Language Selection
RIL Newsletter
PHOTO ALBUMS
From the PRESS
Popular Articles
Steel job fears spark more carbon tax backlash
Selasa, 19 April 2011 00:00
Steel job fears spark more carbon tax backlash
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 19/04/2011
Reporter: Tom Iggulden
A South Australian unionist says the Federal Government's proposed carbon tax will kill off steelmaking in parts of the state.
Transcript
ALI MOORE: First it was going to lead to an increase in the cost of living, now the carbon tax is accused of having the potential to wipe whole towns off the face of the map.
The warning came from a senior South Australian unionist, who says the tax will kill off steelmaking in Whyalla and Port Pirie where OneSteel is a large employer.
The claim was made as OneSteel executives met with the Government in Canberra, from where Political Correspondent Tom Iggulden filed this report.
TOM IGGULDEN: The South Australian seaside town of Whyalla, along with neighbour Port Pirie, the perfect scene for a carbon-tax tsunami according to the Australian Workers Union.
"Goodbye. They will be off the map," state secretary Wayne Hanson is reported as saying.
JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: Well, strong words don't make it right, and that's completely untrue. We will be protecting Australian jobs as we price carbon.
TOM IGGULDEN: But the comments are a gift for Tony Abbott.
TONY ABBOTT, OPPOSITION LEADER: I thank those union officials who've spoken out against this carbon tax.
TOM IGGULDEN: The AWU's public campaign is allowing him to pose as a friend to workers, promising to protect not only those in South Australia.
TONY ABBOTT: There isn't a state that wouldn't lose important manufacturing industrial centres if the carbon tax goes ahead.
TOM IGGULDEN: But that prediction was undermined by Mr Abbott's hosts in the west today, with BHP Billiton announcing a $50 billion expansion to its Western Australian iron ore operations.
TONY ABBOTT: BHP and other companies are assuming that this tax couldn't possibly go ahead in its current form.
TOM IGGULDEN: And while South Australia's steelworkers' step up their public campaign against the tax, their bosses are saying as little as possible, following a meeting with the Government on the issue.
REPORTER: Were you happy with the meeting?
GEOFF PLUMMER, ONESTEEL CEO: It's a work in progress and we'll leave it at that.
TOM IGGULDEN: The Government also met with Greens and independents over the tax through its multi-party committee, but details there are also scant.
Key independent Tony Windsor says the lack of information is feeding community opposition to the tax.
TONY WINDSOR, INDEPENDENT MP: Everybody is against the carbon tax because they don't know what it means. I'm against the carbon tax, because what does it actually mean and where is the revenue stream going to go?
TOM IGGULDEN: Mr Windsor is yet to commit to backing the tax, and the Opposition’s stepping up the pressure on him to oppose it by threatening to run the National's Barnaby Joyce against him at the next election.
But Mr Windsor says it's the Nationals leadership Senator Joyce really wants.
TONY WINDSOR: I know he's had difficulty getting a seat in Queensland because the lower house Nationals members don't want him in the lower house, so that's not a secret either, so obviously he has to go looking somewhere else.
BARNABY JOYCE, NATIONALS SENATOR: I don't want it to be sort of a personal new idea, days of our lives tangle.
TOM IGGULDEN: But that would be going against recent form during the last election night.
(excerpt)
TONY WINDSOR: I would absolutely take no notice of what Barnaby Joyce says, the man's a fool, are you Tony?
BARNABY JOYCE: Will you give a straight answer, yes or no? Give a straight answer mate.
TONY WINDSOR: Well I don't have to talk to you Barnaby.
(end of excerpt)
TOM IGGULDEN: Though Senator Joyce has yet to formally announce he'll seek preselection, the tussles already drawn in the leaders from both sides of the house.
JULIA GILLARD: Is Tony Abbott going to go to the next election saying to Australians that Barnaby Joyce would be deputy prime minister if Tony Abbott is elected as prime minister?
TONY ABBOTT: I think anything would be better than Wayne Swan as deputy prime minister.
TOM IGGULDEN: That was in response to a question about Barnaby Joyce, but the Opposition Leader quickly added he was talking about the current Nationals leader, Warren Truss.
Tom Iggulden, Lateline.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3196119.htm
| < Sebelumnya | Berikutnya > |
|---|