Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill 2024 and the Net Zero Economy Authority (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024. In the two years of this Labor government, we have seen attack after attack on the industries that have built and powered this nation. Let me be clear: this legislation is another attack on the hardworking men and women of this country, especially anyone who lives in Central Queensland.

Under the legislation, the authority's functions would be to co-ordinate net zero policy and planning across government, facilitate both government and private participation and investment, support affected workers, support First Nations Australians to participate in the transition, and deliver educational and promotional initiatives as Australia transitions to a net zero emissions economy. There are two broad aspects to this legislation, which operationalises the authority's power. The first is to facilitate new investment in net zero transition. It's intended that the authority will be the shopfront for industry and investors. It will seek to work with project proponents and state governments to get renewables projects to investment decision. The authority will also mobilise public moneys through vehicles like the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the National Reconstruction Fund. With private financing support, it will address enabling infrastructure needs and navigate regulatory processes.

The second responsibility of the authority is to assist impacted workers in the transitioning areas through the Energy Industry Jobs Plan. The Energy Industry Jobs Plan would allow the authority to utilise the industrial relations system to manage the redeployment of workers in closing coal-fired and gas-fired power stations and their dependent employees—for example, in coalmines that are aligned to these closing power stations. The plan does not specify or anticipate the types of employment that workers may transition to.

In terms of jobs, the Labor government claims it will support the jobs transition of highly paid, highly skilled people who have become redundant in both the traditional power generation sector and the mining and resources sector. The government needs to explain how thousands of well-paid jobs will become available in the renewable energy sector. Furthermore, what support is offered to existing businesses and communities? For example, if the Callide Power Station in Biloela is to close in the future and some 250 jobs leave that economy, that means less children at the school. It means less groceries are sold at the store. It means less beer gets drunk at the pub. It means less rate base for the local government authority. The list goes on and on. Furthermore, research has found that workers who lose their jobs when a coal-fired power plant closes are earning only half their pre-redundancy income years after being laid off.

It becomes clear that this government is all politics and no plan. The detrimental effects to the economy and the general cost of living, reliability of power generation and the cost to heavy industry and manufacturers have not been clearly understood. For example, does the committee really believe that the alumina industry in Gladstone can exist and be competitive on the world stage if they are to rely solely on power generation from wind, solar and batteries? What guarantees can the government offer that heavy industry will exist in the future with such energy policy?

The Labor government passed the safeguard mechanism last year. Mr Bowen announced in Gladstone that 215 of Australia's largest emitters would be required to cut emissions by 4.9 per cent each year through to 2030 to help reach its emissions targets. Of the 215 industrial facilities, 28 operate in the Capricornia electorate, and 18 operate in the Flynn electorate in Central Queensland. That means 30 per cent of the top 215 companies set to be taxed are in Central Queensland, and we all know that Central Queensland is the economic engine room of Australia. The legislation will have a larger effect on our region than any other region in Australia. Labor's safeguard mechanism targets facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. If facilities go over this amount, the businesses will need to buy carbon credits or carbon offsets. As these credits cost money, this is just a new cost impost on job-creating industries.

Facilities to be taxed in the Flynn electorate include the APLNG facility, Batchfire Resources, Blackwater mine, Boyne Smelters, Curragh mine, Curtis Island LNG plant, Dawson mine, Ensham mine, Fishermans Landing Cement Australia, Jellinbah mine, Kestrel mine, Oaky Creek mine, Queensland Alumina Ltd refinery, Queensland Curtis Island LNG plant, Rio Tinto Yarwun, Rolleston coal mine, Yarrabee coal mine and Yarwun nitrates. In 2021, Rio owned the Yarwun refinery in Gladstone that purported to employ 700 people, a majority of whom were living in the local region. About 500 contractors were employed for the annual shutdowns and other activities. Yarwun refinery's annual production exceeds three million tonnes of alumina. Queensland Alumina Ltd in 2020 paid $983 million in contributions to the economy, including salaries, partnerships, in-kind support, taxes and total national supply spend. QAL sends alumina to locations such as Tasmania, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, China, New Zealand and Russia, as well as Queensland manufacturing businesses.

However, it was announced last year that Rio Tinto has slashed US$1.2 billion from the value of its Australian alumina assets on the back of the federal government's safeguard mechanism, writing off the value of its Yarwun alumina refinery completely due to the need to buy carbon offsets as an asset. Rio Tinto also slashed US$227 million from the value of its share in Queensland Alumina Ltd. Since Labor's safeguard mechanism was announced, I've called it an attack on heavy industry and the thousands of workers that work in this sector, and it has proven to be exactly that. While Labor claims to be a friend of the working man and woman, it is happy to shut down these industries that employ them. You simply cannot trust the Labor Party with your job.

