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

As Senator Fierravanti-Wells interjected so very aptly just then, 'Bandaids are not good for bullet wounds.' They might cover up the damage, they might make the victim feel a little bit better, but that does not overcome the inherent damage or the inherent wound that has been inflicted. Let us make no mistake, the steel industry is only one of the industries to suffer.

In Europe the once proud aluminium smelting sector has moved, and in Europe they only have about one-tenth the carbon price that Australia is going to have foisted upon it. They have not moved to solar, they have not moved to wind power, they have moved to Africa. Does anybody actually believe that the environmental standards in Africa are better than they were in Europe prior to a carbon price in Europe, modest as it is? Of course not.

Similarly, we had the example in Australia earlier this week of Coogee Chemicals, a company that was willing to invest $1 billion in a world-class methanol plant, with 150 jobs and over $14 billion worth of exports to be earned by our country. Where have they gone? They have decided not to build in Australia. They have decided to build in China, where they admit the carbon footprint, the carbon dioxide emissions of that plant will now be four times what would have been emitted in a pre-carbon-tax Australia. That is why the legislation that was passed earlier today not only is so damaging to jobs and the economy but, perversely, is also going to damage the world environment.

This steel transformation bill is in fact the last of the 19 bills that make up the totality of this package. It is interesting to note that the people who were in the galleries earlier today are not here now to see through the steel transformation bill. They have no concern for the steelworkers. The Greens were bragging for a week that there was going to be an early vote and people should come to Canberra to the gallery and celebrate. They were out there asking everybody to come. During the debate, because some of the Labor contributions were so boring, especially that of Senator Wong, I spun around and I counted 100 empty seats in the gallery. What is more, half of the seats were filled by departmental officials whose jobs were on the line. This great popular movement in support of the carbon tax fell flat. The opinion polls have not deceived in relation to public support. Of course, we know that the opinion polls were telling Labor before the last election that a carbon tax would be immediate death. What did Labor do? They promised no carbon tax. A solemn promise.

Just before I came into the chamber I was doing some talkback radio on 2SM. Every single caller was feeling betrayed, not by the Australian Greens but by the Australian Labor Party. It is a party that once proudly stood for the working man, for a manufacturing sector in this country, and was genuinely concerned about ensuring that the cost of living did not get out of hand and about genuine job security. What we have instead now is a Labor Party that has sold its soul, its philosophical soul and policy soul, to the Australian Greens in a bid to stave off the death that it would have otherwise faced at the last election. By deceiving the Australian people, by doing a dirty deal with the Australian Greens, it may have staved off its execution for a period of three years.

The people of Australia will come to judge the Australian Labor Party as they judged it in 1996 after Mr Keating's promise of l-a-w law tax cuts. People in a democracy believe in the conventions of a democracy. They believe and require that their leaders should tell the truth. They believe that there is such an important commodity as integrity. That is why even a great President such as George Bush Sr, who was in stratospheric heights in the opinion polls in the United States, fell from glory because he had made a solemn promise, 'Read my lips: no new taxes.' At stratospheric heights in the opinion polls he increased the taxes and suffered the consequences. So it happened to Paul Keating when he promised l-a-w law tax cuts and then immediately revoked them after the election. I somehow think that we will get the trifecta at the next election. I am not saying that with any hubris or arrogance, I am just saying that that is the course of history and people will judge their leaders according to their promises and their delivery on those promises. That is why Mr Howard did the right thing when he changed his mind in relation to the goods and services tax. He said to the Australian people, 'Re-elect me and I will introduce a GST.' He gave the people the opportunity to have a say, an opportunity that has been denied the Australian people in relation to this carbon tax.

Debate interrupted.