Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

We have just heard from Senator Carol Brown about what Labor say they will do for Tasmania. I note that the previous government gave the cheque for $30 million for the Kingston bypass. The current government took it back and gave them a cheque for $15 million, and they still have not started work on the project.

I am on my feet tonight to give another demonstration of what this government is doing to employment and manufacturing jobs in Tasmania through lack of consultation. We have seen on the north-west coast in the seat of Braddon over the last 12 months a significant loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector. We saw a very disappointing consequence of the effects of the global financial crisis when Caterpillar had to halve their workforce. In the last few months we have seen the closure of the Wesley Vale paper mill. In the next six or eight weeks we will see the closure of the Burnie paper mill. We saw the last roll of paper come off that mill last week. I give all credit to the workers at those two paper mills, because they squeezed every ounce of efficiency out of those mills while they were operating. They did a great job, and it is disappointing that the equipment there will be sold off overseas.

But tonight I want to talk about a circumstance that has arisen—again, because of the lack of consultation by this government—in relation to some disability regulations. Disappointingly, I had to move disallowance motions for these regulations today: the disability standards for accessible public transport and for access to public buildings. The effect of these regulations—and there was no consultation with those involved in the carpet manufacturing sector—is that the Tascot carpet mill at East Devonport, the only Australian carpet manufacturer left in Australia, could lose its place in the industry. It could close, with the loss of 200 jobs. That is what this government is doing for manufacturing jobs in my home state of Tasmania.

It is quite disappointing to have to go to the extent of moving a disallowance motion on some disability access regulations because broadly speaking the opposition supports them. But that is the effect if you put a completely ridiculous specification for carpet pile height of six millimetres into regulations without any consultation with the industry. This business has been operating in Tasmania since 1961 and makes some fantastic quality carpets—in fact, most of the carpets in this building were made at Tascot in East Davenport in Tasmania. This company will be put out of business because this arbitrary six millimetre pile height has been included in these disability access standards.

It is quite confounding to everybody where the six millimetres has come from and why it has been inserted. If you look at the United States standard, the act over there specifies a maximum pile thickness of 13 millimetres. In the UK, there is a maximum pile thickness of 11 millimetres, and in the EU there is a standard that does not specify any thickness of carpet. Yet, for some reason, this government—again, as I said, without consultation; they might have changed the leader but nothing has changed—have come up with a pile thickness of six millimetres, which basically puts the only carpet manufacturer left in the country out of business. Tascot employs 200 people and has annual sales of $20 million, and 20 per cent of this is generated from exports. So the government can talk all they like about what they are doing for jobs and manufacturing in this country, but this is what is really happening.

A prime example of the type of project Tascot has undertaken is this particular site of Parliament House. The pile depth of carpet in Parliament House is 7.5 millimetres. So this building here, under the new public access standard, will not even meet the proposed standard depth of six millimetres. Changi International Airport, the Westin Hotel in Melbourne and the airports in Darwin, Alice Springs and Hobart all have carpets that have been manufactured by Tascot, and as far as I can see none of them will comply with the new standard of six millimetres.

It is not as if the carpet industry could not have provided some information that would have assisted the government in presenting the new standard. I understand this is the case from discussions my office has had with the candidate for Braddon, Garry Carpenter, who has been talking with the industry. Garry is obviously very distressed that, within a week of him being preselected, 200 jobs in Braddon are being threatened by a ridiculous government decision. So, when I discussed this with Garry today, he was very keen to make sure that some positive action was taken. As a result we have had to take the disappointing action of putting in a disallowance motion. To see that sort of thing occurring through the actions of this government is really ridiculous.

In fact, my understanding is that the disability sector really did not have any concerns about pile depth. It was not something that they had been considering a problem. From the information that Garry Carpenter and I have been able to get this afternoon, the peak disability association understands our concerns. They informed us, when the disability access legislation was issued in March, that their member organisations had not reported any carpet problems. So it looks like the government is acting completely and utterly on its own in this circumstance. We do not know where the advice has come from. Garry Carpenter, the candidate for Braddon—perhaps soon to be the member for Braddon—has not been able to find out where the specifications come from. It also appears that the disability associations do not know where the standards have come from.

As I have said, these standards are not matched anywhere in the world. Adelaide Entertainment Centre, for example, has a carpet pile height of nine millimetres. Darwin international and Alice Springs airports have seven millimetres. Burswood Entertainment Complex is 10.5 millimetres, the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour is eight millimetres, Star City Casino is 7.2 millimetres, Sydney airport is 7.2 millimetres, the Westin Hotel in Sydney is 6.8 millimetres, Sydney Opera House is 6.4 millimetres, the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney is 6.9 millimetres and the Sheraton on the Park is 8.6 millimetres. So the hospitality industry also potentially has a major problem from these regulations which, as I have said, were brought about without any consultation.

It is still the same ship. There may have been a mutiny in the engine room—perhaps it is the New South Wales division of the engine room and the engineers may have spiked the captain and put the first mate on the bridge in charge—but it is still the same ship and has still got the same toxic cargo of policies and the same toxic method of operation. They do not talk to anybody. They do not consult with anybody, and they bring about ridiculous situations that could cost 200 manufacturing jobs in Devonport. Had they consulted, even with the disability associations and the Carpet Institute, they could have had an answer—because the Carpet Institute does have an answer. But no, the government know it all. They do it all on their own and then they put us in a situation where we have to come in here and move a disallowance to some disability access regulations to try and fix the problem that the government have created because they cannot consult. Nothing has changed and it is a real disappointment that yet again we have had a bad government decision brought about through lack of consultation.