Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of Senator Brandis, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:The failure of the Rudd Labor Government to consider the interests of the State of Queensland, and, in particular the Queensland economy, in the development of the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme.

The Rudd Labor government has devised a policy that will directly affect the working families of Queensland. It is only the Rudd Labor government that has come to this current global financial crisis with a policy that will take people out of work, and so they will not be able to meet the payments on their house or meet the payments on their car. They will be out of work and out on the street, not because of the global financial crisis, not because of global warming, but because of the Labor government’s policy.

This policy will be particularly bad for Queensland. When we look at the issues that surround Queensland, we see that it is the working families from areas such as Mackay, Moranbah, Emerald and Blackwater who are involved in the coal industry and who will straightaway be in the middle sights of the gun. We in Australia must remember that our major export is coal, but the coal that we export makes up only four per cent of the coal consumed by the world. The major reserves of coal in the world are located in the United States, China and India, and those countries are where the jobs will go when this Labor government’s ETS is introduced. The government will be exporting the jobs of Australian working families to the United States of America and to China. Mongolia will not have an ETS, and it will be a big exporter of coal. We will have direct attacks from Indonesia on Australian exports. Indonesia has become very capable in taking over Australia’s share of coal exports. South Africa has the ability to deliver metallurgical, coking and thermal coal.

Coal exports are going to go out the door; they are going to be put under threat because of a Labor government policy: the emissions trading scheme. The scheme has a very nice name for something that is actually not going to change the climate. It is not going to affect the climate one iota. It is a political gesture that will put Australian working families out into the street, and at the epicentre of this storm will be the state of Queensland. We have to note that, in the last year, coal prices have dropped from $140 a tonne to $70 a tonne. This is the pressure that this issue is currently generating.

We also have to note that, of the 30,000 Australians who are employed in the coal industry, 18,000 are in Queensland. For every one person who is employed in the coal industry, another two to three people are directly associated with it—for instance, through transport or contracting. It means that in excess of 50,000 people are directly involved with coal. There is also the multiplier effect from the money that comes from this industry. Chemists, schools and service industries are all affected. There are in excess of 200,000 people associated with the wealth generated from coal. Yet the Labor Party has gone on a solo crusade that will not change a thing with the climate but will put these people out into the street.

It is a disgrace that we have to stand here and try to do the job of the Australian Workers Union of protecting Australian working families. There is real evidence that people will lose their jobs. What has happened to the Australian Workers Union? What has happened to their ability to protect jobs in Queensland? Why have they gone silent? Why don’t they have the courage to stand up for their own members? What has happened there? It is because this issue is not politically correct. These people are going to lose their jobs over political correctness—over a political gesture that will reduce carbon emissions by five per cent of 1½ per cent of the world’s emissions; it is 0.075 of one per cent of a particle, of which only three per cent is human induced.

People will lose their jobs, and this gesture will have no effect on the global climate. Queensland has been put up as a sacrifice by Kevin from Queensland, the Prime Minister of Australia. He lauds himself as being from Queensland but he puts up his own state to be held to account for a political gesture. If it is not the mining industry then it is the agricultural industry or the grazing industry, with a potential overload of costs of 20 per cent on an industry which at its best only makes a four per cent margin. These jobs will also be held to account. What about the abattoirs that will be exposed? What about the sugar mills that will be exposed?

Maybe they believe that the tourism industry is going to be able to take up the slack. However, we find that the emissions trading scheme will definitely affect those who rely on the fuel that propels the plane through the air—aviation fuel. It is up for a tax, so we are going to put at risk those marginal destinations. We have heard evidence already that people such as Virgin airlines will make the only logical decision and stop the flights to regional Queensland, especially to the north of our state. These people will once more be sacrificed at the altar of the ETS, sacrificed for a political gesture. Whether it is coal, the tourism industry or the agricultural industry, all these issues are being held to account, and Australians are quickly turning their minds to exactly what happens. It is such utter irresponsibility in the middle of a financial crisis to be wandering down this path.

People in Queensland will have to deal with these little tin gods, an army of bureaucrats wandering around the place, assessing what your carbon footprint is and demanding payment—yet another form of this bizarre, socialist trait of going out and interfering in the enterprise of a state. For what? So that they can collect billions and billions of dollars in revenue. The Labor government will use this as a mechanism to dummy up their deficits, to dummy up their debts. The Labor government know they are running out of money and they are going to use this as a mechanism to try and balance the books. They will balance the books with this new tax.