Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Roads and Regional Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member for Riverina scoff, with good cause. The Prime Minister's comment will come as a huge surprise to the people in my electorate. It will also come as a huge surprise to the power station workers in my electorate. The Prime Minister and every member of the government has voted to kick them out of their jobs. There are hundreds of power station workers in the Latrobe Valley today who will lose their jobs under the carbon tax Contract for Closure scheme. There can be no greater blow to the confidence of a regional economy than unemployment. This government and every member of it has voted to sack blue-collar workers in the Latrobe Valley, and now they sit there silently—not a word. Members opposite are sitting there silently, just as they sat silently during this debate on the carbon tax. Not one of them stood up for the workers in the Latrobe Valley; not one of them had the guts to stand up for the blue-collar workers in the Latrobe Valley who will lose their jobs under this government's carbon tax. Those jobs are in the hands of Labor MPs. The future of those families in the Latrobe Valley is up to those opposite.

I just question whatever happened to that grand old party, the grand old Australian Labor Party, that proudly claimed to stand up for the workers of this nation. The workers that I speak to do not want Labor's household assistance package. They do not want Labor's transition plan. They do not want Labor's promise of new green jobs. They want the security of the job they have got today.

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