Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts. Will the minister inform the House about the minister's regional consultations about the Clean Energy Future plan as well as the innovative ways regional Australia is responding to it?

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question and her commitment, like all of those on this side of this House, to a clean energy future for this country. In the last two months since the Prime Minister announced the package, I have attended, at the invitation of 17 regional development authorities around the country, 17 carbon forums and one in Rockhampton in the member for Capricornia's electorate. In all of these areas there is a common theme.

Mr Randall interjecting—

That is just not right.

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

The member for Canning!

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You were at the one where they said they did want it, if the truth is known. You came along to disrupt then and you are trying to disrupt now.

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

The member for Canning will cease interjecting. The minister will ignore the interjections.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We invite them along—

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order!

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, under standing order 64 how is it in order for the minister to call our members 'you' and yet the Leader of the House takes exception to us calling the Prime Minister 'she'?

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

Order! I have encouraged the minister to ignore the interjections, which will get over any other problems that arise. I suggest to those that interject that they cease interjecting.

Mr Crean interjecting—

The minister's enthusiasm is recognised, but he should just settle down. He now has the call.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was saying, I attended 17 carbon forums around the country, including one in the member for Canning's electorate. The common theme from all of these—

Mr Randall interjecting—

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

The member for Canning is warned!

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

was that the regions get the significance of moving to a cleaner carbon future. Indeed, local governments and communities have set themselves carbon reduction targets. They have identified through mission statements the need to move to a cleaner energy future and they are embracing programs that encourage this very direction. Those programs in themselves have led to investment, jobs and a better environment.

An example of this is Geraldton, Western Australia, which is a city that is committed to moving to carbon neutrality and a city that is looking to renewable energy to power the significant development that is occurring in the resources industry. Investec, a company that is interested in solar energy investment around that region, has made the point recently that, whilst it has undertaken the feasibility study, it would not be economic under current conditions. However, with the announcement of the Prime Minister's package, it now says that it is viable. That is also the case in Whyalla, a place that the Leader of the Opposition visited; he swaggered into OneSteel and said, 'You'll be wiped off the face of the earth.' But what is Whyalla saying?

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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

Order! The minister has returned to the question.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have.

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

The minister will return to the question.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whyalla took no notice of him—

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

The minister will return to the question.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

because over there I visited sites in which they too are looking to investment in solar energy and in rare earths, because it is the rare earths that become the ingredients and components for so much lightweight material and technology—Australian technology that is there with the solar energy. It is the same on the Eyre Peninsula, in the same seat, where they are looking at increasing their wind farm capacity, and it is the same in the upper Spencer Gulf. In Tasmania—and I have great confidence in the ability of the Tasmanian economy—there is a $100 million positive impact of the carbon price.

Treasury has said that in renewable energy alone there is $100 billion of investment in renewables in this country for the taking. Take the words of Investec: if it is not viable under current economic conditions, it will only become viable with the passage of this package. The truth is that that investment, those jobs and that cleaner environment are dependent on the package. We as a government are committed to delivering it, and it is only those who sit opposite that will run the fear campaign—

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

Order! The minister will return to the—

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and tell any untruth they can to try and stop that development.

Mr Pyne interjecting—

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

Order! The minister has concluded.

Mr Schultz interjecting—

Order, the member for Hume! If the member for Hume wants the call, he stands. But the member for Gilmore is standing. And the member for Hume does not need to pack his papers; he is staying here, and he is going to be quiet.

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to a recent study from the United Kingdom which shows that for every green job created 3.7 jobs in other parts of the economy are destroyed. This follows—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You do not care about jobs being destroyed?

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

Order! The member will ignore interjections, and those on my right will cease interjecting.

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This follows a similar study from Spain which showed that 2.2 jobs are lost for every green job created. How many jobs does the Prime Minister estimate will be lost in Australia for every green job she claims will be created under her carbon tax?

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr Ewen Jones interjecting—

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

Order! The House will come to order—and that includes the member for Herbert.

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

In answer to the member's question, can I ask her to reflect on this: why is it that Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron would have set such an incredibly ambitious target for carbon pollution reduction—much more ambitious than the bipartisan target in this country—if he believed that the statistics that the member has just used were right? Indeed, with the sister political party to the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister David Cameron is embarking on this course because he sees the prospect of new jobs for his economy.

Dr Jensen interjecting—

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

The member for Tangney!

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

His economy does need those new jobs because of how it has come out of the global financial crisis, and he sees the economic opportunity of this. So I suggest to the member that she may want to get some information from the related political party in the United Kingdom about the job creation prospects that British Conservatives see from dealing with carbon pollution. In this nation, I refer the member to the—

Joanna Gash (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I am asking the Prime Minister how many jobs she thinks will be lost under her carbon tax, not the United—

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

Order! The member for Gilmore will resume her seat. That was the conclusion of the question. There were other aspects in the question, and the Prime Minister is responding.

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

I was, of course, responding to the fact that UK research was cited in the question. On the question of jobs in Australia, I refer the member to the Treasury modelling which shows that to 2020 we will see 1.6 million jobs created in this country. We will see people in jobs. There is nothing more important to this government than people being in jobs. That is why we reacted so swiftly during the global financial crisis, and we were distressed to see that the opposition did not want to support the work of Australians during that crisis. It is why, as we move to a clean energy future, our focus is on jobs and the creation of jobs—1.6 million jobs by 2020. As the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government has just outlined and as the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency outlined a little bit earlier in question time, there are jobs in this clean energy future. There are new jobs—jobs that we cannot imagine now but that people will do in the future. In the same way, with the information technology revolution when it first started, people would not have foreseen that there would be jobs in being a blogger; people would not have foreseen there would be jobs at an entity like Google.

Dr Jensen interjecting—

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

The member for Tangney will leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a).

The member for Tangney then left the chamber.

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

There will be jobs created that we cannot even imagine now, but there will also be the jobs that have been done over time over the ages—traditional jobs: jobs in steelmaking, jobs in plumbing and jobs in construction. These are very traditional jobs that will be done differently.

Mrs Gash interjecting—

The member now interjects about steelmaking. Maybe she does not understand. She is voting against a $300 million Steel Transformation Plan—

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

and she will be denying steelworkers in this country the support that they need. If the member for Gilmore is seriously concerned about jobs then, first, she should get across the facts about our clean energy future, and then she should walk into this parliament and vote for jobs.

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

On a supplementary question, Mr Speaker—

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

No, the Leader of the Opposition will resume—

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

I have not asked it.

Mr Crean interjecting—

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

The Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government should just sit—

Opposition members interjecting—

He was making a good point, though.

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! The Leader of the Opposition is deserving of an explanation. Having ruled the original supplementary out of order, I have in the past counted that as the supplementary. It is akin to when I have ruled a question out of order. I take that as an opportunity to ask a question because I then rotate the call. As a matter of consistency, when questions have been ruled out it has been seen as the option having been there and having been taken. The agreement talked about the option of a supplementary question, the original one having been ruled out. I do not think that I would allow another opportunity.

Honourable members interjecting—

Little Sir Echo should try to sit there quietly. The member for Goldstein should also be careful. He is not assisting the chair at all.