Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not know what Senator Bernardi is going on about, calling people has-beens. That is all right. I am very happy to say that I have had a very good career as a trade union official and I come here to parliament with my experience as a trade union official to actually help workers. I do not know what Senator Bernardi comes here with other than probably favourable treatment in a private school and some degree that allowed him to go into a parliamentary office and suddenly he gets preselection and becomes, I bet you, a nonevent and a joke in parliament. You and Senator Joyce, Senator Bernardi, are a bit of a joke in parliament. You are pretty well seen to have no support. No wonder Malcolm Turnbull sacked you. No wonder Malcolm Turnbull had you well and truly under control.

Coming back again to the steel industry, we will make sure that the steel industry in Australia can actually compete and look at accessing some of the huge opportunities in relation to renewable energy. Look at Spain. Senator Back said that Spain was a basket case because of renewable energy. The only bright spot in the Spanish economy is the Spanish renewable industry. They are exporting $3 billion worth of goods every year. They are at the forefront of wind power and other renewable energy. Spain employs 40,000 people in renewable energy—40,000 jobs. The sector has 700 companies, 19 wind turbine manufacturers, 270 component manufacturers, 140 wind farm developers and 277 service providers. The opportunity we can have in Australia is about the steel industry accessing the capacity to build the wind turbines of the future and the steel towers that require hundreds of millions of tonnes of steel to be built so that renewable energy is there for the future. That is the challenge for the steel industry. I am sure the steel industry will take that challenge up. But let me tell who will not take that challenge up. That is the coalition, because they are Work Choices warriors and they have no other way. (Time expired)