Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The Steel Transformation Plan Bill 2011 represents the emergency surgery necessitated by an act of gross violence—in this case, gross economic violence, perpetrated by a government in lockstep with the Australian Greens, a government hopelessly out of its depth and hopelessly incompetent. Put very simply: but for the carbon tax we would not need this compensation package. That was revealed to the Australian people by Mr Combet himself, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, on 10 October 2011 when he admitted that the establishment of this so-called Steel Transformation Plan had been driven purely by the carbon tax.

As with all things Labor, this bill has an Orwellian title. It is called the Steel Transformation Plan Bill. Well, the steel industry has already been transformed, courtesy of this Labor government. The steel industry has been transformed because of the threat of the carbon tax which this parliament today voted to enact—might I add, against the express promise to the Australian people by those sitting with the Australian Labor Party.

The steel industry in this nation was in fact transformed with the announcement of the carbon tax. Hundreds of millions of dollars were struck off the share value of these big steel companies, great employers, great historic institutions in the Australian economic landscape. They were devastated by this announcement. People from time to time say: 'But what does it matter? It's a big steel company; why does it really matter?' You know why it really matters? Because superannuation companies, for example, invest, and invest heavily, in these sorts of companies, and what do superannuation companies do? They pay dividends to superannuants and the self-funded retirees of Australia. So when you mug industries like the steel industry and take away their financial viability, you take away income from the superannuants and the self-funded retirees of this country. That is why this sort of economic recklessness needs to be exposed and why we oppose this sort of so-called 'transformation'. It really is Orwellian to call the mugging of an industry a 'transformation'. I suppose if you are in a bad accident you can say that your body has been transformed. Most people would say that you have been badly injured. That is what Labor, in lock-step with the Australian Greens, have done to the steel industry, and that is why they have now decided to provide a bandaid measure of some $300 million.