Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Warringah moving immediately—

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Just because the member for Wentworth has got the MPI—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

The Leader of the House is warned. The Leader of the Opposition has the call.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Warringah moving immediately—

That this House calls on the Prime Minister to explain to the Australian people why her Government has abandoned the manufacturing industry in this country by preparing to introduce a carbon tax. In particular, why the:

(1) Members for Corio and Corangamite aren’t standing up for the 1,300 workers at Ford in Geelong;

(2) Member for Gellibrand isn’t standing up for the 3,300 workers at Toyota in Altona;

(3) Member for Capricornia isn’t standing up for the 2,000 workers a the Newlands, German Creek and Moranbah coal mines;

(4) Members for Throsby and Cunningham aren’t standing up for the 7,000 workers at Bluescope Steel and Illawarra Coal;

(5) Member for Brand isn’t standing up for the 1,300 workers at Alcoa in Kwinana;

(6) Member for Calwell isn’t standing up for the 1,900 workers at Ford in Broadmeadows;

(7) Member for Hunter isn’t standing up for the 2,700 jobs at the Wambo, Mount Thorley, Mount Owen and Hunter Valley mines;

(8) Member for Lingiari isn’t standing up for the 850 workers at Rio Tinto/Alcoa Gove;

(9) Member for Wakefield isn’t standing up for the 2,700 workers at Holden in Elizabeth;

(10) Member for Bass isn’t standing up for the 560 workers at Alcan in Bell Bay; and

(11) Prime Minister won’t even stand up for the 466 workers in her own seat of Lalor who work at One Steel in Laverton.

What we have seen from the Prime Minister today is an extremely apprehensive performance because all of those members of parliament sitting behind the Prime Minister in question time today know that her tax is toxic. They know because their constituents are telling them that the Prime Minister's tax is toxic and, if the Prime Minister will not drop this toxic tax, those members will drop this toxic Prime Minister.

What we have heard from the Prime Minister—who, as usual, has scarpered out of this chamber rather than face a debate about her carbon tax—in this very chamber—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will refer to the suspension motion.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is why it is necessary that we get on with the suspension. She said as she left this chamber just the other day to her staff, 'I'm over it.' The truth is that the Australian people are over this Prime Minister. They are over this Prime Minister, and the members of her team who have manufacturing jobs in their seats are well and truly over this Prime Minister.

Today we heard the Prime Minister talking. She got very nostalgic today talking about the good old days of Coronation Hill and saving Kakadu. I suppose Bob Hawke brings on that kind of a sensation in our Prime Minister because, yes, he was a successful Labor Prime Minister. He was a reforming Labor Prime Minister. While we are talking about Bob Hawke, Julia Gillard's commitment that, 'There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead,' was as honest a statement as the former Prime Minister Bob Hawke's that, 'By 1990 no Australian child will be living in poverty.' They are two dishonest Labor prime ministers.

This Prime Minister is sacrificing the manufacturing jobs of our country. This carbon tax is a toxic tax. It is toxic for manufacturing and it is toxic for the coal industry because the whole point of a carbon tax is to reduce and ultimately eliminate our reliance on fossil fuels. The whole point of a carbon tax is to shrink and ultimately to kill the coal industry. I am very pleased that the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has the guts to take this debate. He has coalmines in his electorate and if this minister has any honesty, any decency and any respect for the coalmining workers in his electorate and any respect for the manufacturing workers in his electorate he will level with them and explain just why the government he represents wants to kill their industries and kill their jobs—because that is what is happening. The minister might tell us why he keeps calling the honest manufacturing industries of this country and the coalminers of this country big polluters. Why does he defame, insult and denigrate the manufacturing companies of our country? Why doesn't he understand, as so many members sitting behind him understand, that these so-called big polluters are the big employers, the big exporters and the big innovators of our country? They are the people that we rely on for our standard of living and they should not be destroyed by this government's carbon tax.

