NO STEEL IN LABOR’S BACKBONE
30-November-2011
Industry Minister Kim Carr needs to explain why he has been rolled again, after the embarrassing revelation that the Government has set aside a total of just $800,000 for its main steel industry compensation package in the first two years of the carbon tax.
MYEFO documents show that Labor is committing only $500,000 in 2012-13 and $300,000 in 2013-14 to its so-called Steel Transformation Plan.
This was the package hastily drafted in response to burning fury from Australian steelworkers about the introduction of a carbon tax that they know will decimate their industry – and that Mr Carr said would provide “a significant boost”, “certainty in tough economic times” and showed Labor supposedly “stands shoulder to shoulder with the steel industry”.
Labor also said the Steel Transformation Plan “demonstrates the Gillard Government’s commitment to supporting jobs” in steel industry communities.
Yet the MYEFO figures portray the real picture of Labor’s level of interest in the steel industry and in the workers in these communities (namely, none), as well as the Government’s indifference at the devastating impact the carbon tax will inflict upon these Australians.
MYEFO also bells the cat on numerous other inconsistencies and Labor trickery in the industry portfolio – including another sneaky $10 million cut from already-ravaged support for Australian commercialisation; and the apparent omission of $200 million of spending on another carbon tax compensation measure known as the Clean Technology Innovation Program.
Mr Carr’s management of his portfolio has long been negligent, but his amateurish abolition of industry compensation for the toxic carbon tax now takes things to a new level.