George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I was just noting that the minister, although in the chamber, did not spring to defend the government’s policies but left it to her backbench.

On Tuesday, the Leader of the Liberal National Party, Mr Springborg, called for the postponement of the introduction of an emissions trading scheme. In doing so, he echoed the unanimous view of Queensland industry that, whether you support the emissions trading scheme or whether you do not, it is clear to anyone that this is not the right time to be accelerating at breakneck speed towards this dramatic policy with its dramatic economic consequences. The problem is that the Rudd government has decided to proceed blindly down this path because its policies are driven by ideology, not science. Its policies are driven by zealotry, not by intelligence.

That could never be made clearer than by the fact that the moment anybody raises a question about climate change policy they are hissed at by the minister: ‘You are a sceptic!’ I always thought scepticism was a synonym for the application of critical intelligence to a problem. But in the lexicon of the Rudd government it is an insult. Scepticism is the opposite of credulity. Scepticism is the opposite of the willingness to accept policies or proposals which are not evidence based. Yet, in the lexicon of the Rudd government, to apply a critical intelligence to a scientific and public policy issue is the worst thing you can do.

As the person who put down this urgency motion, I make no apology for directing it particularly to the state of Queensland, my own state. Queensland, which is used to being one of those states, along with Western Australia, which lead the prosperity of this country, has been, under the lack of leadership of the Bligh Labor government in recent years, reduced to the very unfamiliar condition of being an economic basket case. Hear what Dr John Black, a former Labor senator for Queensland, had to say in the Australian Financial Review last month. Dr Black said of Queensland:

Regionally, we saw 12-month unemployment growth to January in 40 of our 59 ABS labour force regions. Queensland was the worst affected state and Cairns the worst affected region, with January unemployment—

in Cairns, that is, one of the hearts of the tourism industry—

of 11.8 per cent.

In the unemployment figures that were announced by the ABS this morning we see that Queensland unemployment is now 4.5 per cent. It is still slightly below the national average but accelerating at the same rate as the national average. In the past seven months, unemployment in my state, under the Bligh Labor government, has increased by almost a third, from 3.4 per cent in August 2008 to 4.5 per cent today. That is an increase of 1.1 per cent in only seven months. That is the condition of the Queensland economy today, after nearly 20 years—with the interruption of about two years, in the mid-1990s, of the Borbidge government—under the stewardship of a Labor government.

According to Access Economics, the respected economic consultancy, Queensland is likely to be more affected by the global economic slowdown and by the Rudd recession than any other state in the Commonwealth. Even Mr Andrew Fraser, the state Treasurer, was reported in January warning that the damage done to the state’s two main industries—property and mining—by the global economic situation was very severe. Mr Fraser said:

No part of the state will be spared; no industry will be spared …

When there is a very significant change and a very significant deterioration of the economic circumstances of the state of Queensland—a state whose economy is highly trade exposed, a state whose economy is more dependent than most state economies on industries to which the ETS will apply—is it the time to be rushing headlong, blindly, regardlessly, ideologically, zealously to implement an emissions trading system which has unknowable consequences for the Queensland economy?

Do not take it just from me. Let me give you a sample of some remarks by various key Queensland industry groups. I will start with the beef industry. Queensland is Australia’s biggest beef producer. In fact, it produces 48 per cent of Australia’s beef output. Losses to that sector of the industry as a result of the introduction of the ETS would balloon to $10.9 billion a year by 2030, according to the Australian Farm Institute. Mr Paul Heelan, a grazier from Clermont in Central Queensland, is quoted as saying:

Everyone in the bush is hoping the ETS will go away. We’re at the end of the line. We can’t pass it on but everything will be passed on to us—the cost of electricity, transport, any fodder you’ve got to buy, it’s all likely to rise. The ETS will send some people to the wall. I’m sure a lot of bush people have large debts after floods and droughts. Things are tight enough as they are.

Mr Heelan’s plea to the Commonwealth government is heard throughout the length and breadth of Queensland, as I dare say it is heard throughout the length and breadth of Australia.

The same is the case with the dairy industry. The President of Australian Dairy Farmers, Allan Burgess, said recently:

The Government needs to rethink some of its policy proposals, including the ETS which, as it’s proposed in the white paper, will have a huge impact on the dairy industry and broader food processing sector.

The same plea was made on behalf of the mining industry—one of the great Queensland industries—by Mr Mitch Hooke, the Chief Executive of the Minerals Council of Australia, as recently as Tuesday.

This is a time for intelligence. It is a time for science. It is a time for measured judgment. It is a time to be aware of a material change in the economic circumstances. But the Rudd government and the Queensland Bligh Labor government are blind to the necessities— (Time expired)