Earlier today Australia's largest cement manufacturer, Cement Australia, informed 34 of its workers in Rockhampton that the Parkhurst cement plant was going to be mothballed from September. In an issued statement, Cement Australia said that the "Federal Government’s determination to pass the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has meant the long term prospects for the plant have been undermined". During today's question time Senator Wong denied all responsibility for the cement plant's closure and for the loss of 32 blue collar jobs in Rockhampton. Minister Wong tried to blame the global financial crisis as the sole cause for the closure and job losses. But the company's statement quite clearly acknowledges Labor's ETS as being a significant contributor. It is an absolute disgrace that Minister Wong could not even bring herself to acknowledge the existence of a stated fact contained in a public statement released by the company today. Minister Wong down played the impact of Labor's ETS by saying it would only add $1 to the cost of a $120 product in the first year of the scheme. And yet another disgrace given that Minister Wong knows, probably better than anybody else in this country, that the $10 price cap is lifted after the first year of the scheme, that the price of carbon will increase every year after and that assistance to industries, including the cement industry, will decline each year. Industry has been telling the Rudd Government for a long time that its ETS will lead to job losses and plant closure. It has happened. The company has said today that it has happened but Minister Wong refuses to acknowledge it. Cement Australia's announcement comes just three days after BlueScope Steel's Managing Director and CEO, Paul O'Malley, told the Australian Stock Exchange that Labor's ETS threatens the competitiveness of its Australian iron and steelmaking operations. In which state, in which region, in which industry will Labor's flawed ETS claim the jobs of more blue collar workers? How many more jobs have to be sacrificed until Minister Wong can bring herself to accept that Labor's ETS is flawed? ENDS