Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to remark on the Steel Transformation Plan Bill 2011. I note the absolute hypocrisy of the coalition and point out that the facts are quite contrary to what has been said here tonight. With or without a carbon price, this Steel Transformation Plan Bill is industry assistance and would have been required even if there had been no carbon price because of the high Australian dollar, the consequences of the global financial crisis and the situation that the Australian steel industry finds itself in.

The hypocrisy is extraordinary and I am looking forward to Senator Edwards going up to Whyalla in South Australia and telling the people at OneSteel why he opposed any injection of finance in keeping OneSteel operational in South Australia. And it will be interesting to see because the Leader of the Opposition went up to Whyalla and made a great news story about the fact that Whyalla would be razed to dust. I am sure that Minister Carr, the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, who is sitting here tonight, can recall the media coverage of the leader of the coalition up there—

Senator Edwards interjecting—