Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I would like to highlight what I think was absolutely disgraceful behaviour by Paul Howes yesterday in front of my electorate office in Wollongong. On Tuesday afternoon, the Australian Workers Union posted a media release entitled 'Save Our Steel Jobs: National Day of Action for Steel', promising:

Tomorrow hundreds of steelworkers will front up to Coalition MP offices in their local communities …

Three offices were named: my office in Wollongong, Greg Hunt's office in Hastings and Bob Baldwin's office in Raymond Terrace. My office was advised that the police were expecting about 300 people. Sky News reported 50 people. It was a complete fizzer. No-one visited my office. Only about 30 people attended and that was mostly when the media turned up. I am told that all of about 20 people turned up at Mr Hunt's office and no-one turned up at Mr Baldwin's office, according to a press release that he put out yesterday.

I have a couple of photos here, taken when Paul Howes was speaking. I can count 11 people—hardly the hundreds that Mr Howes was boasting. There are 3,000 steelworkers at the Port Kembla BlueScope plant and, from the look of the photos, most of those attending were well-known union officials. May I say that I respect the rights of the unions to protest outside my office. Had they done it when I was there, I could have spoken to them. But they seem to protest outside my office only when I am not there. On the last occasion, they came up to my office and intimidated my young staffer at the counter, demanding to know where I was. She politely told them that it was a sitting day and that I was at work in the Senate.

So what did Paul Howes tell his merry little band? First he said that by the end of this week a carbon tax would be law—wrong. For someone who no doubt aspires to political office in this place, might I say: learn the basics. The legislation needs to pass the Senate before it becomes law. Paul Howes spent all day yesterday criticising me. He could start by saying my name properly, but what does one expect from an arrogant man like him? Then Paul Howes asserted that I should be—wait for it—'run out of town' for daring to stand up for my constituents in New South Wales who do not want this toxic tax. This is the sort of language that Paul Howes and his ilk are now able to get away with under Julia Gillard's regime. The Prime Minister's mate has threatened me because I dare to hold a different point of view. The sheer arrogance and conceit of this man is beyond belief. I am standing up for those who are opposed to this toxic tax. I am representing the views of thousands of Illawarra residents who voted against the Australian Labor Party at the recent state and local government elections. I stood at the polling booths and I heard the message loud and clear—anti-Labor and anti-carbon tax.

I will take you to a couple of the blog comments that appeared after this so-called protest. This is one by Tom yesterday at 2.57:

Saw this protest, was half a dozen "workers" until the media turned up and then this number increased significantly for 5 minutes while someone ranted and raved. And then it was over, everyone back on the union bus and back to work. More like sheep than true protestors!

Here is another comment:

Unions and their supporters protest about this but they wave the white flag when it came to the carbon tax, a tax that will decimate manufacturing in Australia. Don't complain when you have no jobs at all boys.

Of course, Paul Howes is the very man who on election night with me on the ABC tried to argue that the political assassination of Kevin Rudd had nothing to do with the massive swing against Labor at the last election.

The vote for Ms Gillard's carbon tax is illegitimate. It is prefaced on a lie. She knifed the former Prime Minister and now her faceless man is threatening to run me out of town. Well, let me tell you, Mr Howes: I will not be bullied. I was born and bred in Wollongong. I was there long before you were born or even came to the Illawarra. No-one, Mr Howes, is going to run me out of town. Your conduct yesterday, Mr Howes, demonstrates all the hallmarks of the classic union thug and bully. So today I have called on the Prime Minister and asked her whether she condones this sort of thuggish language and bullish behaviour. It demonstrates that Mr Howes has no respect for the office. He has threatened me, but I will not be intimidated.

Let me turn to the Steel Transformation Plan. This plan only helps the big steelmakers, BlueScope and OneSteel, while many smaller companies in the Illawarra and around Australia will be left out. The remaining businesses, which employ 80 per cent of Australia's steelworkers, will be excluded. So let's look at how this plan came about. It is really not about protecting steel jobs; it is only about protecting the job of one man. We know that Mr Howes went down to the steelworks at Port Kembla and told the workers down there that they had to cop the tax. But after lots of finger pointing at this meeting and very heated discussion he made a hasty retreat. All of a sudden we started to hear about this Steel Transformation Plan, using the funds destined for carbon tax compensation. This is about protecting the job of one man and one man only. Ms Gillard owes her faceless man and this is his payback. It has very, very little to do with helping the steel industry. Indeed, it is only a stay of execution for the steel industry. As the coalition has repeatedly said, if you have no tax there is no need for compensation.

Yesterday we saw the spectacle of Labor celebrating this massive win with no thought whatsoever for what the impact is going to be on the Australian public. Having broken faith with the Australian people, they turned around and gave themselves a round of applause. Ms Gillard and others may now seek to push opportunistic political slogans like 'buy local'. What hypocrisy when the carbon tax is Labor's 'buy foreign content' plan. So what will Stephen Jones, the member for Throsby, and Sharon Bird, the member for Cunningham, say to the coal and steel workers of the Illawarra whose jobs are at risk because their industries are being deliberately placed at a competitive disadvantage? What will the member for Robertson, Deb O'Neill, and the absent member for Dobell, Craig Thomson, tell the Central Coast workers? What about Daryl Melham?

There is an article today titled 'Carbon tax costs worry Gosford and Wyong councils'. This article in the local paper highlights concerns that the councillors have about the carbon tax. But of course they cannot go and tell Craig Thomson about their concerns because he is the member you have when you do not have a member—the missing-in-action member. They said, 'We had a carbon tax rally. We couldn't even approach his office because the police were called to keep us away.' People from his constituency could not even get near his office to complain about the impact of the carbon tax on them. They could not even complain, so forget the Gosford and Wyong councils having any impact at all on Mr Thomson or the grand carbon tax pooh-bah himself, Greg Combet, in Charlton or Ministers McClelland, Burke and Ferguson. What are they going to tell their workers in the seats of Barton, Watson and Werriwa? That they are happily cheering and kissing each other?

I must say that the Daily Telegraph had it right when they called it the 'kiss of death'. I would not be feeling very comfortable if I were the Prime Minister after that kiss from Mr Rudd. But there you are. You are all standing there cheering while the costs of living and fuel will go up. The costs for small business will go up. The struggle for families in these electorates will get worse. Saying sorry will simply not be enough for this Prime Minister or this government. Go to an election. What are you scared of? Why don't you let the Australian public be the final judge and adjudicate on this toxic carbon tax?