Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The temporary member for Hasluck is interjecting.

When you have solar panels over the top of a car park, that's a fine place for them, but why would you put them out in the country? Why would you put them out in my part of the world, destroying all the native vegetation?

Those opposite talk about manufacturing. Well, I've got a newsflash for you. You have zero chance—net zero chance—of having manufacturing in this country unless you have reliable and affordable power. That comes back to your capex as well. When someone invests in manufacturing, they want their factory to be able to operate 24/7. That's how you get your return on your capital. They can't afford to have manufacturing that only operates when the wind blows or the sun shines. So it's just an absolutely ridiculous proposition.

But those opposite, the Albanese Labor government, are full of useless propositions. What have the Labor government done to create a solar plan to move Australia forward? Net zero. What have they done to strengthen our economy? Net zero. What have they done to increase productivity? Net zero. What have they done to support our farmers, our fishers, our miners and all our primary industries? Absolutely net zero.

But what they have done is they have brought in the family car and ute tax. Isn't that a ripper for rural and regional Australia! This is taxing the very vehicles that all the people around my electorate drive. They have to. This is a bid to get them to drive electric vehicles. But—newsflash for those opposite—the electric vehicles can't carry the weight, can't tow the load and can't cover the vast distances that are required. They're not suited for our purposes. If you want to use them in the city, happy days. But why tax my people out of existence to create this ideological fantasy land?

But, at the core of this bill, it isn't just about net zero. It is an industrial relations bill. What this legislation does is give the unions a big stick to threaten employers to provide paid time off, to facilitate activities to drive union membership—oh, we love that, because we clip the ticket on the way through for that, don't we, folks!—and enforce obligations that businesses may not be able to afford. The union movement want the Net Zero Economy Authority to be legislated because the authority will be able to collect the personal information of all employees, and those opposite do exactly what their union puppetmasters say.

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