Tuesday 19 April 2011

Unions must back workers on carbon

Every union in Queensland must stand up for rank and file workers frightened about job losses from the Federal Labor‘s carbon tax, the LNP says.

"With Queensland confirmed as national wooden-spooner for economic performance, thousands of workers and their families could not afford to have their jobs risked by Labor’s carbon tax," Ted Malone, Shadow Employment Minister says. "This is about surviving and hanging on to every job we’ve got."

“Canberra might be booming, but regional Queensland is not. The very last thing we need is a stupid tax on manufacturing and export-exposed jobs. Even Labor’s climate change guru Ross Garnaut says the new green jobs won’t materialise for at least ten years. In the meantime, workers and their families facing soaring cost of living increases are very worried their industries are about to cop it in the neck.”

Malone says Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was totally out of step with Queensland workers on the issue.

“We’ve already seen a mass migration of manufacturing jobs to Asia and with carbon being priced from $20 to $40 a tonne, there’s a huge risk thousands more jobs will be lost. We’re not just talking about steel jobs in Wollongong, we’re talking about thousands of aluminium, copper and nickel processing and smelting jobs in Queensland, particularly in Gladstone and Townsville and Yabulu, north of Townsville."

“I’m calling on every Queensland union leader to stand up and be counted. We need to send the message to Julia Gillard that Queensland cannot afford Labor’s carbon tax," Ted Malone says. “Our economy is faltering badly. Labor has sent us broke. We’ve lost our AAA credit-rating and we’ve been hit for six by the floods, storms and cyclones. We don’t need Julia Gillard’s carbon tax on our manufacturing, mining, minerals processing and farm industries."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everybody is now singing from The Queensland Party policy book. The only hope for all Queenslanders is a vote for the newly formed Queensland Party. 'If it's good for Queenslanders then it's good for Queensland.' It's simple.

Anonymous said...

Everyone is now singing from the newly formed Queensland Party policy boojk. The only hope for all Queenslanders is a vote for the Queensland Party at the next state election. 'If it's good for Queenslanders then it's good for Queensland."

Anonymous said...

The purpose of the price on carbon is to encourage polluters to pollute less and instead invest in alternative energies. We are already seeing some of the dire predictions of climate change models (more extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, and more intense cyclones). Because the economy depends on the environment (not the other way around), failure to take action on the vital issue of climate change will threaten the economy much more than a carbon price. It’s time the LNP pulled its head out of the “flat-earth” sand and looked beyond their short-term political future to a long-term future for the planet and the life it supports, including the human race.