George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the bottom of the carbon tax litter tray you will find an offensive little nugget left by Labor and the Greens. It is well known that in the carbon tax packages there was provision for the government to shut down power stations, but it is not well known that one of those was Collinsville. I find that strange because the shutdown order and the associated go-away-and-pack up-your-bags money was only supposed to be made to power generators whose emissions exceeded 1.2 tonnes per megawatt hour. According to the Queensland Competition Authority, the Collinsville power station emits just 1.16 tonnes per megawatt hour.

If Labor and the Greens are successful, this is what the carbon tax will mean for the town of Collinsville and North Queensland: about 130 to 140 workers at the power station will lose their job, as will contractors who maintain the facility, when Collinsville has a population of only just over 2,000; jobs and operations could be scaled back at the Collinsville coal mine, which supplies the power station; and over one-third of the power supplied to the grid north of Rockhampton will have to be replaced—and replacing supply further away means higher electricity costs.

The people of Collinsville want to know what the member for Capricornia is doing to stop this. We in the coalition will not shut down Collinsville; we will axe the carbon tax and through direct action make Collinsville power station cleaner. The member for Capricornia must explain to the people of Collinsville why she is part of this plan to shut down the Collinsville Power Station.