Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers given by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations (Senator Evans) and the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Senators Brandis, Kroger and Ryan today, relating to carbon pricing.

I was interested to read this morning some comments by the Victorian Minister for Ports, Dr Denis Napthine. I will read some of his comments given to the Victorian parliament. He said:

In Adelaide recently the Prime Minister said that a carbon pricing scheme would create a wealth of new jobs and clean energy generation particularly in the manufacturing of clean energy equipment. Therefore I raise the very real concerns of the 400 workers at Keppel Prince, Portland, our largest and most experienced manufacturer of wind towers.

He continues:

Keppel Prince has just been advised that the proponents of a 13 tower wind farm near Hamilton, less than 100 kilometres from the Keppel Prince plant in Portland, are planning to import wind towers from China, creating new jobs in China and costing jobs in south-western Victoria.

That comes on the back of the comments yesterday from Graham Kraehe, the Bluescope chairman, who said that the consultation with industry in relation to carbon tax has been appalling and warned that a carbon price could be ‘a tipping point for the steel industry in Australia’. So already, as Dr Napthine said, we are seeing jobs going from Australia to China. We have now seen the pressure, as indicated in the Australian today, about what the risk would be to the steel industry. So what is going to happen? These wind towers will actually come through the port of Portland under the noses of these workers from Keppel Prince on the way to Hamilton.

This is what the government fails to understand, and this is what Gary Banks, the head of the Productivity Commission, is saying in the Australian this morning, that this government has not looked at the risks. It has made assumptions that do not stand up. This is a government that is going headlong into a carbon tax without doing the work that is required. What will happen is that Australian jobs will go, as they are already. You put more competitive pressure on Australian industry and Australian jobs will go. Wind towers are made of steel predominantly. Thirteen of these towers are coming in from China already through the port of Portland, which Dr Napthine has represented passionately and with great dignity and great courage for many years now.

Dr Napthine has belled the cat on these jobs and the clean energy promise of the Prime Minister. There will not be new jobs. There will not be new jobs in the manufacturing of clean energy equipment. They will go overseas because this government is incapable of assessing the risk to Australian industry. It has embarked on a process that is going to damn Australian jobs. It is rushing headlong into a carbon tax without even telling us what the price will be, what planning has been done, implementation, what the risks are—none of it. It is a political fix by a Prime Minister in enormous strife. I thought it was absolutely fascinating. You know when a political party has slipped into the absolute depths. You know that when they are reduced to complaining and—I use the word of Senator Carr interjecting today—‘sooking’ in relation to some banners at a public protest. I would like to go back and look at some of the banners that people were holding up behind Labor prime ministers in relation to John Howard and others.

Let us get serious about it. This ridiculous notion that the Leader of the Opposition was in any way responsible for slogans and banners is quite frankly just childish. Go back and look at footage of the comments that were made about John Howard at Labor Party rallies, attended by Labor Party Prime Ministers or opposition leaders. Have a look at what they were saying about John Howard and other people, and then come back and complain to me. I do not think John Howard complained about that. I do not think John Howard was sooking about comments written on banners. It is about time the Labor Party stopped being so incredibly childish and it is about time the Australian Labor Party started to protect Australian jobs. When you see the pressure those people in Portland are under, as was indicated again by Dr Napthine, these ships will sail past another closed business. That was in relation to the Vestas wind blade manufacturing plant which closed in December 2007, costing 136 jobs. That was clean energy manufacturing and it lost 136 jobs a couple of years ago. You watch the jobs go if this carbon tax comes in. (Time expired)