We know that this tax is toxic because all the experts have told us that it is toxic. Andrew McKellar from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries says that under Labor's carbon tax we will not have green jobs; we will have green unemployment. The website of ManufacturingAustralia, which represents such great Australian businesses as Amcor, BlueScope, Boral, CSR and Rheem, says of the government's carbon tax:

It tolls the death knell for manufacturing in Australia.

…         …      …

The aftershocks of a carbon tax will reverberate through our nation at an enormous cost, flowing through and driving up the costs of every commodity that is part of the fabric of our society.

Even Paul Howes, the midnight assassin, the hatchet man who put the Prime Minister in office, now realises his mistake. It is like Cassius now realises the mistake he made in assassinating Julius Caesar. I think Paul Howes wants Kevin Rudd back. He really does want Kevin Rudd back. Paul Howes said, 'Carbon pricing could be the straw that breaks the camel's back as far as some of these industries are concerned.' He also said, 'If one job is gone, our support is gone.'

Finally, we have one Labor member of parliament who is now speaking out publicly about the deadly threat that the carbon tax poses to the manufacturing industries of Australia. I am not surprised that, finally, the member representing Smorgon Steel at Rooty Hill, the member for Chifley, has come out and said, 'Yes, I can honestly say there are people that do have concerns about the impact this will have on families.' Good on the member for Chifley. There is one brave Labor member who is here to keep tabs on the minister and to make sure that this minister is not dishonest with the Australian people and is not dishonest with the workers of this country about the impact of this toxic tax on their jobs. But there are more Labor members of parliament who know the damage this tax is doing to jobs in their electorates and they will be heard. They will say to this Prime Minister, 'You drop the toxic tax or we will drop you.'

I have visited so many manufacturing plants over the last three months since this tax was announced by the Prime Minister. I have heard the voice of the manufacturing workers of this country. I understand that they are proud of what they do. They know that an Australia without a steel industry, without an aluminium industry, without a cement industry, without a glass industry, without a plastics industry and, above all else, without a motor industry is not an Australia that makes things any more and is not a first-class economy. This side of the parliament will fight to preserve Australia as a country that makes things and a country that is a first class manufacturing nation. (Time expired)

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded. The honourable member for North Sydney has the call.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition must be dealt with urgently because there are around one million Australians in the manufacturing industry who are wondering what this government is doing to them. There are more than one million Australians involved in the retail industry and there are more than one million Australians involved in the hospitality industry and they are wondering what the intentions are of this government. There is a downturn in confidence across Australia as each day passes, as people come to understand that the government has no direction. This is best illustrated by the fact that only today the member for Chifley had the courage to stand at the doors and recognise that there is growing concern in the community, and I praise him for being here for this debate. But I note that so many are missing from his side. We may even move that he has speaking rights at the end of this debate because we recognise that he is a man of courage prepared to stand up for the people in his electorate, the people of Rooty Hill. They are the ones that we are left to stand up for day after day, week after week, and that have been totally abandoned by Labor until the member for Chifley stood up for them today. It is a crisis of confidence that means we have to move this motion, because the Prime Minister is so lacking in confidence in her own authority that she has to wheel out Bob Hawke to shore her up. She has to wheel out for her Treasurer John Fahey to shore him up in Queensland. She has to wheel out for her Treasurer Ken Henry. Can you imagine John Howard appointing Ted Evans because he did not trust Peter Costello as Treasurer? Can you imagine that? What an insult to a Treasurer. But it has not happened once; it has now happened twice: appointment of John Fahey, appointment of Ken Henry. We are waiting for Peter Costello to be appointed. How long will that take? Or John Stone will be back to be appointed. Who knows, there could be a range of others.

This illustrates the fact that if the government does not have confidence in its own team, how can it expect the Australian people to have confidence in the government? If the government does not have confidence in its own policies, how can it expect the Australian people to believe it at its word? We are rapidly approaching the ides of June—23 June. There will be all sorts of full moons, and he knows what is coming. He is counting the days—21 days, Old China. It is not that long that you have to wait. I would say to him that it is 21 days until the first anniversary of the knifing of Kevin. That was a great—

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fundamental injustice day!

