David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to Alcoa’s announcement yesterday that they are halting their planned $3 billion expansion of the Wagerup refinery south of Perth because of, amongst other things, uncertainty associated with the introduction of an Australian emissions trading scheme as proposed by the minister. The AWU, the Australian Workers Union, says that 1,500 construction and 150 permanent jobs will be lost because of this decision by Alcoa. Will the minister confirm that at a government briefing yesterday a number of major Australian employers stated that they would have no choice but to move their businesses offshore under the minister’s current design of the government’s emissions trading scheme?