Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Senator O'Sullivan says nonsense. You have only got to look at what the mining industry say they want and then you will see the coalition deliver. The mining industry says, 'Jump'; the coalition asks, 'How high?'

In New South Wales, they get brown paper bags in the front seat of a Bentley to do the bidding of big business. In the federal sphere, it is about big business and the mining industry handing huge donations to the coalition to oppose a proper tax so Australians can get their fair share of our mining resources and also to oppose putting a price an carbon because it is not in the short-term interest of the mining industry.

I worked—and I am one of the few senators here who have actually worked as a blue-collar worker. I spent a lot of time as a blue-collar in the Hunter Valley working at Liddell Power Station as a maintenance fitter, so I know a little bit about jobs for workers in rural and regional areas. I know a little bit about ensuring that we look after people in this country as a union official. I have done it all my life—not like that lot over there. I know that I need to do something. What we need to do is to make sure that we engage in the industries of the future, that we invest in the industries of the future, and that we look at how we can capture carbon in our coal industry and in our power industry.

The International Energy Agency is saying we need to minimise carbon pollution where we are and we need to maximise renewables. That would be a culture shock for the Prime Minister who does not believe in global warming, who does not believe in the science, and who does not believe in anything other than lies and misrepresentation when it comes to this country. They are a bad government. They do not understand it and the Prime Minister should be there getting some education on this issue. (Time expired)