Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is funny because their matter of public importance today really is a joke. It is a joke like one of those appalling jokes that you get inside a Christmas bonbon. Let me explain.

I live in Yeppoon, on the beautiful Capricorn Coast. It is a great place with a great view of the Keppel island group, which sits off the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Yeppoon is a great place to holiday, and in fact I invite all Australians to book a holiday and come to Yeppoon. You will love it. My position on living near the Great Barrier Reef is quite clear. There must always be balanced consideration for industry growth and job creation, our coastal lifestyle and the conservation of the reef itself.

When it comes to looking out for the Great Barrier Reef, a great natural wonder, this government has been working hard. We are doing what UNESCO asked us to do by limiting port development to key existing ports along the Queensland coastline. At the Abbot Point coal terminal, in North Queensland, the federal government has applied the strictest environmental standards in Australian history with regard to any future expansion activity. When they were in power, Labor wanted to dump 38 million cubic metres of dredging sand from Abbot Point into the water at the edge of the Great Barrier Reef. Our government, however, is far more responsible in caring for Australia's natural environment. The coalition government has limited such activity to three million cubic metres in the interest of the reef. Let's do the sums: Labor wanted to dump 38 million cubic metres of dredge near the reef; that is 35 million more than we will allow. What a joke!

But we are not the only ones that see Labor's bungling of the environment as a joke. Let me refer you to a brilliant article in a recent online edition of London's Daily Telegraph. It was written by Andrew Critchlow. It appeals to the British Prime Minister not to make the same mistakes on climate change as the Australian Labor Party. Let me quote directly from this article:

As flood waters across Britain continue to rise the calls will inevitably grow louder for Prime Minister David Cameron to take … action on climate change by imposing tougher green taxes on business.

In the current circumstance it would be easy for Mr Cameron to make a knee jerk response and fall into the political trap of raising taxes on emissions to counter global warming, which many experts already blame for causing the current deluge.

Before acting the prime minister would be wise to draw on the experience of Australia, where the call for major policy changes to counter adverse weather cycles have spectacularly backfired.

A series of environmental disasters Down Under coupled with the Australian Labor Party's reliance on an uneasy coalition with the Greens forced former Prime Minister Julia Gillard … to press ahead with a controversial so called "carbon tax" on emissions.

The tax—which almost cost the Australian government more to collect than it raised in actual revenue, or achieved in terms of a better environment—was … poorly thought out …

…   …   …

The tax was designed to hit the country's biggest emitters of carbon pollution such as mining and energy companies. Instead it added to the uncertainty hanging over the resources boom, the main driver for the Australian economy.

…   …   …

Ultimately, the tax failed in its political objective of holding together Labor's fragile minority government with the Greens, or winning over voters who faced higher costs passed on by the companies that had to pay it.

The London Telegraph went on to describe Labor's carbon tax as 'perhaps the most unsuccessful and ineffectual policy in the country's history'. It warned the British Prime Minister not to go down the same path as the Australian Labor Party.

Let me get back to the very first point I raised—that Labor's matter of public importance today is a joke. It reminds me of the last lines of that song. I will not sing it, but it goes like this: 'Send in the clowns, send in the clowns. Don't worry, they're here.'

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