Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What happened in that school is an absolute disgrace. You should come down and talk to the principal about it, and then you would see firsthand what happened to that $1.2 million. That program was rushed out. I go back to my constituent who was on the front page of the Australian today, who said, 'I think their idea might have been well intended, but you wonder if they thought it through.' And they did not.

Just think about what could have been done with the money that was wasted. When we talk about employment, when we talk about job creation, think about what could have been done with that money. For instance, what about if you had thought: 'Okay, we've got a couple of billion dollars here; maybe we should go to state governments. One idea which might be quite a good one is, ''Let's work towards the reduction of payroll tax.''' If you understand business in the community, you will understand that payroll tax is one of the biggest disincentives to employing people. That would have been a very constructive way, a way which structurally would have changed the employment market in this country and led to more job creation. That is just one idea. The member for Blair asked me for one—there it is, right on the plate. Think about it; it would be a very good way to go about it.

The third issue is one that is about to hit the community and businesses across my electorate and across the country. It will add to the cost of living. It is the carbon tax. It is not too late to say that the carbon tax is the wrong policy at the wrong time. If you will face up to that you can save this country from immeasurable damage from this insidious tax.

I have an aluminium smelter in Portland in my electorate. It is a very good investment by Alcoa. It provides incredibly important jobs and, not only that, those jobs feed into the local community and provide jobs there as well. The carbon tax will add a $40 million cost to smeltering for Alcoa in the state of Victoria. That is the figure that was announced by the company in Senate estimates. At this time, when a review has just been announced of the 600 workers' jobs at Point Henry, and the company has come out and stated that the carbon tax is going to be a $40 million hit to its bottom line, why would you progress with it? Surely you would step back and say, given the climate for manufacturing at the moment, that this is not the right tax for the right time. You would admit, 'We got it wrong.' I would go back to my constituents and say, 'Maybe the idea was well intended, but I wonder whether we have thought this through properly.'

It is not just big manufacturing; it is small manufacturing. With a company like Gason in my electorate, which manufactures equipment which leads to a reduction in carbon emissions from soy, what are they getting for producing this equipment?

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