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fundamental injustice day! It was not 1 July 2001; it was 'the' fundamental injustice day—23 June last year. What I would say is that as that day approaches they all start counting. They focus on their own jobs instead of the jobs of the manufacturers, of the workers. They are focusing on their own promotion; they are focusing on sandbagging their own incompetence rather than focusing on sandbagging the jobs of everyday Australians.

We had the Prime Minister in this question time stand before us and say: 'Manufacturing has done it tough. They had the global financial crisis. They had lots of losses. They have got a strong Australian dollar. They have had real challenges with that.' But the solution is not to impose a new tax on them. That is not the solution. This government is so confused about its own economic direction that it believes that if an industry is doing it tough the best thing you can do for that industry is impose a new tax on it. What an illogical process—what an illogical thought process that comes out of a government that is confused and disturbed. There is a government here that has clearly lost its way. It is a government that does not understand its own policy. It is a government that goes so far as to announce a carbon tax without the Treasurer even being present for the announcement. Now, one of the chief salesmen, one of the chief spokesmen for the man who has to design the carbon tax, cannot answer a question in this place. Day after day he is confused and muddled. And that sends a message to the Australian people that this is a government that does not understand where it is going.

I say to you, Mr Deputy Speaker: this is a motion that needs to be dealt with because we are now bypassing the Prime Minister who is incompetent, the Treasurer who is incompetent. We want to hear from the member for Corio, the member for Corangamite, the member for Gellibrand, the member for Throsby and the member for Cunningham. We want to hear from the member for Brand, the member for Calwell, the member for Hunter, the member for Lingiari, the member for Wakefield and the member for Bass. We want to hear them speak up for their people. (Time expired)

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is apt I think to finish on some comedy at the end of a two-week sitting period. We have had the Leader of the Opposition get up and declare that he has been travelling around the country and hearing the voices. He is carrying on like the workers' champion. He is the man who initiated the royal commission into the building industry 10 years ago that led to the reduction in working people's rights in the building industry, and the Leader of the Opposition is the man who did not stand up for anyone's working rights when Work Choices came along. He was out there as the big advocate. He is now trying to present himself as the worker's friend in one of the most bizarre experiences we would ever see.

What is the true motivation for this motion to suspend standing and sessional orders? What is the true motivation, after two weeks when we have seen divisions on the other side of the House; when we know from the Fin Review report that there has been a reconciliation between the member for North Sydney and the member for Wentworth—they had dinner together the other night in a Canberra restaurant; and when the divisions on the other side of the House are consolidating in a way that is dangerous to the leadership of the member for Warringah, who hears the voices as he travels around the country in an increasingly crazed, shrill scare campaign? The purpose of this motion to suspend was to prevent the member for Wentworth having the opportunity to have an MPI debate about the issue of broadband. The member for Wentworth had proposed the MPI to discuss a proper issue of public policy as he was wont to do, but the Leader of the Opposition in a late move of course had to subvert that.

The government is working to develop a carbon price to cut pollution and drive investment in clean energy in our economy and to put our economy in a position to be competitive in a low-carbon future internationally. It is a critical economic reform that demands attendance to the proper foundations of public policy making and the proper public policy design of an important economic reform. The foundation for policy making in this field is the climate science. Over the last two weeks there has been more material added to the public debate, which has consolidated and built upon our understanding of the evidence that exists, that dangerous climate change is occurring, that temperatures are increasing and that we need to cut pollution and innovate and drive investment in clean energy to tackle that important challenge.

On the other side of the House, as we have seen over the last two weeks of sitting, the opposition deny the scientific evidence. Under the leadership of the member for Warringah, the scientific evidence is denied and therefore they cannot come to grips with simple reality, simple facts. They have to misrepresent every possible position in this important debate about the future of our economy, of our society and of our environment. My colleague the member for Kingsford Smith adverted to this important issue about the scientific evidence in question time today. One of the member for Warringah's colleagues in the New South Wales Liberal Party has made more extraordinary contributions on this front—in fact one of the most astonishing contributions to the debate. Dr Peter Phelps, a former federal Liberal Party staffer, now the New South Wales Government Whip in the upper house, has not only likened the science of climate change to the existence of dragons—that was his former contribution to the scientific debate—but also yesterday of course likened the scientists to totalitarian Nazis, saying this:

One can see them now, beavering away, alone, unknown, in their laboratories. And now, through the great global warming swindle they can influence policy, they can set agendas, they can reach into everyone's lives.

