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

There is no denying the fact that carbon tax is bad for business, it is bad for Australia. I only need to point to the evidence yesterday: Kurri Hydro—344 jobs to go. This morning at 10 o'clock the company started the consultation process to make the determination about the wind-up mothballing. So when the parliamentary secretary says he looks forward to going out into the community to meet the workers, I say to him, 'Don't bother going to Kurri because there will be no workers at the factory, there will be no workers at the aluminium smelter.'

What is misleading is that this parliamentary secretary has joined in the chorus with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency by stating that Kurri Hydro say the carbon tax has not affected their decision to close the plant. I want to quote from correspondence, a press release and a letter I received yesterday from Mr Olaf Wigstol, the senior vice-president. It says in part:

Following a thorough review, it is clear that the plant will not be profitable in the short term with current market prices, while long-term viability will be negatively affected by a number of factors including increasing energy costs and the carbon tax.

Yesterday in the parliament, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency responded to a question from the Leader of the Opposition by saying:

I spoke to a company representative again today in relation to this issue who emphasised to me that the announcement today is not driven by the implications of the carbon price … .

That is misleading the House.

He backed it up with a press release dated yesterday which restated that the announcement is:

… driven by current financial losses that are unrelated to the carbon price, which does not begin until 1 July.

On the ABC in Newcastle on 1233 this morning, I was interviewed alongside Minister Combet. During the discussion it was put to him by Aaron Kearney who actually read the website that carbon tax was a factor. Minister Combet for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and the member for Charlton who actually has a number of these workers living in his electorate said, 'It is not a critical cornerstone, they have described it as one of the many factors in the long term.' So I am going to be rather generous today. I am going to ask the minister to come in and correct the record because this minister has deliberately misled this House.

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