Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Twenty-four hours from the concerning announcement by BHP, we still have the opposition peddling mistruths about the Olympic Dam announcement. We still see them making up things, shooting from the hip and not actually listening to what BHP had to say. Some would think, if they listened to this debate, that opposition members actually knew more about BHP operations than BHP itself—that in fact the opposition knows more about what is going on within BHP than Marius Kloppers himself. Unfortunately we have a situation where the opposition either have not read the statement, which is what the Leader of the Opposition had not done yesterday, or they have not understood it, and they have not caught up with what is actually happening in South Australia—and when it comes to a Olympic Dam in particular.

Two mistruths have been spoken in this debate. The first was that it is the mining tax that stopped Olympic Dam. I am glad the member for Grey acknowledged it, because he is the only member on that side to actually acknowledge that the mining tax does not apply to copper, gold or uranium, and they are the things being mined at Olympic Dam. It is a pity the Leader of the Opposition has not bothered to acknowledge that.

The second mistruth was that somehow the carbon tax stopped Olympic Dam from going ahead. The opposition used to think a price on carbon was going to go ahead. They advocated for it and were negotiating for it and then, unfortunately, the Leader of the Opposition squashed that on its head when many members wished it would still go ahead. Mr Kloppers also made it very clear that he believes there will be a price on carbon and that if Australia does not act we will be left behind. Mr Kloppers said Australia will need to 'look beyond coal' powered electricity and 'towards other energy solutions'. He said:

Failure to do so will place us at a competitive disadvantage in the future where carbon is priced globally.

He has also said:

…we do believe that such a global initiative will eventually come. And we do believe that when it does come Australia will have needed to act ahead of it coming in order to maintain its competitiveness.

For the opposition to suggest that carbon pricing was not something BHP had considered and that suddenly, when it came in, it stopped Olympic Dam is misleading this parliament. You do not have to take it from me. You could take it from the words of Marius Kloppers who said:

The decision is almost wholly associated with, in the first instance, capital costs, which is not only an Australian issue - if we look at Chile and Colombia and so on, where you've had similar exchange rate issues and cost increases …

Unlike what the opposition would have us believe, this is not an Australian government conspiracy that has shut down Olympic Dam. In fact, BHP looked at the project and found that exchange rates and capital costs made it difficult.

BHP Billiton also made it very clear that 'the tax environment for this particular project'—meaning Olympic Dam—'has not changed at all since we started working on it six or seven years ago'. For the opposition to come in and say that the issue is the putting of a price on carbon or that it is the minerals resource rent tax is completely at odds with what the company itself said. Quite frankly, I am not sure where the opposition's logic is. They obviously have not read BHP's statement. I am happy to provide it to the members of the opposition. I think the Leader of the House did provide it to members today. I would encourage them strongly to actually have a look at the facts.

It is not surprising that we hear the Leader of the Opposition talk down South Australia and the South Australian economy. He regularly supports policies that are not in South Australia's interest. We have seen a number of announcements which will hurt the South Australian economy if that side of the House ever sits on the government benches. In particular, we have already heard the Leader of the Opposition, when he runs over to Western Australia, say, 'I am seriously going to think about changing the GST distribution. I am going to look at that. I think I will cut it from South Australia. I think I will cut it from Tasmania and give a bit more to you'. That is effectively what he said. That would have a disastrous effect on a small state like South Australia and shows that the Leader of the Opposition has no regard for South Australians and no regard for ensuring that we have adequate services like the bigger states do.

It does not stop there. The car industry is of particular importance to South Australia. The government's Automotive Transformation Scheme has been really important in ensuring that the car industry has a long-term exciting future in South Australia. What do we get from the Leader of the Opposition? 'We will scrap it.' That is what he said. He is not interested in long-term investment in jobs in South Australia. I heard the member for Grey say 'It is only a few jobs; it is only a few thousand jobs'. It is not, Member for Grey, it is a lot of jobs, not just the direct jobs at Holden but the indirect jobs that come to my electorate, to your electorate and to every electorate. There are 200,000 jobs in this country that are supported by the car industry and what would those on that side do? They would scrap it.

Let us get onto the submarines. The defence industry is, once again, a very important industry to the South Australian economy. Labor, this side of the House, are committed to jobs in Australia. We are committed to ensuring that there are jobs in Australia and we will assemble the submarines in South Australia. What does the opposition say? They say we do not think we will give it to South Australia. We will look at buying it off-the-shelf overseas. We will go overseas and do our shopping for our submarines. We will not invest in the jobs in South Australia. This equals an indifference to South Australia and its people by the Leader of the Opposition. I could get onto water, where the Leader of the Opposition said, 'We will not buy back water.' It is a shame that they would treat South Australians like that. But South Australia does have a bright future. There is a lot of mineral exploration going on.

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