CARBON TAX THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM FOR LABOR MPs
18-August-2011
Labor backbenchers were conned by carbon tax rhetoric from their party room – a fact they soon discovered when they faced their own constituents who told them that the tax was not going to fly in manufacturing intensive electorates.
Media outlets have reported that about 20 Labor MPs, all representing electorates with a high proportion of factories, had formed a manufacturing ginger group. The formation of this group is just a sneaky diversion.
The manufacturing sector has faced the loss of more than 105,000 jobs over the past 3 years, the worst employment figures since records were first kept in the 1960s; and contractions in activity for more than two years under the Gillard Government.
During the recess Sophie Mirabella visited 20 electorates, spending time at numerous factories meeting with owners, managers and workers as well as hosting local manufacturing community forums. Unequivocally, the primary concern raised time after time after time was the devastating impact the carbon tax will have on local manufacturing businesses.
Why then introduce a new tax to further punish this critical sector to our economy?
Labor can’t even be genuine in wanting to help manufacturing when ten of their eleven MPs withdrew from speaking on their own proposed anti-dumping legislation in Parliament yesterday.
The best thing Labor backbenchers can do is acknowledge the elephant in the room and demand that Julia Gillard axes the carbon tax.