John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Imagine this: we put the most expensive carbon tax on industries here in Australia. I want to draw attention to the cement industry. In Australia we produce 10 million tonnes of cement a year. We also import two million tonnes, mainly from China. When we produce one tonne of cement here, we produce 0.8 of a tonne of CO2. So the 10 million tonnes produces eight million tonnes of CO2. Under the previous Labor-Greens-Independent government, when we were told that we were never going to get a carbon tax—'not under the government I lead' as former Prime Minister Julia Gillard said—of course she came under pressure from not only the Greens but Independents like Tony Windsor, who demanded a multiparty climate change committee, and along came the most expensive carbon tax in the world. Even though the cement industry had 95 per cent reduction of the carbon tax, it still cost them an enormous amount of money. In China they produce one billion tonnes of cement a year, compared to our 10 million tonnes. When they produce a tonne of cement in China, they produce, on average, 1.1 tonnes of CO2. Ours is 0.8 of a tonne of CO2; theirs is 1.1. So if we produce those ten million tonnes in China instead of Australia, there would be 11 million tonnes of CO2 produced instead of eight million tonnes.

What was the effect of the carbon tax? Shutting down the cement industry and putting it under pressure, when we already had Kandos and big factories closed recently. Shift the manufacture overseas and produce more CO2—to me that is not very smart at all. That was the effect of the most expensive carbon tax in the world—the carbon tax we were never, ever going to have. I am sure you remember that, Mr Acting Deputy President.

This is where we have to be very careful. I have not travelled the world much, though I have been to Thailand many times for Anzac Day. Carbon dioxide is actually odourless, colourless and non-toxic. You cannot see it. When you get to Thailand, you never see the sun or the stars, from the pollution—the carbon monoxide, the smoke, the lead, the sulphur—all those poisonous gases that are very harmful to mankind and to animals on this planet.