Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

They deserve a say, as Senator Birmingham said, as do those who will be potentially impacted upon by marine parks. That is why this parliament, as a result of this bill, must maintain the ability to represent their interests.

The local member for Corangamite thinks that we are going to be inundated. I notice that last year he commissioned a report into sea levels. Again, it was doom and gloom. It is almost approaching religious fervour, I have to say. I presume he is out there build­ing the boat as we speak to at least get some people from Corangamite onto the boat when it all floods. I have not yet seen the report. Maybe it has been released. If it has been, I apologise to the member for Corangamite. But apparently he commission­ed a report and gave some interim findings in September last year, but I do not think the report has been released. If it has been, again I will humbly apologise to the honourable member.

I have been talking at length about the matter before the chamber today and I will continue to do so. We have an incredibly proud history in relation to legislative protection of the environment in this country. In fact, in any reasonable assessment of who drove strong environmental protection measures in this country, it has indeed been the coalition parties. We are as committed to that today as we were when we first started this process, and we are committed to returning balance and fairness to marine conservation. Like anything else in this country, if you do not approach an issue such as this on the basis of balance and fairness, then there will never be appropriate outcomes. When these issues are hijacked by fringe groups, often associated with the Australian Greens or under the banner of the Australian Greens—but they are fringe groups nonetheless—and they take owner­ship of these issues, then we get the sorts of outcomes that I know others opposite sitting in the chamber today know are not appro­priate outcomes. There is the great state of Tasmania, where Senator Colbeck and Labor senators come from, and I hope that they are also committed to fairness and balance in relation to these debates. On that basis, they should be supporting this bill.

One of our greatest responsibilities in this country is to make sure that those who have a voice are able to have that voice heard. One of the great challenges in this country is to ensure that, in relation to this particular area, it is not the radical green fringe groups who drive the debate but the honest Australian men and women who are pursu­ing their recreational interests. They need to have the opportunity for some input into this decision-making process. They should not be confronted with a fait accompli when they go through the consultation process. That is their complaint: they arrive and the decision has already been made; their view on these matters is not wanted and most certainly not listened to. What causes me enormous concern about this is that at the moment we have a government that is completely paralysed. The only consultation that is taking place is consultation between the factions about who is going to lead the country. So we have people involved in marine parks out there looking for the opportunity to have some input and appro­priate consultation, but the only consultation this government is involved in at the moment is, indeed, who is going to lead the party.

We know that one of those opposite is actively involved in those discussions—a very significant player; a man of incredible power in this country. But I say to him and others opposite: let us stop worrying about who is going to be the Prime Minister and let us start worrying about the sorts of issues that have been raised by Senator Colbeck in relation to the lack of consultation. We see what has happened recently with the loss of manufacturing jobs. We see the risk to Alcoa workers in places like Geelong and we see two members down there refuse to do anything to support them because they know, and I know, and everyone in this chamber knows, that this toxic carbon tax is going to kill manufacturing jobs in places like Geelong. Where are the absentee members in defence of those workers? What the Alcoa workers want and what every other manu­facturing worker in this country wants is for Mr Rudd and Prime Minister Gillard to stop worrying about their own jobs and start worrying about the manufacturing jobs. That is what the Australian people want, that is what the Australian people demand and that is what the Australian people deserve. Do not worry about the Prime Minister's job; worry about the jobs of average working Australians, many of whom fish, many of whom shoot and many of whom want to have their voices heard in relation to these marine parks.

That is the great challenge for those opposite. Their great challenge is to stop talking about those things in which the Australian public has no interest, like the job of the Prime Minister, and start worrying about the jobs of these manufacturing workers. Start acknowledging once and for all that this toxic carbon tax is going to destroy this country. It is already under enormous pressure from the high dollar. There are a lot of external factors, which I acknowledge have an influence in this, but the one thing, the one pivotal government decision which can turn around perceptions in head offices around the world, including the Alcoa head office, is to drop this carbon tax. If the Labor Party and the Prime Minister sent out a clear message that this carbon tax is going to go because it will destroy jobs then we will start to see investment again. We will start to see the Alcoas of this world say there is some hope for manufacturing in this country. At the moment they are not, and the boardrooms around the world are looking at what we are doing and they are saying: 'Have they completely and utterly lost their minds? Are they stark raving mad to introduce a tax ahead of the rest of the world which will destroy Australian jobs?'

Make no mistake about it: there is one party, one coalition in this country that is concerned about the jobs of blue-collar workers, and that is the coalition. We will fight to defend their jobs. We will fight to defend their right to pursue their recreational pursuits without unnecessary interference from government. We will defend their rights to fish and shoot. We will defend their rights to have consultation on marine parks. We will stand up for them, which I can tell you is a far cry from what is happening with the Australian Labor Party, this Prime Minister and Mr Rudd at the present time.