Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Two things make the MPI introduced by the member for Wide Bay rather extraordinary. The first is that they made it Queensland specific. Why would they do that, Madam Deputy Speaker? Is it because they do not care about the mining industry in New South Wales? Is it because they do not care about the mining industry in WA or South Australia? I hope not. I will let them speak for themselves, but I think we secured the answer through the contributions of both the member for Wide Bay and the member for Groom.

This MPI is not about concern for the mining industry or the minerals processing industries, it is about Saturday's Queensland election. How sad it is that they are putting their own political interests ahead of the interests of the mining sector and all those who rely upon it. I will say a startling thing: I think the Labor Party will lose in Queensland on Saturday. That is more than likely, after so many years in office, as a natural political cycle. But how sad it is that the Leader of the Opposition and all of his senior shadow ministers have this week spent so much time trying to grab some ownership of that victory. They have nothing to say down here whatsoever. In question time they fail to ask any significant questions on policy. It is all about smear and innuendo and trying to trip someone up about an incident or two. There are never any health questions, never any real transport questions and never any real MRRT questions. It is carbon, carbon, carbon—because they think it is a winner. How sad it is that the only thing they have going for them, the only hope Tony Abbott has to shore up his position in the party room, is to grab hold of what might be an imminent victory in the Queensland election. It is very sad, but it says something about the standards on the other side.

The second thing that makes the MPI extraordinary is that it is about carbon and its impact on the mining industry and comes just a day after the Senate finally passed the MRRT, the mining tax. Would you not think that the day after the passage into law of a new mining tax that they have been so critical of this MPI might have been about the MRRT? No. It is their view that carbon is a winner for them. And they are going to stick to carbon. It leaves unanswered questions about what they really think of the MRRT and whether they are serious about repealing it and giving up all the tax and superannuation benefits that will flow to Australians as a result. We might be seeing a development here: the subtle shift away from their opposition to the MRRT and a focus back on what they think is a sure winner—that is the carbon price.

I heard some of them on the other side criticising the minister for talking as much about the MRRT as about carbon, but you cannot talk about one without talking about the other. This is resources policy and you cannot pick it apart. These things all go together. The reality is—and I represent a mining community—we have an economy with multiple speeds both throughout regions and throughout sectors. This combination of policies will not only get the taxation balance right, it will bring some form of equilibrium back to our economy. It will make sure, for example, that those who have waste as a result of their business, including carbon waste, pay for the cost of production—so the playing field will be levelled. The mining tax will make sure that those who exploit the resources owned by the Australian community pay the true taxation cost involved and are not taking economic rent.

Those things will have an effect on the speed of the mining sector. But guess what? My people want the mining sector to slow down. So do those in non-mining sectors who cannot find the employees they need to fill their available positions. In the Hunter Valley our unemployment rate is around three per cent, yet businesses in the services sector and the manufacturing sector cannot find the people they need to fill jobs. That of course is having an inflationary effect.

The people in my community are also concerned about air and water quality. They are worried about the car parks, the highways they encounter every day, housing prices, rental prices and the fact that they cannot get childcare places. All of these things flow from an overheated regional economy. Many on the other side represent communities in the slow lane. They have small businesses that are struggling, yet they come in here to deny this very important opportunity to put back into equilibrium some of the problems we have between sectors and to ensure that the great wealth that is flowing from the minerals industry and the mining sector is evenly shared by all Australians. That is a basic proposition that, surely, no-one on that side can reject.

Aluminium has been mentioned. I will talk about aluminium, because you could argue that, in many ways, it is part of the minerals-processing industry. The aluminium industry around the world is in trouble. Why is it in trouble? Because it got itself into a position of oversupply and consequently prices have been falling. It is worse here in Australia because the Australian dollar is so high and because input costs are high as well. People in this country, including those who sit opposite, are blaming the carbon price for some job losses in the aluminium sector, notwithstanding the fact that we do not have a carbon price yet. The most extraordinary thing I have heard is that our carbon price proposals here are causing aluminium smelter closures elsewhere around the globe. Of course they are not; it is common sense that they are not. I do not know how those opposite can put out this rubbish without any form of embarrassment, although I am sure there are some over there—some of them might be looking at me right now—who are embarrassed about some of the arguments that are being run by the people who sit on the opposition front bench and who obviously do not have a clue. By the way, those of them who are from New South Wales might pick up the phone to their state counterparts, the New South Wales government, and say: 'Give Hydro aluminium in the Hunter a power contract.' That is the way they could make a contribution to helping the aluminium industry in this country. Certainty, with a fairly priced power contract, has the potential to save 350 jobs in my electorate. It is about time some on that side thought about picking up the phone to Barry O'Farrell to say: 'Please give Hydro aluminium in Kurri Kurri a power contract.' We cannot do much about the Australian dollar and we cannot do much about the global price of aluminium, but we can certainly do something about a power contract for Hydro aluminium.

There have been lots of stories about job losses in the mining industry. I have a list of all the recent proposed investments just in Queensland—I will not read them out. Since we announced and passed the carbon price and since we first announced the MRRT mining investment in Queensland has been booming, which is counter to everything those on the other side have been saying. I loved seeing, the day after the Prime Minister announced the detail of our carbon price, Tony Abbott getting his fluoro vest and hard hat straight on and running to Peabody's Wambo mine in my electorate. He took Barnaby Joyce with him, because the Leader of the Opposition has to be a bit statesmanlike: he can let Senator Joyce say some things he feels he cannot say—and they certainly said some things that day about the future of the mining industry in the Hunter. But also on that day Peabody was involved in a $4.5 billion power play. Such was its concern about the coming carbon price and its impact on the mining industry, particularly on the mining industry in the Hunter.

Anyone outside this place listening to this debate this afternoon, particularly if they are not from Queensland, should be saying: 'Why aren't they talking about my state? Why aren't they talking about mining in New South Wales? Why aren't they talking about it in Western Australia and South Australia? Why would they be talking only about Queensland?' As I said, those opposite are trying to take some credit for what might happen in the Queensland election on Saturday. More importantly, they should ask themselves why the opposition keeps running arguments that simply do not stack up to the facts. It is simple: it is all about political opportunism. (Time expired)

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