“Labor’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) comes at the very high cost of thousands of jobs in the coal dependent Bowen Basin,” said The Nationals’ Senator Ron Boswell during a tour of coal communities in central Queensland this week. “Coal towns like Mackay, Rockhampton, Biloela, Blackwater, Gladstone, Dysart, Blackwater, Middlemount and Moranbah are going to suffer far more than any other group in the country because the impact of the ETS is not spread equally around the nation.” “The Bowen Basin is the price paid for Rudd’s ruthless strategy to win the next election. Labor has decided that the mines, jobs, families, businesses and communities of the Bowen Basin are dispensable.” “Rudd has weighed up the local coalmining vote against his need for support in the leafy green suburbs in the capital cities and the Bowen Basin is the loser.  Communities like …. are to be the scapegoats for the whole community’s high carbon use.”  “Union leaders went to the ACTU Congress in Brisbane last week to talk about jobs being their priority but it’s their own future Parliamentary careers they’re looking after. They are not standing up for the jobs of their coalmining members.” “CFMEU Chief Tony Maher is one of the government’s loudest ETS cheerleaders. He should be looking after coalmining jobs not selling them out. The Bowen Basin has already lost 3,500 jobs since October last year. They can’t afford to lose any more.” Senator Boswell said that there was now so much evidence of the future suffering of coal communities under the ETS that the government must radically change its policy. [see attached] “The cost of power under the ETS will also rise from 30-40%. This is on top of recent price hikes in Queensland.  Once the ETS transition phase is over, fuel costs will go up yet again – on top of the Bligh government’s recent scrapping of the fuel subsidy which Agforce predicted would send food costs soaring by 20%.” “The ETS adds a cost to practically everything and is the equivalent to raising the GST from 10 to 12.5%. It is madness in a global economic crisis to bring in an ETS that contracts the economy. The Treasurer Wayne Swan is always talking about the need for an economic stimulus, yet the ETS is the exact opposite – especially for coal communities in the Bowen Basin.” “Premier Bligh is rushing to sell off major coal infrastructure of rail and ports. Coal has been cut adrift by Labor, state and federal.” “Mr Rudd promised before the election that his ETS would not disadvantage Australia’s export and import competing industries. That promise was worthless because the ETS puts a cost on to Australian industry that our major competitors do not have.” “Rudd’s ETS has been designed for a world where every country has an ETS like ours, where every country has a price on carbon so there’s a level playing field.  That world doesn’t exist and is never likely to.” “From 2012 Australia’s energy intensive export and import competing industries will be paying billions of dollars of tax increasing each year, while the same industries in the United States will have 100% protection through until 2025, and potentially well beyond if other major competing countries have not come on board.” Senator Boswell questioned why the United States could recognise the need for a Climate Change Worker Adjustment Assistance Scheme in their legislation but there was no such thing in the Rudd’s ETS. “The US is establishing a program to entitle any worker displaced as a result of their Clean Air Act to be entitled to 156 weeks of income supplement, 80 percent of their monthly health care premium, up to $1,500 for job search assistance, up to $1,500 for moving assistance, and additional employment services for skills assessment, job counselling, training, and other services.” “Where is Australia’s ETS Worker Assistance Scheme? Local Labor federal MPs are not standing up for their constituents. They are not fighting to keep local jobs or help workers displaced by the ETS.” “The Climate Institute had released a list of Green jobs. But there are virtually no jobs for miners in central Qld and no green investment dollars going there either. What is the government going to do for these people and their communities? Why hasn’t the government included specific assistance for working families who lose their jobs in the emissions trading scheme?”   Senator Boswell will visit the Blackwater International Coal Centre on his tour. “This is an iconic $9 million development, showcasing Australia’s coal industry to the world. We don’t want it to become a museum under a job destroying ETS.” “Labor’s ETS is about closing down coal and running the economy on renewable power. It costs $40 per kilowatt hour to power a factory with coal, but it costs $100 per hour to power a factory with wind and $200 per hour to power a factory with photovoltaic cells. How on earth does Australia compete with those cost disadvantages?” “Consider also that the Treasury modelling assumption of no net loss of employment across the nation worked only because of a predicted decline in real wages of 10.3%. This will come at a time when there are significant price hikes in fuel, food and power under the ETS. What are union leaders thinking????” ENDS