Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

What I would invite Senator Bushby to do, because I know he has an interest in numbers, is look at the numbers. For example, the Deloitte Access Economics Investment Monitor report showed that $487 billion in large investment projects was in the pipeline, almost all of which will occur in the mining sector. It is hard to see, therefore, how the proposition that the carbon price will deter such investment stacks up. The numbers simply do not demonstrate that.

I would also make the point, because I think the article to which the senator was referring also spoke about Macarthur Coal, that Macarthur Coal, as he would know, was the subject of a nearly $5 billion offer by Peabody Energy. In fact I think that was the same day as Tony Abbott said that the carbon tax will—