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

I thank the minister for his attendance today and for the opportunity to ask him some questions, particularly given the Gippsland-Latrobe Valley region is recognised, I think even by the government, as one of the regions that will be most adversely affected by the carbon price—or the 'carbon tax', as we like to call it in the Latrobe Valley, even though apparently no-one on the other side of the House likes to call it a 'tax' anymore. I will refer specifically to the regional structural adjustment package, which is supposedly being developed as part of the government's carbon tax package. It has been confirmed by the minister for regional development that there are no guidelines in place for the distribution of this $200 million package. Even when you consider that this $200 million package is grossly inadequate to assist the affected regions, it strikes me as staggering that we are only days away from the implementation of the carbon tax and this $200 million structural adjustment package is without guidelines.

Given that there are no guidelines now and that the tax will come into effect in just a couple of weeks time, can the minister explain how regions which are going to be adversely affected by the carbon tax will be compensated for those adverse impacts?

The Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government was in my electorate quite recently—I think it was last Wednesday or Thursday—and he gave the impression that the vast bulk of the money that was allocated under the package would be contingent upon regions demonstrating that they had been adversely affected by the policy through such things as contracts for closure. Given that the government so far has refused to fund even a socioeconomic analysis of the Latrobe Valley to assess what the impacts of the carbon tax or a contract for closure would be, I am interested to know how the government proposes to demonstrate which regions have been adversely affected and how these funds will be allocated. On that specific issue of the contract for closure, given that we are just days away from the implementation of the carbon tax and given that the government was going to make some announcements on 1 July in relation to the contract-for-closure tender process, will the minister deny that the government is going to announce an extension of time for contract for closure?

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