mining industry, manufacturing industry, tourism and hospitality industry and the agricultural industry are all under threat from this government's socialist agenda. As Englishman John Heywood said in 1546, 'There are none so blind as those who refuse to see and none so deaf as those who refuse to listen.'

That sums up this unholy Labor-Greens alliance: they refuse to see, they refuse to listen to the Australian people, and any polling they conduct or look at will confirm that they are on the wrong path with this tax. That is why I question their agenda. In fact last week, after five days of random phone canvassing across the whole electorate of Paterson, my office found that only 11.5 per cent were in favour of a carbon tax while 73.5 per cent were against it, 8.75 per cent were unsure, and 6.25 per cent refused to comment. I am sure that any polling or focus group sessions that Labor does would be indicating the same response.

Labor and the Greens claim that young people in particular want a carbon tax. Well, last Thursday in discussions with a group of fine young Australians at the National Student Leadership Forum I canvassed their opinions. And, yes, all agreed that action was needed on climate change, and most thought that a carbon tax would fix the problem—that was until they found out that the coalition's direct action plan achieved the same five per cent reduction target. But the real game-changer was when they found out that this government was not taking any remedial action in Australia but buying their environmental future by purchasing carbon credits offshore. Young Australians, all Australians, want action in Australia for Australia.

It is said that Australia's tourist industry is largely driven by about three Australian icons: the reef, the rock and the Opera House. Labor is keen to state at every opportunity that only a carbon tax will save the Great Barrier Reef. Nothing is further from the truth. Only direct action—reducing run-offs, changing from chemical fertilisers to organics, utilising carbon sequestration here in Australia—will help reduce the impact, if any, on our reef.

I have a reasonable understanding of our Great Barrier Reef as I have an association with the reef that goes back over four decades, as a tourism operator, diver, fisherman and ship's captain. I have worked to save it when the crown of thorns invasion threatened the reef, I have toured the very length of it, fished it, dived it. I have lived it—and I love it. Taking environmental action offshore will provide little or no positive impact on our reef. What will the impact on our reef and our tourism industry be with this carbon tax? The Tourism and Transport Forum report, Carbon tax and tourism and travel—Trade and global warming exposed estimates that the introduction of a carbon tax will lead to job losses of around 6,400 in the tourism industry and, worse still, most of those jobs will be in regional or rural Australia. In addition, the negative economic impact will be around $600 to $800 million. The tourism industry employs around half a million Australians—it is second only to the manufacturing industry—and if restaurant and hospitality services are added, it is around one million people. Yet there is not one single cent in the industry adjustment package for this industry under a carbon tax. At the same time this Prime Minister gave $100 million to the steel industry. This is a bad tax by a bad government that will deliver a bad result for Australia; therefore, I oppose it. (Time expired)

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