Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

If the minister was showing amusement about something else, I do apologise. We have in front of us a mental picture of closure of abattoirs and tanneries, where process workers are to be put on the dole. So you cannot blame me, if I see someone on the other side smiling, for getting upset about it. If Senator Ludwig tells me he was amused by some other issue, I accept that and I apologise.

In 2050, we are going to be sending $57 billion offshore to buy certificates. What are we going to get for it? Nothing—we are going to get some certificates back. We cannot even run renewable energy. There are so many scams happening now on renewable energy. What do you think is going to happen when we have to buy certificates from Western African countries? Do you think they are going to be fair dinkum? What are we going to buy? Even Norway, a fairly sophisticated country, is at the moment in the middle of a huge scam on emissions trading certificates.

This is designed to fail. The tragedy will be that in failing it will destroy a lot of manufacturing jobs in Australia—in the tanneries, in the abattoirs, in rural Australia and in Golden Circle right in the heart of Mr Swan's area. People will be able to buy imported pineapple from Thailand or wher­ever they bring it in from. But the great Golden Circle company will have to pay a carbon tax. Already it is under pressure and shedding jobs. Already imports are coming in because of a high dollar. All these things are happening now and they are happening right in front of us.

What is the Labor Party's answer to manu­facturing? 'Don't worry about any of that. We'll get Peter Beattie. We'll pay him a thousand bucks a day and he will fix it all.' If that is not shades of GroceryWatch, Fuel­watch or 'Peter Beattie watch', I do not know what is. It is a shame and a nonsense. You will not address the issue because you will not stand up to the Greens. We saw it yesterday. You would not support a resolu­tion condemning the Greens because they are your partners. You are handcuffed to them and they are leading you around and playing you all for fools. I do not know when you will wake up. Sometimes I do not think you will ever wake up, but one day, when there is an election—and that election could come any time between now and in two years—there will be a severe reckoning with the Labor Party.

We need a meaningful Senate or House of Representatives inquiry to investigate these 19 bills. There are going to be mistakes—there always are mistakes and unintended consequences. We are going to spend the next 12 months trying to sort them out through amendments because we have to get there before Senator Bob Brown goes to Durban. This is another example—if we needed further examples because we get them every day of the week—of the Greens telling the Labor Party what to do. The people have had a gutful of it. You should stand up and get a bit of courage. You should stand on your own feet!