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

Mr President, my question is to the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Carr. I refer the minister to the announcement today by steelmaker BlueScope Steel that it will shut down facilities at Port Kembla and Western Port, resulting in the loss of as many as 1,000 jobs. BlueScope's announcement comes on top of the 400 job losses at OneSteel last week. I also refer the minister to comments made by AWU national secretary Paul Howes that Australian manufacturing is in one of its worst periods since the Great Depression. This spells the end of Australia's steel exports. Why is now the time to introduce the additional burden of Labor's carbon tax?