Many in this House would not be aware that, without the mining and resources sector, Australia would not be the prosperous nation that it is today. Queensland Resources Council presented a fact sheet for the Flynn electorate for the 2021-22 financial year. The total economic contribution for the mining and resources sector in Flynn was $17.7 billion of gross regional product and supports 50,942 local jobs. Central Highlands Development Corporation produced a fact sheet for the Central Highlands region, which has Australia's largest coal reserve and 12 operating coalmines. The region produces more than 62 million tonnes of coal, which represents 28 per cent of Queensland's total production. Mining is the largest employer in Central Queensland, with a direct workforce exceeding 6,000 people. Fifty-five per cent of those workers are nonresidents commuting by road or air from Rockhampton, Mackay and South East Queensland. Ninety per cent of non-resident workers stay in accommodation villages and 10 per cent in other accommodations such as motels, hotels and caravan parks. In the local Central Highlands economy, over $790 million is spent on local goods and services, which is estimated to be 30 per cent of the total spend. Astonishingly, the Central Highlands has an output of $9.4 billion. These export dollars are helping to pay for our schools, hospitals, roads, emergency services and so forth.

Has the federal Labor government assessed what this proposed legislation means for these mining communities? What the government has failed to work out is how their policies and taxes on the industry are forcing up the cost of everything. Australians know that, despite the Treasury's spin, prices have increased by nearly 10 per cent, with increases for many essential items well beyond that. Housing is up 12 per cent, rents up 12 per cent, insurance up 26 per cent, electricity 18 per cent and gas up 25 per cent. And of course these prices are still going up when the government is putting taxes on critical industries and slapping cash on unreliable ones.

Earlier in my speech, I spoke about how the Labor government is taxing 18 of the industries in the Flynn electorate—industries that make alumina and cement and get gas to market. No wonder we have seen these increases in the cost of everything, including housing and energy. To make matters worse, we see this government throwing money at a proposal of 58 million solar panels, almost 3,500 wind turbines and 28,000 kilometres of new transmission poles and wires. The level of duplication of the proposed Net Zero Economy Authority's responsibility to promote new investment in net zero transition and existing Commonwealth entities is beyond a joke. How many federal agencies tasked with renewable financing does the Commonwealth require?

This approach focusing on facilitating investment consistent with net zero ambitions also leans into the government's preference for picking winners rather than genuine investment facilitation and job creation. A national body risks a top-down, Canberra-centric approach which does not fully consider the regional needs and priorities. It is also likely that, once established, the Labor government will continue to add additional powers and responsibilities to the authority to support its net zero and climate change ambitions. Will the government rule out giving this net zero authority new powers to streamline and/or expedite regulatory approvals or financing the transformational green energy projects? In the targeting of Labor's 2024-25 budget, the funding for the authority and its related activities is budget to be $399.1 million from 2023-24 to 2026-27 alone, with further funding totalling $1.1 billion over the medium term. This is on top of billions of dollars of additional funding being moved into the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the newly badged Future Made in Australia. Over $13 billion in taxpayer funded subsidies for big businesses doesn't address the source of Labor's cost-of-living crisis. Labor's focus should be on dealing with energy costs, high inflation and out-of-control red tape. Instead, Labor continuously fails to address these fundamental realities facing most Australian businesses.

With insolvencies at record highs and more businesses going offshore, supporting a small number of big businesses is irresponsible and a slap in the face for small business desperately seeking answers from this government on how to survive. The level of duplication between the Net Zero Economy Authority, the existing Commonwealth institutions demonstrates a complete waste of over $1 billion of federal government funds over the forward estimates.

While the bill will require employers to offer workers retraining opportunities in an attempt to match employees with new jobs in the green economy, it is unlikely to benefit older, experienced workers approaching retirement or workers with highly specific skill sets. There is concern about the scope of the legislation, particularly for smaller, independent employers. The explanatory memorandum provides an example of a local cleaning service with a commercial relationship with a closing generator being classified as an independent employer. It is not clear what liability or obligations a cleaning service would be expected to adopt under the energy industry jobs plan. It would be up to the FWC to determine this. There are no carve-outs or exclusions for small business in the legislation. These organisations are unlikely to have the resources or the capacity to administer the services outlined in the bill. It is also unclear whether this plan will apply only to permanent employees of closing generators or whether casual employees will also be captured.

The coalition will oppose the Net Zero Economy Authority Bill 2024 and the Net Zero Economy Authority (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024. This is due to bureaucratic waste and duplication, with a top-down, Canberra-centric approach that is set to fail on delivering the unique needs of the regions, the imposition of new obligations on small, medium and large businesses and the fact that this is another example of Labour's haphazard approach on industry policy which delivers no guarantees for local workers. I urge all members to vote this bill down.

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