This is the level that the New South Wales Liberal Party goes to in dialogue on climate science. This is evidenced in the opposition in the federal parliament. We know Senator Minchin's view; we know Senator Abetz's views; we know the views of many others, including the member for Tangney. It is bizarre that the scientific evidence is denied in this way in national politics. Further to all of this, the Leader of the Opposition is charging around the country running the most ridiculous and bizarre and increasingly shrill scare campaign—facts will not get in the way of fear as far as the Leader of the Opposition is concerned on this important issue. There have been dark forebodings, as we see in this motion to suspend standing orders, of economic doom and economic destruction.

In the past the Leader of the Opposition has claimed that a carbon price will mean that Australia will no longer be 'a First World economy'. In yesterday's matter of public importance he foreshadowed the end of manufacturing as we know it, saying that regions would be laid to waste. Addressing the Minerals Council of Australia, he forecast yesterday that a carbon price would destroy all exporters and end the coal industry—it would be the complete destruction of the coal industry. The Leader of the Opposition forecast this in front of the whole minerals industry community, saying that the coal industry would end. He vowed before the minerals industry that he would tour the country and warn blue-collar workers, urging them to rise up—the member for Warringah, the workers' champion, getting the workers to rise up against carbon pricing. Then, in the most astonishing display, he implored the captains of the mining industry to rise up alongside the workers, to become political activists, to join hands with the proletariat and take control, under his leadership. It is the most bizarre and ridiculous contribution to public policy debate one could imagine. This is what the Leader of the Opposition had to say to the minerals industry yesterday:

But I say to you that at this time you need to become political activists at least for a few months, at least for a couple of years, if you are going to be able to continue to be the miners that you want to be and that Australia needs.

Have you heard anything more ridiculous? There was the coverage on the television of him standing slightly away from the lectern, shaping up a little bit, trying to get the captains of the mining industry to warm up, trying to get the workers to rise up against carbon pricing—carrying on like that was so ridiculous it was an embarrassment to political leadership.

Mr Abbott interjecting—

I'm not frightened of you, mate. You have got to be kidding. You'll have no clothes. Watching yesterday's MPI and the Leader of the Opposition's address to the Minerals Council reminded me of a phenomenon that used to emerge occasionally in my time as a union leader. You would see someone emerge from the ranks, a populist, an opportunist, prepared to say absolutely anything and implore people to get behind them to support them so they could rise up for the benefit of their own political position. It was an irresponsible experience that I had with people then—they were irresponsible by telling people what they wanted to hear and not what they needed to know about important issues. That is the characterisation of this Leader of the Opposition in one of the most important public policy debates that we have ahead of us as a nation.

We need to tackle climate change, and in doing so we are designing a market mechanism to drive cuts in pollution, to drive investment in clean energy. The government will attend to important priorities in the policy design. We will ensure that households have the assistance that they need. We have committed that every dollar raised by the carbon price will be used for three principal purposes. Firstly, it will be to assist households to meet any price impacts. We have committed that at least half the revenue from the carbon price mechanism will go towards assisting low- and middle-income households. Those opposite might not want to hear it, but it is an important commitment.

The second important objective will be to ensure that we support jobs and competitiveness in important trade-exposed parts of the economy. The entire argument—if we can call it that—being made by the Leader of the Opposition is a total charade. The government will ensure that there is important support for the most affected industries in the trade-exposed emissions-intensive parts of the economy that are important in regional Australia.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What is the third one?

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The third one, to answer the member for North Sydney's request, is that we will support the drive for clean energy. We will support initiatives and climate change programs that take us towards innovation and clean energy technology. (Time expired)

Question put:

That the motion ( Mr Abbott's) be agreed to.

The House divided. [15:55]

(The Speaker—Mr Harry Jenkins)

Question negatived.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.