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

My question is again to the Prime Minister, and I refer her to big job losses at Qantas and OneSteel, Australian icons that will be severely affected by the carbon tax. Why is she making competitive pressures worse with a carbon price that applies to Australian companies but not to our competitors? Isn't this the worst possible time for a big new tax on everything?

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

Mr Speaker—

Dr Mike Kelly interjecting—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The House will come to order. Order! The Prime Minister has the call. The Prime Minister will resume her place.

Opposition members interjecting—

As I have said to the parliamentary secretary before, I will consult the Deane's bus timetable, but it would appear that on today's occasion he would have a busful from the other side to discuss matters with him. I think that now everybody might quieten down. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Can I say this to the Leader of the Opposition: of course this is question time and this is his opportunity to come in here and make criticisms of the government, and that is appropriate. What is not appropriate is to try and spin decisions that have been made by companies today about Australian jobs and pretend that they are somehow related to the government's plan to price carbon. To do so is completely disrespectful both to those companies and, more importantly, to the workers in those companies—

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The question has been asked.

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

many of whom have got bad news today. Qantas has announced that there will be job losses of around 1,000. Qantas has made it abundantly clear that that is about conditions and competition in international aviation, and to associate that with a government policy is to show the ultimate disrespect to those Qantas workers who would be feeling anxious having heard this decision from Qantas today. What a dreadful thing to do when those people are under pressure—and equally in relation to OneSteel, where the Leader of the Opposition has already made such disgraceful false claims and has gone to places like Whyalla and said to those people that their town would be wiped off the map, only to be repudiated by the management of OneSteel, who have made it crystal clear in the public domain that the government, in working out its carbon pricing scheme, had heard and responded to their—

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

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I asked the Prime Minister: why is she making Australia's competitive situation worse with an unnecessary carbon tax? The Prime Minister should address that question, not engage in the kinds of falsehoods that we are seeing.

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.

Government members interjecting—

Order, those on my right! The Prime Minister is responding to the question. The interjections should cease, and she should ignore the interjections. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. In relation to OneSteel and, of course, the Leader of the Opposition's false claims made on 27 April this year—'Whyalla will be wiped off the map'—and then the words of Geoff Plummer, the CEO of OneSteel—

Honourable members interjecting—

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

The House will come to order.

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

who said, and I quote, 'We believe that on balance, the sectoral approach announced today by the Prime Minister for the steel industry, including the introduction of the—

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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

The member for Sturt will resume his place.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

But we have had a point of order on relevance.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

The Prime Minister will resume her place.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I would ask you to require the Prime Minister to withdraw the imputation where she has attached somebody else's remarks to the Leader of the Opposition. The remarks she is talking about were made by the AWU, not by the—

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

Order! The member for Sturt will resume his place. The call for a point of order is not an opportunity for debate. I know the frustration because the standing orders allow debate in the answers, but I have asked that the Standing Committee on Procedure look at that. But there is no opportunity for the Manager of Opposition Business to come to the dispatch box to enter into debate. The Prime Minister has the call.

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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I referred to comments by the Leader of the Opposition on 27 April in a doorstop. I am now referring to comments made by the CEO of OneSteel, Mr Geoff Plummer, on 10 July 2011, when he said:

We believe that on balance, the sectoral approach announced today by the Prime Minister for the steel industry, including the introduction of the—

Steel Transformation Plan—

is both appropriate and sensible. We are pleased that the Government has responded by adopting this approach.

So to the Leader of the Opposition I say this: our carbon pricing package is about seizing economic opportunities for the future. Our carbon pricing package will enable great Australian businesses to continue doing what they are doing. Indeed, we will see businesses grow, we will see economic growth and we will see 1.6 million new jobs. What the Leader of the Opposition most certainly should not do in this parliament is try and associate announcements today about job losses—very unfortunate announcements about job losses—with the government's policies and plans. To do so is an attempt to mislead Australians already in difficult circumstances because their employers have said that they will need to reduce jobs. We will take a different approach. We will work with those businesses. We will work with those employees. We will support them and not get them involved in a political debate, because that is such an inappropriate thing to do.