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

on the back of the loss of 200 jobs on the West Coast of Tasmania. If the honourable senator was genuinely concerned about the mining industry and jobs in the mining industry, she would have ensured the demise of the carbon tax a lot earlier than today.

Mr President, as you well know, coming from that region yourself, the state government quite rightly has developed a task force to look into the best possible way to deal with the situation on the West Coast. We can undertake the Labor method. The Labor method is: see a problem, throw a bucket of money over it and walk away without any responsibility, and simply say—

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

You are right, Senator Macdonald: borrow the money to throw over the problem, and then walk away and somehow say, 'We've lived up to our moral obligation.'

We as a government will take a very considered approach as to how best to help the West Coast community of our home state. In relation to the workers: as I understand, a lot of them, in fact, live in Burnie and the north-west coast, driving in and out. There are also many workers that live in Queenstown, but they do have—